Patent ID: 7853738

Claim:
A method of buffer memory management in use of a computer communications network data transmission switch, the method comprising the steps of: a. monitoring data movement pattern(s) in a peripheral device attached to a switch; b. determining whether the peripheral device is used in at least one of a load intensive mode or in a store intensive mode or in neither mode over a defined time period; and c. adjusting the size of at least one switch memory buffer assigned to the peripheral device; wherein the assigned switch buffer memory is dynamically reallocated when the peripheral device is operating in load intensive mode or in store intensive mode; and wherein switch buffer memory is allocated by use of two counters assigned to each switch transmission port attached to the peripheral device such that: (i). both counters are reset when a peripheral device is connected to the switch at the port; (ii). a counter incrementally records the number of outbound or inbound data transactions occurring via the buffer memory assigned to the port until the count for either one of the transaction types reaches a peak value; and (iii). the buffer memory is (re)allocated and the counters are reset when one counter reaches the peak value; and wherein use of the attached peripheral device in a load intensive mode or in a store intensive mode or in neither mode is determined by the ratio of counter values at the time when one counter reaches the peak value.