Patent ID: 7420983

Claim:
An apparatus for dynamically assigning a re-assembly queue to a connection in a communications system having a plurality of re-assembly queues and a plurality of connections, comprising: means for determining whether the connection is to have a re-assembly queue assigned dynamically thereto; means for assigning an available re-assembly queue to the connection, and wherein the means for assigning comprises means for determining a re-assembly queue with the Maximum amount of time duration and making that re assembly queue available responsive to there not being any available re-assembly queues, and wherein the means for assigning is further responsive to there being fewer available re-assembly queues than a predetermined lower limit, and the means for determining operates to determine a predetermined number of re-assembly queues having the maximum amount of time and making those reassembly queues available, and wherein the means for assigning is operable to select an available re-assembly queue from the plurality of re-assembly queues; means for counting a number of cells received from the connection and forwarded to the assigned re-assembly queue; means for timing a duration during which the assigned re-assembly queue is assigned to the connection; and means for making the assigned re-assembly queue available for another connection and for initiating transmission of a packet comprising the received cells in the reassembly queue responsive to either the number of received cells exceeding a predetermined cell count parameter, or the duration exceeding a predetermined time parameter.