US 7,489,710 B2
Stall need detection and associated stall mechanism for delay compensation in virtual concatenation applications
Sameer Gupta, Round Rock, Tex. (US); Michael Samuel Shaffer, Lynnfield, Mass. (US); and Himanshu Mahendra Thaker, Austin, Tex. (US)
Assigned to Agere Systems Inc., Allentown, Pa. (US)
Filed on Apr. 22, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/420,156.
Prior Publication US 2004/0213268 A1, Oct. 28, 2004
Int. Cl. H04J 3/06 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 370—516  [370/235; 370/507] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for use in implementing virtual concatenation operations in a data communication network, the apparatus comprising:
a network element comprising virtual concatenation circuitry;
the virtual concatenation circuitry being operative to provide differential delay compensation for one or more member streams of a virtual concatenation stream, the differential delay compensation introducing delay into at least one of the member streams to at least partially compensate for different delays experienced by respective ones of the member streams in traversing respective paths between a source node and a destination node of the network, wherein during at least a portion of the introduced delay for a given member stream data transmitted for that member stream is marked as invalid.