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:
Apr. 01, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 28, 1994
Cuneyt M Ozveren, Somerville, MA (US);
Hallam G Murray, Jr, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Gregory M Waters, Groton, MA (US);
Robert J Simcoe, Westborough, MA (US);
Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA (US);
Abstract
A flow control system is disclosed, for a transmitting node and a receiving node. The transmitting node and the receiving node are linked together through multiple connections or virtual circuits. A flow control circuit in the transmitting node limits the number of data transmission units transmitted from the transmitting station, and not yet copied out of the receive buffers in the receiving node, to the total number of receive buffers in the receiving node. The flow control circuit in the transmitting node further controls the transmission of data transmission units on the multiple connections fairly, such that all connections are provided a proportional amount of the total available receive buffers in the receiving node. In an example embodiment, a global counter is used to maintain the total number of receive buffers containing data in the receiving node, and a global limit register contains the maximum number of receive buffers containing data in the receiving node allowed for a single connection. The flow control circuit further includes logic providing fair and efficient allocation of receive buffers across all virtual circuits between a transmitting node and a destination node. The flow control circuit ensures that during steady state operation, receive buffers in the receiving node, which are used to store data transmission units received from the transmitting node, are fairly divided among all active virtual circuits in the transmitting node.