Distributed shared memory packet switch
US7339944B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 15, 2002 |
| Grant date | Mar 4, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 26, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/254
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A shared memory packet switch fabric whose scheduling task is distributed to multiple egress schedulers residing on multiple egress control units and whose data storage is distributed to multiple packet buffer units, where the schedulers and the packet buffer units are interconnected via high speed links. An ingress control unit receives and transmits a packet to one of a plurality of packet buffer units (PBUs) making up the switch fabric. The receiving PBU stores the packet in memory and transmits a notification message with the memory information to all interested egress control units. If an egress control unit receiving the notification has enough queue space, it stores the memory information in its queue. The egress control unit then transmits a booking message indicating that it is to request the packet in the future. When the packet is to be scheduled for forwarding according to a scheduling algorithm run by the egress control unit, the egress control unit transmits a request message for retrieving the packet from the PBU.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.