Flow control hub having scoreboard memory
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A flow control hub, comprising:
- a scoreboard memory device to maintain flow control status for a plurality of flows, wherein each of the flows is identified by an associated index;
an address decoder to receive a flow control message and to determine the associated index for the flow control message; and
an updater to update the flow control status in said scoreboard memory device based on the received flow control message.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a flow control hub that includes a scoreboard memory device to maintain flow control status for a plurality of flows. Each of the flows is identified by an associated index. The apparatus also includes an address decoder to receive a flow control message and to determine an associated index based on the address portion. The apparatus further includes an updater to update the flow control status in said memory device based on the received flow control message.
83 Citations
34 Claims
-
1. A flow control hub, comprising:
-
a scoreboard memory device to maintain flow control status for a plurality of flows, wherein each of the flows is identified by an associated index;
an address decoder to receive a flow control message and to determine the associated index for the flow control message; and
an updater to update the flow control status in said scoreboard memory device based on the received flow control message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A flow control hub, comprising:
-
a scoreboard memory device to maintain flow control status for a plurality of flows, wherein each of the flows is identified by an associated index;
a message generator to generate a flow control message for a particular flow based on the flow control status maintained in said scoreboard memory device for the particular flow; and
a selector to select the particular flow. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A method, comprising:
-
maintaining a flow control status for a plurality of flows in a memory device, wherein each of the flows is identified by an associated index;
generating a flow control message for a particular flow based on the flow control status maintained in the memory device for the particular flow; and
selecting the particular flow. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A method comprising
maintaining a flow control status for a plurality of flows in a memory device, wherein each of the flows is identified by an associated index; -
receiving a flow control message;
determining an associated index for the received flow control message;
updating the flow control status maintained in said memory device based on the received flow control message. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. A store and forward device comprising:
-
a plurality of Ethernet cards including a plurality ingress ports to receive data from external sources and transmit the data based on flow of the data, wherein each ingress port has a plurality of ingress queues associated with a plurality of flows, and wherein transmission of data from a particular queue is controlled at least in part by a flow control status associated with the queue; and
a plurality of egress ports to receive data from at least a subset of the plurality of flows, wherein each egress port has an egress queue for holding the data prior to transmission, and wherein each egress queue issues flow control messages based at least in part on capacity of the egress queue;
a backplane to connect the plurality of Ethernet cards together; and
a flow control hub to receive flow control messages, maintain a flow control status for each flow based on the received flow control messages, select next flow to receive flow control message, and generate and forward flow control message to queue associated with the next flow. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
-
Specification