The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 12, 1991
Filed:
Nov. 21, 1989
John F Vesel, Willowick, OH (US);
Fred C Mailey, S. Euclid, OH (US);
Pradipa Subramaniam, Richmond Hts., OH (US);
Robert A Cecil, Solon, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Hts., OH (US);
Abstract
A network (A) carries large image blocks among medical diagnostic equipment (20, 22, 24), archive computer (26), and data handling and display stations (28, 30). Four kilobyte packets of 4 megabyte image blocks are moved from transmit buffers (38) to queuing buffers (42). The order in which packets from the queuing buffers are transmitted on the network medium (10) is determined by a combination of an assigned priority, duration in the buffer, and a statistical availability of the addressed receiving node. A data link (52) at the receiving node includes an elasticity buffer (122) which stores a small plurality bits, e.g. 5, to accommodate for variances in the clock speed of the transmitting and receiving nodes. A buffer table (60) monitors memory addresses at which preceding data packets corresponding to the same image are stored and provides address information to send each subsequently received packet. Before transmitting the image data packet, the transmitting node data link first sends a query to the receiving node to check availability to avoid the transmission of relatively large data packets to unavailable nodes. Each transmitting node normally passes the token after it has transmitted one packet of data. When the transmitting node holds the token for several sequential data packet transmissions, it passes a restricted token which allows the other nodes to transmit high priority small messages that are much smaller than the image data packets.