High jitter scheduling of interleaved frames in an arbitrated loop

Abstract

A system and method for converting low-jitter, interleaved frame traffic, such as that generated in an IP network, to high jitter traffic to improve the utilization of bandwidth on arbitrated loops such as Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loops. Embodiments of a high jitter scheduling algorithm may be used in devices such as network switches that interface an arbitrated loop with an IP network that carries low-jitter traffic. The high jitter algorithm may use a separate queue for each device on the arbitrated loop, or alternatively may use one queue for two or more devices. Incoming frames are distributed among the queues based upon each frame's destination device. The scheduling algorithm may then service the queues and forward queued frames to the devices from the queues. In one embodiment, the queues are serviced in a round-robin fashion. In one embodiment, each queue may be serviced for a programmed limit.