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. 08, 1997
Filed:
Mar. 15, 1996
Brian Gallagher, Marlboro, MA (US);
Miklos A Sandorfi, Foxboro, MA (US);
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for coupling a plurality of channels of a communications network to a node. The node includes a plurality of ports, each adapted for connection to a corresponding channel and a system interface adapted for connection to a plurality of node clients in the form of host computers, peripheral devices, network interfaces, etc. The node includes a receiver and transmitter dedicated to each port and common circuitry for controlling and processing frames received and/or transmitted by the plurality of ports. A frame prioritization circuit forwards frames received by a selected port to a frame handler for processing and a frame routing circuit routes frames processed by the frame handler to at least one of the ports associated with at least one destination node. The node further includes a frame header buffer associated with each port for temporarily storing the header of each frame received by the respective port prior to forwarding of the header to the frame handler.