International Business Machines Corporation

Rene Brassier

Pascal Thubert

Denis Esteve

Jean-Pierre Marce

Jean-Pierre Maree

A system and method for converting a window based data link flow control to a rate based flow control. In addition to the conventional data link control window, a second window is established under control of an adaptive committed information rate (ACIR). When either the DLC window or the second window is closed information frames are queued. The second window is closed when a frame exceeds the burst size authorized in the ACIR.

Method and apparatus for adapting window based data link to rate base link for high speed flow control

The Committed Information Rate (CIR) functionality is converted to an Adaptive Rate Base (ARB) mechanism. The solution is based on the interaction between a proactive setting of the Explicit Congestion Notifications (ECN) in the Frame Handler (FH) function of the switches and a converging Adaptive CIR algorithm in the Terminal Equipments. The result of this interaction is that when a logical bottleneck is in the process of settling in a switch, the CIR at the Terminating Equipment adapts itself to the throughput of the forming logical bottleneck. Henceforth, the logical bottleneck is exported at the boundary of the network within the Terminating Equipment. The end result is that the data sent by the data link control in the Terminating Equipment is paced so that the output matches that of the weakest point in the network, keeping it busy but not congested.

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Nice, France

Rene Brassier