US 7,457,245 B2
Directional and priority based flow control mechanism between nodes
Gary McAlpine, Banks, Oreg. (US); Tanmay Gupta, Hillsboro, Oreg. (US); and Manoj K. Wadekar, San Jose, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. (US)
Filed on Sep. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/957,895.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/607892, filed on Sep. 07, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2006/0053117 A1, Mar. 09, 2006
Int. Cl. H04J 1/16 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 370—230  [370/235; 370/252; 370/412] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. In a node, a method for controlling transmission of a frame, comprising:
queuing into one of a plurality of transmit queues a frame to be transmitted from the node over a communication medium to another node, the transmit queue distinguished from the other transmit queues on the basis of where the other node will forward the frame, once received, and a priority associated with the frame;
receiving a communication indicating whether the other node is experiencing traffic congestion to where the other node forwards frames and indicating a priority of frames for which the node is to control transmission to the other node in the event of traffic congestion;
determining eligibility for arbitrating the transmission of the frame from the transmit queue responsive to the communication, including calculating a period of time for delaying eligibility for arbitrating the transmission of the frame;
regulating the transmission of the frame eligible for arbitration, including determining that:
the received communication indicates that where the other node will forward the frame from the transmit queue, once received, is experiencing traffic congestion, and
the priority of the frame is at or less than the priority of frames for which the node is to control transmission to the other node as indicated in the received communication; and
delaying eligibility for arbitrating the transmission of the frame from the transmit queue, wherein calculating the period of time for delaying eligibility for arbitrating the transmission of the frame is based on a size of a frame most recently transmitted from the transmit queue and a current rate factor.