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. 15, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 15, 1999
Method and apparatus for bundling serial data transmission links to obtain increased data throughput
Kenneth A. Ward, Shrewsbury, MA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
In a switched configuration in which data links can be bundled to increase data throughput, the links in a bundle are ordered. A data sender sequentially transmits cells in the data packet over links in the bundle. For example, a first cell is transmitted over a first ordered link in the bundle. The next cell is transmitted over the next link in the bundle order and operation continues in a “round robin” fashion. The data receiver is informed in advance of the order of links in the bundle and expects cells to be distributed over the links in that order. The data sender transmits a bundle sequence number with each data cell. As each new data cell is transmitted, the bundle sequence number is incremented. The receiver uses the bundle sequence number to validate cell order, to detect lost cells, and to resynchronize cell order with the sender in the case of cell errors. Bundle sequence numbers are used on a single bundle on a single link, or “hop”, between a data sender and a data receiver. When the cells are received by the data receiver of a hop, the received bundle sequence numbers are replaced by new bundle sequence numbers generated by the data sender for transmission over the next hop.