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. 21, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 28, 1997
John G Zornig, Boston, MA (US);
Tavit K Ohanian, Waltham, MA (US);
George A Klarakis, Franklin, MA (US);
LANart Corporation, Needham, MA (US);
Abstract
A port switching hub consists of a number of local area network ports, a number of internal channels to which these ports may be connected from time to time under program control, and circuitry suitable for causing each channel to function as a local area network repeater. The ports have a variety of control and measurement functions associated with them. An instrumentation, a programmable controller or embedded computer program, for example, estimates the traffic load on each channel based on information available from the port controllers. The control program further predicts the effect of reassigning the ports to different channels based on available data, internal models of network behavior, and other constraints such as address assignment, and changes the port assignment so as to achieve a goal, such as balancing of traffic load or assignment. The reassignment of ports may occur periodically, or in response to an event, and may or may not be forced to occur during a period of channel inactivity.