Patent ID: 7395330

Claim:
A method for communication between subscriber stations via a packet switching network, said process comprising: evaluating deterministic behavior of the packet switching network, the behavior being defined as deterministic if any packet sent on the network from a source subscriber station reaches a destination subscriber station within a duration that is limited in time, said evaluating comprising: determining a latency value, the latency value being a residence time in an output buffer of a switch, determining a max latency value, the max latency value being a maximum residence time in an output buffer of a switch, determining a BAG i value, the BAG i value being a minimum time between two consecutive frames belonging to a virtual link i, before they are transmitted, determining a (Jitter In) i value, wherein the (Jitter in) i is jitter associated with a virtual link i that represents a time interval between a theoretical instant at which a frame is transmitted, and its effective transmission that may be before or after the theoretical instant, determining a (max frame duration) i value, the (max frame duration) i value being a duration of a longest frame on the virtual link i, and determining for each output port from each switch on the network if the following relation is satisfied: ∑ i = number ⁢ ⁢ of ⁢ ⁢ virtual ⁢ ⁢ links passing ⁢ ⁢ through ⁢ ⁢ the ⁢ ⁢ buffer ⁢ [ 1 + int ( ( Jitter ⁢ ⁢ In ) i ⁢ i + max ⁢ ⁢ Latenc ⁢ y BAG i ) ] * (max frame duration) i ≤ latency, wherein, if the relation is not satisfied, a user is notified that said packet switching network is not deterministic.