Patent ID: 7339901

Claim:
A process for controlling a switched full-duplex Ethernet type communication network including at least one source subscriber equipment and at least one destination subscriber equipment connected to each other through at least a physical link through at least one switch and through at least one virtual link which is a conceptual representation of a link from a source equipment to at least one destination equipment, the process comprising: in a transmission service, allowing an application to access virtual links in transmission, the transmission service configured to multiplex virtual links to a physical link through an Ethernet interface; for each virtual link, sending packets as a function of passband allocated to the respective virtual link, the passband of a virtual link being substantially equal to: (packet size)/(minimum inter-packet time), the sum of passbands of the virtual links in transmission being less than about 5 Mbits/s; checking time characteristics of the packets in a passband protection service in the switch, for each incoming virtual link; and destroying the packets if allowable characteristics are exceeded, to prevent a failure in a transmitter or a virtual link from compromising traffic in other virtual links leaving the switch.