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:
Jul. 27, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 11, 2000
Guy C. Fedorkow, Bedford, MA (US);
John A. Joyce, Nashua, NH (US);
Kent H. Hoult, Lexington, MA (US);
Michael B. Milano, Groton, MA (US);
Nagarajan Swaminathan, Acton, MA (US);
Vijay J. Savla, Nashua, NH (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
To ensure fair access to upstream trunk bandwidth among a plurality of interface units, a plurality of queues is provided in a first unit. One of the queues is associated with the first interface unit. Each of the remaining queues is associated with one of a plurality of second interface units. Local data is received by the first interface unit and forwarded to the associated queue. Data received from a second, subtended interface unit is forwarded to a queue which associated with the second interface unit. Data is then issued from the queues according to a fairness algorithm. A unique identifier is assigned to each interface unit. Associating a queue with an interface unit is done by associating the queue with the respective interface unit's identifier. In each interface unit, local data is tagged with the instant interface unit's identifier, and received data is forwarded to a queue according to the data's tag. For ATM traffic, data can be tagged by inserting the receiving interface unit's identifier into the generic flow control (GFC) field. Alternatively, a table of associations between virtual channel identifiers (VCIs) and interface unit identifiers may be maintained, and the received data is forwarded to a queue according to the interface unit identifier associated with the data's VCI.