| US 7,542,425 B2 | ||
| Traffic management using in-band flow control and multiple-rate traffic shaping | ||
| Kevin S. Grant, Piscataway, N.J. (US); Mark Benjamin Simkins, Macungie, Pa. (US); and David P. Sonnier, Austin, Tex. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Agere Systems Inc., Allentown, Pa. (US) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 20, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/689,090. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/472176, filed on May 21, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0005021 A1, Jan. 06, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04L 1/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 370—236 [370/410; 370/469] | 20 Claims |
| 1. A method for providing backpressure information from a physical layer device to a link layer device in a communication
system, the method comprising the steps of:
generating a flow control message in the physical layer device responsive to a detected condition relating to at least a given
one of a plurality of egress queues of the physical layer device; and
transmitting the flow control message from the physical layer device to the link layer device;
wherein the flow control message comprises backpressure information associated with the given queue of the physical layer
device and is transmitted from the physical layer device to the link layer device as an in-band message over an interface
between the physical layer device and the link layer device; and
wherein the link layer device is operative to alter a characteristic of a flow of data from the link layer device to the physical
layer device responsive to the backpressure information in the flow control message.
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