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:
Mar. 04, 2014
Filed:
May. 03, 2004
Nabil N. Bitar, Winchester, MA (US);
Philip to, Burlington, MA (US);
Thomas A. Hoch, Boxborough, MA (US);
Nabil N. Bitar, Winchester, MA (US);
Philip To, Burlington, MA (US);
Thomas A. Hoch, Boxborough, MA (US);
Alcatel Lucent, Paris, FR;
Abstract
The present invention provides switches and routers, preferably with fully-connected mesh fabrics, that transmit data through the switch fabric in variable-size data units. Variable-size data units allow switches and routers to provide throughputs close to hardware capabilities, eliminating the need for over-capacity hardware in the switch fabric and other components. Along with variably-size data units, preferred embodiments of this invention include scheduling methods that provide fair allocation of pre-determined bandwidths to different protocols, to different classes of service within protocols, and to different resources within the switch by use of certain weighted, fair scheduling methods. The switches and routers of this invention are particularly directed to multi-protocol, high-throughput communication applications, but may have wide applicability in systems generally where data packets are switched or routed.