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. 24, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1997
Kenneth G. Hayward, Kanata, CA;
Donald R. Ellis, Ottawa, CA;
John P Brule, Spencerville, CA;
Michael C. To, Nepean, CA;
Nortel Networks Limited, Montreal, CA;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for routing data packets via a synchronous optical (SONET) network from devices connected to a local area network to devices connected to other local area networks. At each transport node in the SONET network the data packets are unloaded from SONET payloads and requeued for transmission on an output path. This allows for easy resolution of contention between devices transmitting at the same time and avoids pre-assigning SONET channels. Source and destination address information from the data packets can be used to route the data packets through the SONET network. A time-to-live indicator can be used to find the shortest path to a destination address in a SONET ring network or any bidirectional ring network.