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. 23, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 12, 1996
Klaus S Fosmark, Rockwall, TX (US);
Efficient Networks, Inc., Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A transmit scheduler and method of operation are provided for an asynchronous transfer mode network. The transmit scheduler is operable to write data to and read data from a scheduler table and a virtual channel identifier ('VCI') table in order to schedule cells for virtual channels. The transmit scheduler calculates a location in the scheduler table in which to schedule a cell for a current virtual channel and determines whether a cell for a prior virtual channel is scheduled in the calculated location in the scheduler table. The transmit scheduler then schedules the cell for the current virtual channel at the calculated location in the scheduler table. If a cell for a prior virtual channel was scheduled in the calculated location in the scheduler table, the transmit scheduler writes a pointer into a next pointer field of a record for the current virtual channel in the VCI table, where the pointer provides a link to a record for the prior virtual channel in the VCI table. The transmit scheduler is thereby operable to build linked lists beginning at each location in the scheduler table in which cells for more than one virtual channel are calculated to be scheduled.