Patent ID: 10924591

Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for low-latency link compression schemes. Under the schemes, selected packets or messages are dynamically selected for compression in view of current transmit queue levels. The latency incurred during compression and decompression is not added to the data-path, but sits on the side of the transmit queue. The system monitors the queue depth and, accordingly, initiates compression jobs based on the depth. Different compression levels may be dynamically selected and used based on queue depth. Under various schemes, either packets or messages are enqueued in the transmit queue or pointers to such packets and messages are enqueued. Additionally, packets/message may be compressed prior to being enqueued, or after being enqueued, wherein an original uncompressed packet is replaced with a compressed packet. Compressed and uncompressed packets may be stored in queues or buffers and transmitted using a different numbers of transmit cycles based on their compression ratios. The schemes may be implemented to improve the effective bandwidth of various types of links, including serial links, bus-type links, and socket-to-socket links in multi-socket systems.