Computer system having virtual circuit address altered by local computer to switch to different physical data link to increase data transmission bandwidth

• US 6,032,193 A
• Filed: 03/20/1997
• Issued: 02/29/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Varitek Industries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Niobrara Research & Dev Corp.
• Inventors: Sullivan, Mark K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Le Hien
• Application Number:
  US08/821,223
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 370/471, 370/230, 370/254, 370/389, 370/231, 370/355, 709/233, 709/239, 709/238, 709/242
• US Class Current: 709/239
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0061 Error detection codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/14 Channel dividing arrangements , i.e. in which a single bit stream is divided between several baseband channels and reassembled at the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/06 Simultaneous speech and data transmission, e.g. telegraphic transmission over the same conductors

Abstract

A system and method for controlling data transmissions between a remote node and a local node of a computer communications network. The network has a plurality of nodes that are interconnected for the exchange of datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits. A plurality of physical data links connected to the local node are used to connect the local node to the network and an interface establishes a connection from the local node to the remote node via a first one of the links. The interface assigns one of the virtual circuits to the first link and assigns another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links. The local node receives the remote-to-local datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via their respective links whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node. Other features are also disclosed including correcting checksums in the datagrams.

Claims

1. A method of controlling data transmissions between a remote node and a local node of a computer communications network, said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams, said local node having a plurality of physical data links connected thereto for connecting the local node to the network, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each datagram including either source or destination address data corresponding to one of the links, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote to local datagram, said method comprising the steps of:

establishing a connection from the local node to the remote node via a first one of the links;

assigning one of the virtual circuits to the first link;

assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links, said step of assigning the virtual circuit to the second link including altering the address data at the local node in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link; and

receiving the remote-to-local datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via their respective links whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said datagrams has a header comprising a plurality of words, one of said words representing the address data, and wherein the step of altering the address data includes altering the headers of the local-to-remote datagrams so that the source address corresponds to a desired one of the links for receiving the remote-to-local datagrams regardless of the link via which the local-to-remote datagrams are transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting the local-to-remote datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via one or more of the links independent of the links via which the remote-to-local datagrams are received.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing in a memory data identifying which of the virtual circuits are assigned to the links.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the local node includes a memory and further comprising the step of storing executable routines in the memory providing an interface between the links and the local node.

6. A method of controlling data transmissions between a remote node and a local node of a computer communications network, said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams, said local node having a plurality of physical data links connected thereto for connecting the local node to the network, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each of said datagrams including either source or destination address data corresponding to one of the links and having a header comprising a plurality of words, one of said words representing the address data, another of said words in the header representing a checksum for use in error detection, said checksum being a function of the plurality of words in the header, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote-to-local datagram, said method comprising the steps of:

establishing a connection from the local node to the remote node via a first one of the links;

assigning one of the virtual circuits to the first link;

assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links, said step of assigning the virtual circuit to the second link including altering the address data in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link and altering the checksum so that the checksum is a function of the address data corresponding to the second link rather than the address data corresponding to the first link, said step of altering the address data including altering the headers of the local-to-remote datagrams so that the source address corresponds to a desired one of the links for receiving the remote-to-local datagrams regardless of the link via which the local-to-remote datagrams are transmitted; and

receiving the remote-to-local datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via their respective links whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of altering the checksum comprises substituting a portion of the checksum representative of the address data corresponding to the first link with the address data corresponding to the second link.

8. A method of controlling data transmissions between a remote node and a local node of a computer communications network, said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams, said local node having a plurality of physical data links connected thereto for connecting the local node to the network, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote-to-local datagram, each of said datagrams comprising a plurality of words, one of said words representing address data corresponding to one of the links, another one of said words representing a checksum for use in error detection, said method comprising the steps of:

assigning one of the virtual circuits to a first one of the links;

assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links;

altering the address data in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link; and

altering the checksum in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the checksum is a function of the address data corresponding to the second link rather than the address data corresponding to the first link.

9. A system for communicating with a remote node of a computer communications network, said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams, said system comprising:

a local node for transmitting datagrams to and receiving datagrams from the remote node, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each datagram including either source or destination address data corresponding to one of the links, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote-to-local datagram;

a plurality of physical data links connected to the local node for connecting the local node to the network;

an interface between the local node and the links for establishing a connection from the local node to the remote node via a first one of the links, said interface assigning one of the virtual circuits to the first link and assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links, said interface including a processor at the local node executing a software program having a plurality of routines, said processor executing a routine for altering the address data in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link, said local node receiving the remote-to-local datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via their respective links whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein each of said datagrams has a header comprising a plurality of words, one of said words representing the address data, and wherein the processor executes a routine for altering the headers of the local-to-remote datagrams so that the source address corresponds to a desired one of the links for receiving the remote-to-local datagrams regardless of the link via which the local-to-remote datagrams are transmitted.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the local node includes a memory storing executable routines implementing the interface.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a data table stored in the memory identifying which of the virtual circuits are assigned to the links.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the local node comprises a local workstation computer.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the local node comprises a local area network router.

15. A system for communicating with a remote node of a computer communications network said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams said system comprising:

a local node for transmitting datagrams to and receiving datagrams from the remote node, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each of said datagrams including either source or destination address data corresponding to one of the links and having a header comprising a plurality of words one of said words in the header representing the address data another of said words in the header representing a checksum for use in error detection, said checksum being a function of the plurality of words in the header, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote-to-local datagram;

a plurality of physical data links connected to the local node for connecting the local node to the network;

an interface between the local node and the links for establishing a connection from the local node to the remote node via a first one of the links said interface assigning one of the virtual circuits to the first link and assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links, said interface including a processor executing a software program having a plurality of routines, said processor executing a routine for altering the address data in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link and a routine for altering the checksum so that the checksum is a function of the address data corresponding to the second link rather than the address data corresponding to the first link, said processor further executing a routine for altering the headers of the local-to-remote datagrams so that the source address corresponds to a desired one of the links for receiving the remote-to-local datagrams regardless of the link via which the local-to-remote datagrams are transmitted, said local node receiving the remote-to-local datagrams of the assigned virtual circuits via their respective links whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the processor executes a routine for substituting a portion of the checksum representative of the address data corresponding to the first link with the address data corresponding to the second link thereby altering the checksum.

17. In a system controlling data transmissions between a remote node and a local node of a computer communications network, said network having a plurality of nodes interconnected for the exchange of datagrams, said local node having a plurality of physical data links connected thereto for connecting the local node to the network, said datagrams defining a plurality of virtual circuits between the local node and the remote node, each virtual circuit being defined by at least one local-to-remote datagram and at least one remote-to-local datagram, each of said datagrams comprising a plurality of words, one of said words representing address data corresponding to one of the links, another one of said words representing a checksum for use in error detection, an improvement including an interface between the local node and the links comprising:

a routine for assigning one of the virtual circuits to a first one of the links;

a routine for assigning another one of the virtual circuits to a second one of the links; and

a routine for altering the address data at the local node in each of the datagrams that define the virtual circuit assigned to the second link so that the address data corresponds to the second link rather than to the first link whereby the collective throughput requirement of the plurality of datagrams is distributed among the plurality of links thereby increasing the speed of data transmission between the remote node and the local node.