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:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 19, 1998
Bruno DiPlacido, Dedham, MA (US);
Lawrence A. Boxer, Carlisle, MA (US);
3COM Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An Ethernet flow control system, preferably for a Ethernet switch, having flow controlled transmitting ports in compliance with IEEE Standard 802.3x. The flow control system includes a shared resource, a plurality of buffers receiving data frames from the shared resource, and a plurality of transmitting ports. Each transmitting port being associated with one of the plurality of buffers and being flow controllable between an enabled state and a blocked state. The transmitting port removing and transmitting data frames from the associated buffer when in the enabled state. Each transmitting port including a timer for measuring the time that an associated buffer has a data frame and the corresponding transmitting port is in the blocked state. Each port also includes control logic for removing data frames from the associated buffer when the measured time is greater than a predetermined time.