Patent ID: 6678277
Filing Date: 2004-01-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A back pressure system for a computer network, the system comprising:an interconnect; a plurality of Buffer Management (BM) modules, each of said BM modules communicating with each other through said interconnect, said each BM module including a plurality of egress queues and a plurality of ingress queues, each of said ingress queues in each said BM module corresponding to one of said egress queues in remaining said plurality of BM modules; an ingress array having a plurality of bits, each of said bits representing blocked and open states of one of said egress queues, each said BM module determining blocked and open states of respective said egress queues and setting corresponding said bits to indicate a determined said state; transmission means for transmitting said ingress array to each of said BM modules; an ingress arbiter associated with each of said BM modules, each said ingress arbiter selectively choosing one of said ingress queues for communicating through said interconnect, said each ingress arbiter reading said ingress array and only choosing ingress queues which are indicated as opened by said ingress array.