Patent ID: 6473801
Filing Date: 2002-10-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for arbitrating bandwidth in a network of nodes when data transmission exceeds the communications bandwidth of a network, said method performed for each transmitting node comprising:assessing the number of nodes arrayed in the network, downstream of the current node, that are transmitting data into a data stream by; initializing the idle gap count of a tail node to one; transmitting the idle gap count to the next node upstream of a head node; responsive to a node receiving a new idle gap count from a node downstream: storing the idle gap count transmitted by a node downstream; incrementing the count by one if the receiving node is presently transmitting; and passing the value to a next node upstream; responsive to a previously non-transmitting node transmitting data: retrieving the idle gap count of the node; incrementing the idle gap count by one; passing the incremented idle gap count to the next node upstream; responsive to the completion of the data transmission by a previously transmitting node, passing the idle gap count of said node to the next node upstream; inserting a data packet into said data stream; and transmitting a set of idle bytes equal to the length of the inserted data packet multiplied by the number of downstream nodes currently transmitting data.