Broadband Royalty Corporation

Arris Group, Inc.

Hewlett-packard Company

Adisak Mekkittikul

Nader Vijeh

William J Tuohy

Mark A Unkrich

An asynchronous metropolitan packet transport ring having per-flow QoS. Asynchronous packetized data flow in one direction through a fiber optic loop. A number of Metropolitan Packet Switches (MPS) are coupled to the fiber optic loop. An MPS allows packetized data from an upstream MPS to flow to a downstream MPS over a segment of the fiber optic loop. The MPS also puts packetized data onto and pulls packetized data off of the fiber optic loop. Thereby, flows can access the fiber optic loop via the MPS's. The MPS's also regulate the data rates on a per-flow basis according to setup information supplied by a Ring Management System (RMS). If one segment of the fiber loop becomes overly congested, the MPS guarantees quality of service for those flows by deallocating available bandwidth from flows upstream to the point of congestion. Utilization of packet transport ring capacity is optimized by allocating any bandwidth that becomes available to active flows according to a pre-specified weighting scheme.

Per-flow rate control for an asynchronous metro packet transport ring

In a metropolitan area network, a method and system for maintaining an accurate total of the amount of allocated bandwidth on the network. A plurality of incoming packets are assigned to a respective plurality of queues of a metropolitan area network switch. Using a fair arbitration scheme, the respective queues are configured to empty at a specified output rate. A finish time for each respective queue is computed, the finish time describing a time at which the respective queue will be emptied using the output rate. The plurality of queues are grouped into multiple groups in accordance with their respective finish times. The earliest group includes the reserved rates of those queues having a finish time indicating an empty condition at a first time increment. The second earliest group includes the reserved rates of those queues having a finish time indicating an empty condition at a second time increment later than the first time increment, and so on. The amount of allocated bandwidth on the network is determined by tracking the sum of the reserved rates of all the multiple groups. The first time increment, second time increment, and the like are indexed with respect to a schedule clock. The earliest group thus indicates those queues that will have an empty condition at a next time increment of the schedule clock. The determination of the amount of allocated bandwidth can be accomplished in real time, thereby allowing the efficient allocation of unallocated bandwidth in real time.

Method and system for bandwidth allocation tracking in a packet data network

An asynchronous metropolitan packet transport ring having guaranteed QoS. Asynchronous packetized data flow in one direction through a fiber optic loop. A number of Metropolitan Packet Switches (MPS) are coupled to the fiber optic loop. An MPS allows packetized data from an upstream MPS to flow to a downstream MPS over a segment of the fiber optic loop. The MPS also puts packetized data onto and pulls packetized data off of the fiber optic loop. Thereby, flows can access the fiber optic loop via the MPS's. The MPS's also regulate the data rates on a per-flow basis according to setup information supplied by a Ring Management System (RMS). If one segment of the fiber loop becomes overly congested, the MPS guarantees quality of service for those flows by deallocating available bandwidth from flows upstream to the point of congestion. Utilization of packet transport ring capacity is optimized by allocating any bandwidth that becomes available to active flows according to a pre-specified weighting scheme.

Guaranteed quality of service in an asynchronous metro packet transport ring

A method and system for implementing weighted fair flow control on a metropolitan area network. Weighted fair flow control is implemented using a plurality of metro packet switches (MPS), each including a respective plurality of virtual queues and a respective plurality of per flow queues. Each MPS accepts data from a respective plurality of local input flows. Each local input flow has a respective quality of service (QoS) associated therewith. The data of the local input flows are queued using the per flow queues, with each input flow having its respective per flow queue. Each virtual queue maintains a track of the flow rate of its respective local input flow. Data is transmitted from the local input flows of each MPS across a communications channel of the network and the bandwidth of the communications channel is allocated in accordance with the QoS of each local input flow. The QoS is used to determine the rate of transmission of the local input flow from the per flow queue to the communications channel. This implements an efficient weighted bandwidth utilization of the communications channel. Among the plurality of MPS, bandwidth of the communications channel is allocated by throttling the rate at which data is transmitted from an upstream MPS with respect to the rate at which data is transmitted from a downstream MPS, thereby implementing a weighted fair bandwidth utilization of the communications channel.

Method and system for weighted fair flow control in an asynchronous metro packet transport ring network

A circuit that performs the function of a bank of multipliers while reducing hardware costs includes shared term generator that generates a set of shared terms in response to an input value. The circuit further includes a set of combining circuits each of which generates a result term by combining one or more of the shared terms so that the result term equals the input value multiplied by a corresponding data value. The circuit generates the share terms once and then reuses the shared terms in differing combining circuits as needed thereby eliminating duplication of terms and associated implementation hardware.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Adisak Mekkittikul