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:
Oct. 23, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 10, 1998
Christian D. Kasper, Carrollton, TX (US);
STMicroelectronics, Inc., Carrollton, TX (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for controlling data flow of data communications in a network are provided. A method preferably includes dynamically varying a minimum frame slot number, transmitting at least bytes of data from a frame of data of a slot, and determining the end of the frame of data. The method also preferably includes determining that the number of bytes of data within the frame is less than the current minimum frame slot number and transmitting flag bytes within the slot until the combination of the number of bytes and flag bytes equals the current minimum frame slot number. An apparatus preferably includes a transmitter for transmitting at least bytes of frames of data of a data slot, a byte counter responsive to the transmitter for counting the number of bytes in a frame of transmitted data, and a flag counter responsive to the transmitter for counting the number of flag bytes transmitted within a frame of transmitted data. The apparatus also preferably includes a byte counter comparator responsive to the byte counter for comparing the number of bytes transmitted in each frame of data with a predetermined minimum frame slot number and a counter sum comparator for comparing the sum of the number in the byte counter and the number in the flag counter with the predetermined frame slot number.