Switching device utilizing internal priority assignments
First Claim
1. A switching device comprisinga segmentation unit to receive packets and to divide the packets having a length greater than a maximum segment length into multiple segments;
- a plurality of queues to store the segments, wherein the queues are associated with sources and destinations;
a request generator to generate requests to transmit the segments, wherein a request indicates external factors including amount of data contained in the queue and at least some subset of priority and age;
a scheduler to receive the requests and assign the requests an internal priority based on the external factors, wherein the scheduler processes the requests for the queues by internal priority in order to generate grants; and
a framer, responsive to said scheduler, to aggregate a plurality of the segments for the queues that received a grant to form a frame and to transmit the frame to an associated destination, wherein the frame may contain segments associated with different packets.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In general, in one aspect, a switching device is described that includes a segmentation unit to receive packets and divide packets having a length greater than a maximum segment length into multiple segments. A plurality of queues associated with a source and a destination stores the segments. A request generator generates requests that include external factors including amount of data contained in the queue and at least some subset of priority and age. A scheduler receives the requests and assigns the requests an internal priority based on the external factors. The scheduler processes the requests for the queues by internal priority in order to generate grants. A framer, responsive to the scheduler, aggregates a plurality of segments for the queues that received a grant to form a frame and to transmit the frame to an associated destination. The frame may contain segments associated with different packets.
-
Citations
32 Claims
-
1. A switching device comprising
a segmentation unit to receive packets and to divide the packets having a length greater than a maximum segment length into multiple segments; -
a plurality of queues to store the segments, wherein the queues are associated with sources and destinations; a request generator to generate requests to transmit the segments, wherein a request indicates external factors including amount of data contained in the queue and at least some subset of priority and age; a scheduler to receive the requests and assign the requests an internal priority based on the external factors, wherein the scheduler processes the requests for the queues by internal priority in order to generate grants; and a framer, responsive to said scheduler, to aggregate a plurality of the segments for the queues that received a grant to form a frame and to transmit the frame to an associated destination, wherein the frame may contain segments associated with different packets. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method comprising:
-
receiving data packets; forming segments from the received data packets, wherein the data packets received having a length greater than a maximum segment length are divided into multiple segments; storing the segments in queues, wherein the queues are associated with a source and a destination; generating requests to transmit the segments from the queues, wherein a request indicates external factors including amount of data contained in a queue and at least some subset of priority and age; receiving the requests at a scheduler and assigning the requests an internal priority based on the external factors; processing the requests for the queues by the internal priority in order to generate the requests; aggregating a plurality of the segments, responsive to said processing the requests, to form a frame, wherein the frame may contain the segments associated with different data packets; and transmitting the frame to the associated destination, wherein the segments within the frame are transmitted together. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A store and forward device comprising
a plurality of Ethernet cards to receive data from and transmit data to external sources, wherein the plurality of Ethernet cards include an ingress interface module to receive packets, store the packets as segments in queues associated with at least some subset of destination and priority, aggregate multiple segments together to form a frame, transmit the segments within the frame together, and generate requests for permission to transmit data from the queues, wherein the segments larger than a maximum segment size are divided into the multiple segments, wherein the frames may include segments associated with different packets, and wherein the requests include external factors including at least some subset of quantity, priority and age; - and
an egress interface module to receive the frames, divide the frames into the segments making up the frames, store the segments in a queue, monitor the queues for complete packets, and reassemble a packet after the segments making up the packet are received; a switching matrix to provide selective connectivity between the Ethernet cards; a backplane consisting of a plurality of channels to connect the plurality of Ethernet cards to the switching matrix; and a scheduler to receive the requests, assign the requests an internal priority based on the external factors, and to configure the switching matrix accordingly, wherein the scheduler processes the requests for the queues by internal priority in order to generate grants. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
- and
-
31. A store and forward device comprising
an ingress interface including a receiver to receive packets from external sources; -
a segmentation unit to divide the packets having a length greater than a maximum segment length into multiple segments; a plurality of queues to store the segments, wherein the queues are associated with sources and destinations; a request generator to generate requests to transmit the segments, wherein a request indicates external factors including quantity, priority and age; a framer to aggregate a plurality of the segments for the queues that received a grant to form a frame, wherein the frame may contain the segments associated with different packets; and a transmitter to transmit the frame to an associated destination an egress interface including a receiver to receive the frame; a deframer to extract the segments from the frame; queues to store the segments; a monitor to monitor the queues for complete packets; and a reassembly unit to combine the segments making up a complete packet together to generate the packet; a switching matrix to provide selective connectivity between the ingress interface and the egress interface; a backplane consisting of a plurality of channels to connect the ingress interface and the egress interface to the switching matrix; and a scheduler to receive the requests, assign the requests an internal priority based on the external factors, and to configure the switching matrix accordingly, wherein the scheduler processes the requests for the queues the by internal priority in order to generate the grants. - View Dependent Claims (32)
-
Specification