Patent ID: 9319319
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A communication network traffic control element which is arranged to receive traffic as a plurality of discrete traffic packets at an input and communicate the traffic as a serial traffic stream to an output, the traffic control element comprising: a receiver configured to receive discrete network traffic packets; a plurality of processors operating in parallel and an output associated with each processor, each of the processors being configured to process the traffic packets to convert the traffic packets to a serial traffic stream and communicate the serial traffic stream to the associated output; and a buffer included in each of the processors, said buffer being configured for receiving traffic packets from the receiver in accordance with a traffic request signal which is communicated from the buffer to the receiver, and for controlling a rate of traffic packet flow from the receiver to the processor to enable a rate of serial traffic output from the processor to be varied independently of a rate of traffic packet input to the receiver.