Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for distributing buffer status information in a switching fabric

US7349416B2 · kind B2 · utility

6Cited by
11References
40Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 26, 2002
Grant dateMar 25, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 1, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L49/90
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Network switching and/or routing devices can use switching fabrics that gather information about output port buffer status and distribute that information to various line cards for use in data frame congestion avoidance. The switching fabric can gather output buffer status information for all output ports and distribute that information to each line card in an efficient, in-band manner. Individual line cards can use the information to determine from which line card virtual output queue to dequeue data frames destined for the switching fabric. Line cards can also gather output buffer status information associated with line card queues used for receiving data from the switching fabric. Such data is used in a manner similar to the output buffer data from the switching fabric.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.