Abstract: A method for regulating flow through a network node where forwarding of successive data packets from sources is dependent on receipt of acknowledgments from the destinations, the packets are buffered in a packet buffer as they arrive from their sources. Acknowledgments are withheld in an acknowledgment bucket, and are released such that successive data packets are buffered in the sources to avoid overflow of the packet buffer due to bandwidth limitations toward the destinations. The destination is typically in a bandwidth constrained network (BCN) while the source is in a local area network (LAN) using transmission control protocol (TCP). In a preferred embodiment the BCN operates in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and a transmission rate of the BCN is returned upon request. TCP source states are maintained by observing TCP traffic through the node. The behavior of TCP sources is predicted from traffic observations.

Abstract: In a cell switching network, a method of buffering cells in a switch assigns guaranteed buffer space per time interval T to individual virtual connections (VCs). In each of successive periods of time, the individual VCs are allocated available buffer space up to their guaranteed buffer space. After the VCs are served their guaranteed data rates, and within the remaining time of each period, excess buffer space is allocated to individual VCs. In a preferred embodiment, cells are stored in a shared first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer which serves plural VCs. A cell count is maintained for each VC, and is incremented for each corresponding incoming cell. Cell counts are decremented according to a round robin scheme, no lower than some negative limit, independent of the actual VC with which the outgoing cell is associated, allowing the VC to make up some bandwidth later for an earlier period of non-use.

Abstract: A method of communicating multiple signals over a common communications link by modulating first input signals with respective first codes of low cross-correlation to obtain a first set of modulated signals at a first chip rate. The input signals can be, for example, digitized audio or video signals, or data signals. The second input signals are of a data rate higher than the first input signals, and the second codes are of a dimension greater than the first codes. The second input signal or signals are modulated with respective second codes of low cross correlation relative to each other and relative to the first codes, resulting in a second set of modulated signals at a second chip rate such that there is spectral overlap between the first and second sets of modulated signals. The first and second sets of modulated signals are preferably modulated with different noise signals to spread the spectrum of each. In a preferred embodiment, the first and second codes are Walsh codes of different dimensions.