Dynamically adaptable communications processor architecture and associated methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a configuration memory to store configuration information for a plurality of different communication protocols selected from asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), packet-over-synchronous optical network (POS), and generic framing procedure (GFP);
control logic to determine a communication protocol associated with a data packet received over a communication channel, and retrieve configuration information corresponding to the determined communication protocol from the configuration memory; and
a dynamically configurable processing engine to process the data packets based on the configuration information; and
a context memory, wherein the control logic is further to store context data associated with a processed portion of the data packet after the processing of the data packet has stopped, and wherein the control logic is to retrieve the context data and process an unprocessed portion of the data packet using the configured processing engine.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A dynamically adaptable communications processor includes a memory element, which includes executable content, and a control element, coupled with the memory element, that selectively implements the executable content to modify the dynamically adaptable communications processor to process data based, at least in part, on a type of communication channel from which the data is received.
-
Citations
16 Claims
-
1. An apparatus comprising:
-
a configuration memory to store configuration information for a plurality of different communication protocols selected from asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), packet-over-synchronous optical network (POS), and generic framing procedure (GFP); control logic to determine a communication protocol associated with a data packet received over a communication channel, and retrieve configuration information corresponding to the determined communication protocol from the configuration memory; and a dynamically configurable processing engine to process the data packets based on the configuration information; and a context memory, wherein the control logic is further to store context data associated with a processed portion of the data packet after the processing of the data packet has stopped, and wherein the control logic is to retrieve the context data and process an unprocessed portion of the data packet using the configured processing engine. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method comprising:
-
receiving a data packet from a communication channel; determining a communication protocol associated with the communication channel; retrieving configuration information corresponding to the determined communication protocol from a configuration memory; dynamically configuring a communications processor using the retrieved configuration information; processing the data packet using the configured communications processor; storing context data associated with a processed portion of the data packet, wherein the processing of the data packet was stooped when another data packet was received from a different communication channel associated with a different communication protocol;
retrieving the context data; andprocessing an unprocessed portion of the data packet using the configured communications processor. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. An article of manufacture comprising:
-
a machine accessible medium including content that when accessed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising; determining a communication protocol associated with a communication channel over which a packet is received; retrieving configuration information corresponding to the determined communication protocol from a configuration memory; and dynamically configuring a communications processor using the retrieved configuration information; storing context data associated with a processed portion of the packet, wherein the processing of the packet was stopped when another packet was received from a different communication channel associated with a different communication protocol; retrieving the context data; and processing an unprocessed portion of the data packet using the configured communications processor. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
-
Specification