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. 22, 2008
Filed:
Jan. 07, 2004
Maurice a Goodfellow, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU6 3ER, GB;
Paul J Moran, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1RT, GB;
John P Stubley, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 7LT, GB;
Alan E Ainsworth, London, NW11 6DA, GB;
Maurice A Goodfellow, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU6 3ER, GB;
Paul J Moran, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1RT, GB;
John P Stubley, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 7LT, GB;
Alan E Ainsworth, London, NW11 6DA, GB;
Other;
Abstract
A network unit for use in a switching fabric stores for each network unit in the switching fabric a respective change identification number. In each unit this number is incremented on each change of state. The unit broadcasts protocol packets which indicates incremented change identification numbers; receives corresponding packets from the other units; and determines when the last change identification numbers in the table are the same for all the units. This allows a control based on whether all the units know that all the other units have been updated in response to all the changes of state in the fabric. The network unit can also participate in a routing algorithm, and particularly a shortest path algorithm, within a fabric that constitutes a single network entity.