Patent ID: 8861396
Filing Date: 2014-10-14
Classification: H04L,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method of reducing the power consumption of a packet switching system having an upstream packet processing device and a downstream packet processing device, the method comprising the steps of: determining a traffic rate for incoming data packets at the up-stream packet processing device; processing the incoming data packets; transmitting an indication of the determined traffic rate from the upstream packet processing device to the downstream packet processing device at a time prior to the time that the processed data packets for which the traffic rate has been determined are transmitted to the downstream packet processing device, wherein when transmitting the indication of the determined traffic rate, the upstream packet processing device adds a header field comprising the traffic rate determined for the incoming data packets that are still being processed at the upstream packet processing device to at least one data packet already processed by the upstream packet processing device; adjusting available packet processing resources at the downstream packet processing device based on the received traffic rate indication; and transmitting the processed data packets from the upstream packet processing device to the downstream packet processing device.