Differentiated services for a network processor
First Claim
1. A differentiated services device comprising:
- a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate;
a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and
a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit;
wherein the marking unit uses one of an output of the traffic metering unit and an output of the storage congestion metering unit, and one of a color-blind policy and a color-aware policy to determine with which one of the plurality of mark values to mark the information element;
wherein the marking unit comprises;
a multiplexer, wherein the multiplexer receives an output of the traffic metering unit, an output of the storage congestion metering unit, and a marking mode signal, and outputs one of the output of the traffic metering unit and the output of the storage congestion metering unit; and
a color aware or color blind marking unit coupled to the multiplexer, wherein the color aware or color blind marking unit receives the output from the multiplexer, the marking mode signal, a marking instruction signal, and information regarding marking performed by an upstream device, and outputs the one of the plurality of mark values.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A differentiated services device is described. In one embodiment, the differentiated services device includes: a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit. Also, a method of marking an information element in a flow is described. In one embodiment, the method includes: indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values.
71 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A differentiated services device comprising:
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a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit; wherein the marking unit uses one of an output of the traffic metering unit and an output of the storage congestion metering unit, and one of a color-blind policy and a color-aware policy to determine with which one of the plurality of mark values to mark the information element; wherein the marking unit comprises; a multiplexer, wherein the multiplexer receives an output of the traffic metering unit, an output of the storage congestion metering unit, and a marking mode signal, and outputs one of the output of the traffic metering unit and the output of the storage congestion metering unit; and a color aware or color blind marking unit coupled to the multiplexer, wherein the color aware or color blind marking unit receives the output from the multiplexer, the marking mode signal, a marking instruction signal, and information regarding marking performed by an upstream device, and outputs the one of the plurality of mark values. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of marking an information element in a flow, comprising:
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indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values; wherein the marking comprises using one of an output of a traffic metering unit and an output of a storage congestion metering unit, and using one of a color-blind policy and a color-aware policy to determine with which one of the plurality of mark values to mark the information element; and wherein the marking comprises; selecting one of an output of a traffic metering unit and an output of a storage congestion metering unit based on a marking mode signal, and outputting one of the output of the traffic metering unit and the output of the storage, congestion metering unit based on the selecting; and outputting the one of the plurality of mark values in response to marking mode signal, a marking instruction signal, and information regarding marking performed by an upstream device. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of marking an information element in a flow, comprising:
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determining whether average usage of a class to which the flow belongs is less than or equal to a maximum threshold; if the average usage is greater than the maximum threshold, then marking the information element with a first mark value; if the average usage is less than or equal to the maximum threshold, then determining whether the average usage is less than or equal to a minimum threshold; if the average usage is greater than the minimum threshold, then marking the information element with a second mark value; if the average usage is less than or equal to the minimum threshold, then marking the information element with a third mark value; and further comprising; prior to the determining whether the average usage is less than or equal to the maximum threshold, determining whether the information element has been previously marked with the first mark value by an upstream device; if the determining whether the information element has been previously marked with the first mark value by the upstream device indicates that the information element has not been marked with the first mark value, then proceeding to the determining whether the average usage is less than or equal to the maximum threshold; and if the determining whether the information element has been previously marked with the first mark value by the upstream device indicates that the information element has been marked with the first mark value, then maintaining the first mark value. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A method for traffic metering, comprising:
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receiving an information element in a flow; determining a length of the information element; calculating a required time between information elements; and determining whether the information element is a first information element of the flow; if the information element is the first information element of the flow, then a debt is set to zero and a last conforming time (“
LCT”
) is set to an arrival time of the first information element; andif the information element is not the first information element of the flow, then calculating the “
actual time”
between arrival of two successive information elements and adjusting the required time between information elements to produce a “
token bucket”
that accounts for the debt incurred by a previous information element. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A storage congestion metering unit comprising:
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a first multiplexer to select a particular one of a plurality of average occupancy counts that corresponds to a class to which a flow of an information element belongs, a class characteristic storage unit stores multiple entries, each of the entries corresponds to a particular one of a plurality of classes and each of the entries includes a scheduling entry that allows for a balanced discarding of the information element, a minimum number of occupied information segment storage units before a drop probability is used to determine whether to discard the information element, a maximum number of occupied information segment storage units at which threshold point the information element is discarded, a value “
G”
that specifies how often to increment the drop probability and a value “
I”
that specifies how much each drop probability increment should be;a compare unit coupled to the first multiplexer, wherein the compare unit has as inputs the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts and the minimum and maximum number of occupied information segment storage units; and a second multiplexer coupled to the compare unit; wherein if the compare unit finds that the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is greater than or equal to the maximum number of occupied information segment storage units, then the compare unit instructs the second multiplexer to indicate that the information element is to be discarded; if the compare unit finds that the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is less than the minimum number of occupied information segment storage units, then the compare unit instructs the second multiplexer to indicate that the information element is to be accepted; and if the compare unit finds that the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is less than the maximum number of occupied information segment storage units and greater than or equal to the minimum number of occupied information segment storage units, then the compare unit instructs the second multiplexer to indicate whether to accept or discard the information element based on drop scheduling and the drop probability. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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25. A method for storage congestion metering, comprising:
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selecting a particular one of a plurality of average occupancy counts that corresponds to a class to which a flow of an information element belongs; determining a drop probability for the class using the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts, a minimum number of occupied information segment storage units before a drop probability is used to determine whether to discard the information element, a maximum number of occupied information segment storage units at which threshold point the information element is discarded, a value “
G”
that specifies how often to increment the drop probability, and a value “
I”
that specifies how much each drop probability increment should be;comparing the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts and the minimum and maximum number of occupied information segment storage units; if the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is greater than or equal to the maximum number of occupied information segment storage units, then outputting a signal to indicate that the information element is to be discarded; if the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is less than the minimum number of occupied information segment storage units, then outputting a signal to indicate that the information element is to be accepted; and if the particular one of the plurality of average occupancy counts is less than the maximum number of occupied information segment storage units and greater than or equal to the minimum number of occupied information segment storage units, then outputting a signal to either discard or accept the information element based on drop scheduling and the drop probability.
