Patent ID: 7872969
Filing Date: 2011-01-18
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A method for controlling the congestion of cells on a path comprising at least one channel in a switch using a packet-aware cell discarding feature, each cell including data having at least two states, the method comprising the steps of: learning of the existence of active channels within the path by monitoring the header of cells; monitoring the state of the data in each cell received at the switch; identifying a change in the state of the data from a first cell to a subsequent cell; and enabling the packet-aware cell discarding feature for an active channel if the switch receives a cell associated with the channel with the data in a predetermined one of the two states; applying the packet-aware cell discarding feature for the channel based on the state of the data within subsequent cells associated with the channel, where applying the packet-aware cell discarding feature comprises: wherein the memory is accessed by hashing information associated with the channel to create an index into the memory.