Hub Apparatus

Abstract

A hub apparatus is disclosed that includes plural input ports; a policer unit that monitors the input bandwidth of the input ports and controls acquisition and discarding of input packet data input via the input ports, the policer unit including plural policers assigned to the input ports that have input token buckets for accumulating input tokens; a packet multiplexer that multiplexes the input packet data acquired by the policer unit; a shaper that transmits the multiplexed packet data at equal intervals according to an output bandwidth, the shaper including an output token bucket that accumulates output tokens up to a predetermined amount; and a surplus token recycling unit that recycles surplus tokens exceeding the predetermined amount that are generated at the output token bucket of the shaper by distributing the surplus tokens to the input token buckets of the policers of the policer unit.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a hub apparatus according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the increase/decrease of policer tokens and the acquisition of input packet data according to the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a hub apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a principle of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the increase/decrease of policer tokens and the acquisition of input packet data according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating distribution of surplus tokens to policers within a policer unit;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating distribution of policer tokens to different classes within a policer; and

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a data format of input packet data using the VLAN.

Claims

1. A hub apparatus comprising: a plurality of input ports;a policer unit that monitors an input bandwidth of the input ports and controls acquisition and discarding of input packet data input via the input ports, the policer unit including a plurality of policers assigned to the input ports which policers include input token buckets for accumulating input tokens;a packet multiplexer that multiplexes the input packet data acquired by the policer unit;a shaper that transmits the multiplexed packet data at equal intervals according to an output bandwidth, the shaper including an output token bucket that accumulates output tokens up to a predetermined amount; anda surplus token recycling unit that recycles surplus tokens exceeding the predetermined amount that are generated at the output token bucket of the shaper by distributing the surplus tokens to the input token buckets of the policers of the policer unit.

2. The hub apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the surplus token recycling unit includes a surplus token gathering unit that gathers the surplus tokens exceeding the predetermined amount generated at the output token bucket of the shaper; anda token distributing unit that distributes the surplus tokens to the input token buckets of the policers assigned to the input ports according to a ratio of bandwidths assigned to the input ports.

3. The hub apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein at least one policer of the policers assigned to the input ports includes a classifier that classifies the input packet data into at least one of a plurality of different classes; anda plurality of class token buckets that accumulate corresponding class tokens of class tokens assigned to the different classes; whereinthe surplus tokens distributed to said at least one policer by the token distributing unit are further distributed to the class token buckets according to a predetermined class distribution ratio.

4. The hub apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the input packet data has a tag including a user priority value; andthe classifier classifies the input packet data according to the user priority value included in the input data packet.