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:
Jun. 22, 2010
Filed:
Jul. 02, 2007
Stephen R. Chinn, Alexandria, VA (US);
Gene M. Ciancaglini, Dover, NH (US);
Michael M. Garofalo, Portsmouth, NH (US);
James A. Hart, Rochester, NH (US);
Michael Lupinacci, Barrington, NH (US);
Paul Marichal, Strafford, NH (US);
John D. Moores, Groton, MA (US);
Guy Oliveira, Dover, NH (US);
Salil A. Parikh, Belmont, MA (US);
Mark R. Parquette, East Kingston, NH (US);
William Proulx, Sanbornville, NH (US);
Donald Proulx, Dover, NH (US);
Michael Rydeen, Portsmouth, NH (US);
Stephen R. Chinn, Alexandria, VA (US);
Gene M. Ciancaglini, Dover, NH (US);
Michael M. Garofalo, Portsmouth, NH (US);
James A. Hart, Rochester, NH (US);
Michael Lupinacci, Barrington, NH (US);
Paul Marichal, Strafford, NH (US);
John D. Moores, Groton, MA (US);
Guy Oliveira, Dover, NH (US);
Salil A. Parikh, Belmont, MA (US);
Mark R. Parquette, East Kingston, NH (US);
William Proulx, Sanbornville, NH (US);
Donald Proulx, Dover, NH (US);
Michael Rydeen, Portsmouth, NH (US);
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for a communications network that executes a medium access control (MAC) protocol that permits multiple access to a shared medium or shared switching fabric. The MAC protocol uses a BANDWIDTH_ALLOCATOR to regulate access to the network by sending a permission message to a NODE, allowing it to transmit to a specific set of NODEs for a specific length of time. The medium and switching fabric can carry one or more protocols, each of varying framing format and native bitrate. The switching fabric provides a connection-oriented bufferless data transport service that preserves frame ordering. An illustrative embodiment uses a slotted master/slave time-division multiplexed access (TDMA) scheme to allow flexible provisioning of network bandwidth.