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:
Nov. 07, 1995
Filed:
Jun. 09, 1993
Ian D Judd, Winchester, GB;
Reginald Beer, Chandlers Ford, GB;
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Described is a network addressing scheme in which a message sent from a source node to a destination node includes a path address which defines the path over which the message should travel to reach the destination node. At each node along the path between the source and destination, the path address is compared against a predetermined value, and on determining that the address and predetermined value are different, the node modifies the address before forwarding the message onto the next node. In a switch node having three or more ports, the identity of the output port is determined from the path address and a portion of the address is deleted before sending the message out on that output port. Also described is a method of configuring a network in which one or more initiator nodes are defined, the initiator nodes issuing query messages to an adjacent node which responds by sending the initiator details of the number of operational ports which are implemented in the adjacent node. The initiator node then issues query messages addressed to those nodes which are attached to the operational ports on the adjacent node. This continues until the initiator has walked through the entire network at which point the configuration process is complete.