Claims
- 1. A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
generating in a chip a flow Enqueue.request message having an identification field for carrying indicia to identify a message type, a correlation field carrying a correlator to associate one message with another; a frame control block address (FCBA) field to carry a value to be used to reference a packet, a flow queue ID (identification) field to carry a queue number that indicates which flow queue the packet should be placed in, and a discard action field to carry discard information; inserting appropriate data in selected fields; and transmitting the message with the appropriate data.
- 2. The method of claim 1 further including the acts of receiving in said chip a FlowEnqueue.response message having at least a message ID, a correlator and one of a plurality of codes indicating packet discard action.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the discard information includes a 2-bit code with 00 indicating placing a packet in a designated queue regardless of the status of bytes count in the queue, 10 indicating packet to be placed in discard queue if status of bytes count in designated queue exceeds byte count threshold, 01 indicating packet shall be placed in discard flow queue if status of requested flow queue's byte count threshold is not exceeded and 11 indicating packet is to be placed in discard flow queue.
- 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the plurality of codes includes 00 indicating packet placed in requested flow queue, 01 indicating packet placed in discard flow queue even though byte count in requested flow queue was not exceeded, 10 indicating packet placed in discard flow queue because byte count in requested queue was exceeded and 11 indicating packet placed in discard queue because requested queue has been disabled.
- 5. A device for transporting information comprising:
a message handler unit including a generator that generates a FlowEnqueue.request message having an identification field for carrying indicia to identify a message type, a correlation field carrying a correlator to associate one message with another; a frame control block address (FCBA) to carry a value to be used to reference a packet, a flow queue ID (FQID) to carry a queue number that indicates which flow queue the packet should be placed in, and a discard action field to carry discard information.
- 6. The device of claim 5 further including an analyser, in said message handler unit, that receives a FlowEnqueue.response message and parses said FlowEnqueue.response message to determine action taken relative to previously transmitted message.
- 7. A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
generating, with a transmit controller, a PortStatus.request message having at least a message ID field to carry information identifying the message and port status field to carry information indicating current fill levels of transmit queues; loading said PortStatus.request message with appropriate data; and transmitting said loaded PortStatus.request message.
- 8. The method of claim 7 further including the acts of:
receiving a PortEnqueue.request message having at least a frame control block address value referencing a packet and port queue ID value specifying a port queue in which the packet is to be placed.
- 9. The method of claim 8 further including the acts of parsing the PortEnqueue.request message and moving the packet from an address specified in said Port Enqueue to the specified port queue.
- 10. A device for transporting information including:
a transmit controller that generates a PortStatus.request request message having a message type ID field to carry information identifying the message; and a port status field to carry information indicating current filing levels of transmit queues.
- 11. A method to communicate comprising the acts of:
generating a FlowEnqueue.response message having a message ID field to carry information identifying the message; a correlator field to carry a correlator and discard acknowledge field to carry a code indicating action taken relative to a packet; loading said FlowEnqueue.response message with appropriate data; and transmitting the loaded FlowEnqueue.response message.
- 12. The method of claim 11 further including the acts of:
receiving a FlowEnqueue.request message; and processing packets in said FlowEnqueue.request message in accordance with instructions in said FlowEnqueue.request message
- 13. A device for transporting information comprising:
a flow enqueue controller that generates a FlowEnqueue.response message having a message ID field to carry information identifying the message; a correlator field to carry a correlator and discard acknowledge field to carry a code indicating action taken relative to a packet.
- 14. The device of claim 13 further including said flow enqueue controller receiving FlowEnqueue.request message having an identification field for carrying indicia to identify a message type, a correlation field carrying a correlator to associate one message with another; a frame control block address (FCBA) to carry a value to be used to reference a packet, a flow queue ID (identification) to carry a queue number that indicates which flow queue the packet should be placed in, and a discard action field to carry discard information.
- 15. A method to communicate including the acts of:
generating a PortEnqueue.request message having at least message ID field to carry information to identify the message, a frame control block address field to carry information referencing a packet and a port queue ID value specifying in which port queue the packet should be placed; loading the PortEnqueue.request message with appropriate data; and transmitting the loaded PortEnqueue.request message.
- 16. The method of claim 15 further including the acts of:
receiving a PortStatus.request message having at least message identification, and information indicating fill levels of transmit queues; and parsing the PortStatus.request message and not sending packets to transmit queues whose fill level exceeds a predetermined threshold.
- 17. A device for transporting information comprising:
generator for generating a PortEnqueue.request message having at least message ID field to carry information to identify the message, a frame control block address field to carry information referencing a packet and a port queue ID value specifying in which port queue the packet should be placed.
- 18. A Network Processor including:
a receiver controller; a data store memory controller operatively coupled to the receive controller; a chip-to-chip interface controller; a dispatcher operatively coupled to the data store memory controller; a plurality of receive queues coupling the receive controller and the dispatcher; a completion unit operatively coupled to the chip-to-chip controller; EPC coupling the completion unit and the dispatcher; a data store access controller coupling the EPC to the data memory controller; a plurality of transmit queues operatively coupled to the chip-to-chip interface controller; and a transmit controller operatively coupled to the transmit queues, data store memory controller and chip-to-chip interface.
- 19. The Network Processor of claim 18 further including data store memory operatively coupled to the data store memory controller.
- 20. The Network Processor of claim 19 further including a scheduler operatively coupled to the chip-to-chip interface controller.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims priority of the Provisional Application serial No. 60/277,507, filed Mar. 21, 2001.
[0002] The present invention relates to the following Patent Applications:
[0003] patent application Ser. No. ______ (RAL920000127US1) which is co-assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated herein by reference;
[0004] patent application Ser. No. 10/016,800 (RAL920000126US1) which is co-assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated herein by reference;
[0005] patent application Ser. No. 09/384,747 which is co-assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60277507 |
Mar 2001 |
US |