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26. A differentiated services device comprising:
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a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit; wherein the traffic metering unit comprises; a first length determination unit to determine a length of the information element; a first time interval required determination unit to determine a time interval required between arrival of two successive information elements given a quality of service of the flow to which the information element belongs; a first conformance checking unit to determine whether the information element conforms to one of the peak rate and the committed rate; a second length determination unit to determine the length of the information element; a second time interval required determination unit to determine the time interval required between the arrival of two successive information elements given the quality of service of the flow to which the information element belongs; and a second conformance checking unit to determine whether the information element conforms to one of the peak rate and the committed rate. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. A differentiated services device comprising:
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a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit; wherein the storage congestion metering unit comprises; a first multiplexer to select one of a plurality of average occupancy counters that corresponds to a class of the flow to which the information element belongs; a compare unit coupled to the first multiplexer, wherein the compare unit uses the one of the plurality of average occupancy counters with a maximum number of occupied rows and a minimum number of rows to provide at least one select signal; a drop probability calculation unit coupled to the first multiplexer, wherein the drop probability calculation unit calculates a drop probability for the class; a discard scheduler coupled to the drop probability calculation unit, wherein the discard scheduler receives the drop probability and information regarding order of arrival of the information element and outputs a discard scheduler output; and a second multiplexer coupled to the discard scheduler and the compare unit, wherein the second multiplexer receives the at least one select signal, the discard scheduler output, an always discard signal, and an always accept signal, and outputs a discard or accept signal. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. A differentiated services device comprising:
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a traffic metering unit to indicate whether an information element in a flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; a storage congestion metering unit to determine whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and a marking unit to mark the information element with one of a plurality of mark values, wherein the marking unit is coupled to the traffic metering unit and the storage congestion metering unit; wherein the marking unit comprises; a multiplexer, wherein the multiplexer receives an output of the traffic metering unit, an output of the storage congestion metering unit, and a marking mode signal, and outputs one of the output of the traffic metering unit and the output of the storage congestion metering unit; and a color aware or color blind marking unit coupled to the multiplexer, wherein the color aware or color blind marking unit receives the output from the multiplexer, the marking mode signal, a marking instruction signal, and information regarding marking performed by an upstream device, and outputs the one of the plurality of mark values.
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31. A method of marking an information element in a flow, comprising:
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indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values; wherein the indicating comprises; first determining a length of the information element; first determining a time interval required between arrival of two successive information elements given a quality of service of the flow to which the information element belongs; first determining whether the information element conforms to one of the peak rate and the committed rate; second determining the length of the information element; second determining the time interval required between the arrival of two successive information elements given the quality of service of the flow to which the information element belongs; and second determining whether the information element conforms to one of the peak rate and the committed rate. - View Dependent Claims (32)
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33. A method of marking an information element in a flow, comprising:
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indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values; wherein the determining comprises; selecting one of a plurality of average occupancy counters that corresponds to a class of the flow to which the information element belongs; comparing the one of the plurality of average occupancy counters with a maximum number of occupied rows and a minimum number of occupied rows to provide at least one select signal; calculating a drop probability for the class; providing a discard scheduler output based on the drop probability and information regarding order of arrival of the information element; selecting one of the discard scheduler output, an always discard signal, and an always accept signal using the at least one select signal; and outputting a discard or accept signal based on the selecting one of the discard scheduler output, the always discard signal, and the always accept signal. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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35. A method of marking an information element in a flow, comprising:
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indicating whether the information element in the flow conforms to a peak rate and a committed rate; determining whether the information element should be accepted or discarded; and marking the information element with one of a plurality of mark values; wherein the marking comprises; selecting one of an output of a traffic metering unit and an output of a storage congestion metering unit based on a marking mode signal, and outputting one of the output of the traffic metering unit and the output of the storage congestion metering unit based on the selecting; and outputting the one of the plurality of mark values in response to the marking mode signal, a marking instruction signal, and information regarding marking performed by an upstream device.
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Specification