DISTRIBUTED ARBITRATION MECHANISM FOR RING NETWORKS

• US 20080130667A1
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Heil, Timothy H., Siegel, Michael S., Bass, Brian M., VanderWiel, Steven P., Tamaddoni-Jahromi, Tiffany, Summers, Jeffrey R.
• Application Number:
  US11/564,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20080130667A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A system for employing a scalable distributed arbitration scheme, including: a plurality of stations interconnected via a ring topology for transferring data between the plurality of stations; and a bus coupling the plurality of stations in the ring topology; wherein each of the plurality of stations on the topology ring is permitted to independently make a decision when to load their data on the topology ring by evaluating a set of inputs.

Claims

1. A system for employing a scalable distributed arbitration scheme, the system comprising:

a plurality of stations interconnected via a ring topology for transferring data between the plurality of stations; and

a bus coupling the plurality of stations in the ring topology;

wherein each of the plurality of stations on the topology ring is permitted to independently make a decision when to load their data on the topology ring by evaluating a set of inputs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of inputs is determined by a number of outputs from neighboring stations of a station of the plurality of stations, the neighboring stations being an upstream station and a downstream station.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the set of inputs are incoming data valids and signals indicating an intent to send the data from the neighboring stations.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the decision is based on a winner flag state, the winner flag state used to keep the station from locking out the downstream station'"'"'s access to available arbitration blocks.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the winner flag state is passed between the plurality of stations.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the winner flag state is tracked internally by each of the plurality of stations.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data transfers are broken into two-beat data transfers.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the winner and arbitration state is tracked internally using a 2-bit counter when the number of stations is a multiple of 4.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the winner and arbitration state is tracked internally using an extended set of states when the number of stations is a multiple of 2.

10. A method having a plurality of stations interconnected via a ring topology for passing data between the plurality of stations by a scalable distributed arbitration scheme, the method comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of stations via a ring topology for transferring data between the plurality of stations; and

coupling the plurality of stations in the ring topology via a bus;

wherein each of the plurality of stations on the topology ring is permitted to independently make a decision when to load the data on the topology ring by evaluating a set of inputs.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of inputs is determined by a number of outputs from neighboring stations of a station of the plurality of stations, the neighboring stations being an upstream station and a downstream station.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of inputs are incoming data valids and signals indicating an intent to send the data from the neighboring stations.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the decision is based on a winner flag state, the winner flag state used to keep the station from locking out the downstream station'"'"'s access to available arbitration blocks.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the winner flag is passed between the plurality of stations.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the winner flag is tracked internally by each of the plurality of stations.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the data transfers are broken into two-beat data transfers.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the winner and arbitration state is tracked internally using a 2-bit counter when the number of stations is a multiple of 4.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the winner and arbitration state is tracked internally using an extended set of states when the number of stations is a multiple of 2.