Patent ID: 6141689
Filing Date: 2000-10-31
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
In a shared media network system comprising a plurality of workstations, a gateway station having switched ports for communications between the workstations and an external network, and a shared transmission media for communications between the workstations and the gateway station, a method of allocating ports at the gateway station to the workstations for communication to the external network in response to requests from the workstations requesting access to a switched port, comprising the steps ofassigning a virtual handle at the gateway to a request from a first workstation for allocation to the first workstation of a port having prescribed attributes and saving the attributes of the requested port at the gateway station in association with the virtual handle,transmitting the virtual handle to the first workstation, in response to a subsequent port connection request from the first workstation that contains the virtual handle, locating an idle one of the ports, programming the located port with the attributes associated with the virtual handle, establishing a connection between the first workstations and the idle one of the ports andtransmitting a return code to the first workstation indicating successful establishment of the connection.