Patent ID: 7813360

Claim:
A method for managing device access fairness in a frame-based switch including a plurality of ports, each port operable as a source port and as a destination port with respect to other ports, said method comprising: for each pair of source and destination ports among the ports of the frame-based switch, counting a number of active devices connected to a source port of the pair of source and destination ports during a sampling window, said counting step further comprising determining a type of each counted active device; determining a weighted number of slots for the pair of source and destination ports in accordance with the number and type of active devices connected to the source port of the pair of source and destination ports; generating slot allocations for the pair of source and destination ports among the ports within the frame-based switch in accordance with the weighted number of slots during a fairness window; and wherein the step of determining a weighted number of slots further comprises, for each pair of source and destination ports that is not a device/device pair: allocating A slots as an initial allocation, allocating B additional slots if the source port is an initiator, allocating C additional slots in accordance with the number of active devices connected to the source port, and allocating D additional slots in accordance with a tweak register.