Patent ID: 6081532
Filing Date: 2000-06-27
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
In a network system comprising:at least a first and a second Communication Networks (1, 3) having a plurality of attached stations (11, 12, 31, 32),a bridging apparatus (2) that receives and transmis broadcast and non-broadcast frames from said first network (1) to said second network (3);said bridging apparatus (2) including:storage (22, 23) including a first section in which broadcast frames received from the first network are being stored and a second section in which non-broadcast frames received from said first network are being stored;discard circuit for discarding said broadcast frames received from a station within a variable delay, said variable delay being defined with respect to a current time of the last broadcast frame received from said station: andfiltering arrangement for controlling and balancing transmission of said frames to said second network, said filtering arrangement reading from said first section and sending to the second network a first number of broadcast frames and from said second section a second number of non-broadcast frames wherein transmissions are being alternated between the first number of broadcast frames and the second number of non-broadcast frames.