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. 21, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 03, 1999
Jen-Kai Chen, Taipei, TW;
Jiann-Hwa Liou, Taichung, TW;
Via Technologies, Inc., Taipei Hsien, TW;
Abstract
A method and system is provided for use on a switching hub in a packet-switching network for handling the output queuing of received packets in the switching hub to be more efficient and cost-effective. This method and system is characterized in the provision of a broadcast output queue in addition to the output queues at the ports of the switching hub, with the broadcast output queue being exclusively used for sequencing broadcast packets and the output queues being used exclusively for sequencing unicast packets. When a broadcast packet is received, the method and system assigns a free-list link node to the broadcast output queue, but not to the output queues, and meanwhile adds one to the broadcast count in each of the last link node in each of the output queues. When a certain port completes the outputting of all associated unicast packets, it is checked whether the broadcast count in the last link node in each output queue is zero or nonzero; if nonzero, the switching hub then outputs every broadcast packet indicated by the broadcast count. The disclosed method and system not only allows a reduced number of memory accesses as compared to the prior art but also requires a low memory capacity to implement, and therefore is more efficient in operation and more cost-effective to implement than the prior art.