Alcatel-lucent Canada Inc.

Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Alcatel Canada Inc.

Radu Ungureanu

Blair Mackiewich

Yuming Wen

Thomas Tadsen

A method, in an element having a queue used to store messages sent from a message sender to a message receiver, of handling congestion in the queue, without discarding a new message from the message sender. The new message which is to be added to the queue is received. The new message is of a given message type. It is determined that congestion handling is to be performed. The congestion handling is performed by removing older messages, of the given message type, from the queue. The new message is added to the queue. Other methods, apparatus, and network elements are also disclosed.

Handling congestion in a queue without discarding new messages received from a message sender

A bridge has a shared forwarding database and a plurality of ports. The bridge handles data associated with multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs). The shared forwarding database includes static entries for one or more devices which belong to multiple VLANs. Upon receiving data addressed to one of the one or more devices the bridge determines that the data should be source routed by retrieving the static entry from the shared forwarding database. The bridge then selects a bridge port to which the data should be forwarded on the basis of information in the data, such as a VLAN ID field.

Method and apparatus for routing data frames

A virtual LAN (VLAN) has a number of segments connected by a connection-based network. A method for providing differentiated service to frames having different user priorities in a VLAN carries frames associated with different user priorities over different channels in the connection-based network. The connection-based network may be an ATM network in which channels are specified by a connection identifier which may comprise a VPI/VCI pair. A bridge according to the invention has one or more bridge ports. Each of the bridge ports may be associated with a VPI. The bridge ports may each be associated with a plurality of service interfaces each capable of terminating a connection in the connection-based network. The service interfaces may each be associated with a VCI. Priority tagged frames received at the bridge port are mapped to service interfaces on the basis of their user priorities.

User priority mapping in bridged VLANS

A bridged virtual LAN (VLAN) has a number of segments connected by a connection-based network such as an ATM network. Multicast data originating in a first one of the segments is carried to two or more other segments by a point-to-multipoint virtual channel configured in the connection-based network. A separate point-to-point virtual channel may be provided for other data and bidirectional control signals. The segments may be ethernet segments with data flow over the point-to-multipoint virtual channel being unidirectional. Ethernet frames may be carried by a protocol such as AAL5.

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Coquitlam, Canada

Radu Ungureanu