Arbitration in multiprocessor communication node
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of arbitrating among a plurality of processors sharing a common bus to determine which one of said processors obtains access to said bus, comprising the steps of:
- assigning an arbitrary unique processor number N to each of said processors;
assigning a constant β
to each of said processors, said constant being indicative of the relative computing power of each of said processors;
determining how many previous unsuccessful attempts F each of said processors has made to access said common bus, where F is an integer;
computing a priority number PN for each of said processors as follows
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">PN=CON{β
F, N};
andgranting access to said common bus to said processor having the largest value of PN.
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Abstract
An architecture for a switching node of a communication network includes a dedicated hardware Layer 1 processing portion and a Layer 2 and 3 processing portion based on multiple programmed general purpose processors. An array of such processors are used with an arbitration scheme for selecting which of the processors is to be used for any given Layer 2 or Layer 3 process. The architecture allows the node'"'"'s capacity to be expanded by simply adding more processors to handle increased traffic.
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10 Claims
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1. A method of arbitrating among a plurality of processors sharing a common bus to determine which one of said processors obtains access to said bus, comprising the steps of:
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assigning an arbitrary unique processor number N to each of said processors; assigning a constant β
to each of said processors, said constant being indicative of the relative computing power of each of said processors;determining how many previous unsuccessful attempts F each of said processors has made to access said common bus, where F is an integer; computing a priority number PN for each of said processors as follows
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">PN=CON{β
F, N};and granting access to said common bus to said processor having the largest value of PN. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of arbitrating between a plurality of queues to determine which of said queues is granted acess to a common bus, comprising the steps of:
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providing a queue controller for each of said queues; assigning an arbitrary unique queue number N to each of said controllers; determining how much information is backed up in said queue and assigning a number L representing that backup; determining how many previous unsuccessful attempts F each said controller has made to access said common bus, where F is an integer; computing a priority number PN for each of said controllers are follows;
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">PN=CON{(α
L+β
F), (N)}where α and
β
are constants; andgranting access to said common bus to said controller having the largest value of PN. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification