Abstract: A traffic manager to manage flows to a plurality of remote physical ports. The traffic manager employs two tiers of shaping and scheduling driven by performance characteristics of the remote physical ports. By modeling the remote physical ports within the traffic manager, flows to the physical ports can be controlled to arrive at a rate the physical ports can handle. Any backup that would otherwise occur in the queue at the physical ports is instead queued in the traffic manager. In this manner, the intelligence of the traffic manager can be leveraged to provide improved quality of service with existing infrastructure.

Abstract: An arriving cell is admitted when a flow occupancy level is less than a flow minimum threshold. When the flow occupancy level is not less than the flow minimum threshold, a drop probability based on per-class thresholds is applied to determine if the arriving is to be rejected. When the arriving cell is not to be rejected after applying the drop probability based on the per-class thresholds, a drop probability based on per-flow thresholds is applied.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to establish independence between nodes in a distributed network during protection switching. A translation module that may include a cross connect table is introduced onto a backplane of a line card between a switch fabric and an egress time slot interchange (ETSI) module. Logical identifiers are assigned to the inputs of the ETSI module during system initialization. After initialization, the logical identifiers remain fixed. The translation module maps physical identifiers for incoming signals to the logical identifiers. If a line outage occurs, the translation module remaps the physical identifier for the protection line to the logical identifier corresponding to the failed line.

Abstract: A method is described that involves selecting a connection source and a connection destination from a graphical user interface that displays a topology of a network. Then, executing a routing algorithm to determine a path through the network. Then, provisioning the connection within the network that corresponds to the path.

Abstract: A network switch includes multiple interface cards and a backplane that interconnects the interface cards. The interface cards receive network traffic and perform time and line switching on the data. The network traffic can include a combination of time division multiplexed (TDM) data and network data (e.g., ATM cells, IP packets). In one embodiment, the channels that carry network traffic to the interface cards are pre-configured as either TDM channels or network channels. The channels are processed as appropriate for their respective types by the interface cards. Because both TDM and network traffic can be processed by a single interface card, the number of cards within the network switch can be reduced.

Abstract: A traffic manager to manage flows to a plurality of remote physical ports. The traffic manager employs two tiers of shaping and scheduling driven by performance characteristics of the remote physical ports. By modeling the remote physical ports within the traffic manager, flows to the physical ports can be controlled to arrive at a rate the physical ports can handle. Any backup that would otherwise occur in the queue at the physical ports is instead queued in the traffic manager. In this manner, the intelligence of the traffic manager can be leveraged to provide improved quality of service with existing infrastructure.

Abstract: A method that changes the selection of a 2:1 multiplexer that receives a first output signal from a first framer and a second output signal from a second framer. The first output signal is the same as the second output signal. An apparatus having a framer and a 2:1 multiplexer that receives an inbound signal from the framer. A first mutliplexer receives at least one signal from another framer and the 2:1 multiplexer has an input coupled to an output from the first multiplexer. A second multiplexer receives at least one signal from the other framer and the second multiplexer has an output coupled to an input of the framer for an outbound signal.

Abstract: A channel is described that has a backplane interface unit that selects a signal from a backplane. The backplane interface unit is coupled to a cross connect table that provides an indication where the signal may be found on the backplane. The indication is correlated to a logical label. The logical label is correlated to a frame location that the selected signal is transmitted within.

Abstract: A method for selecting packets comprises pipelining execution of packet selection processes so that execution of each of the packet selection processes occurs at different levels of a scheduling hierarchy. At least two different packets are selected at two different times in response to execution of the packet selection processes.

Abstract: The network switch described herein provides a cell/packet switching architecture that switches between line interface cards across a meshed backplane. In one embodiment, the switching can be accomplished at, or near, line speed in a protocol independent manner. The protocol independent switching provides support for various applications including Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching, Internet Protocol (IP) switching, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) switching, Ethernet switching and frame relay switching. The architecture allows the network switch to provision service on a per port basis. In one embodiment, the network switch provides a non-blocking topology with both input and output queuing and per flow queuing at both ingress and egress. Per flow flow-control can be provided between ingress and egress scheduling. Strict priority, round robin, weighted round robin and earliest deadline first scheduling can be provided.

Abstract: A line level selection unit is described that selects signals from a backplane. The line level selection unit has a clock that times egress time slots associated with an egress network line coupled to the egress channel. The egress channel has a primary protection group table that correlates the egress time slots to a protection group for each ingress signal used to fill the egress time slots. The protection group table has an output coupled to a channel select input of a first multiplexer. The first multiplexer has input values that reflect the status of each protection group for each ingress signal. The first multiplexer has an output coupled to a channel select input of a second multiplexer. The second multiplexer receives a plurality of inputs from a plurality of tables that indicate where an ingress signal may be found on the backplane.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transmitting a bit interleaved optical data stream on an optical network is disclosed. In one embodiment, the network includes multiple transmitters that are enabled to transmit an optical bit during established time slots that correspond to each transmitter. This allows those transmitters to create a bit interleaved optical data stream.

Abstract: A first process thread is executed by a RISC processor using data in a first register set. While executing the first process thread, a second register set is loaded with data associated with a second process thread. The second register set has a similar number of registers as the first register set. After the execution of the first process thread is completed, the second process thread is executed using the data in the second register set.

Abstract: An apparatus is described having a plurality of grant generation units. The plurality of grant generation units are arranged according to a round robin grant eligibility hierarchy, such that, one grant generation unit exists for each of a plurality of request agents. A grant generation unit is chosen to provide an output specifying which request agent, from the plurality of request agents is to receive a grant. The chosen grant generation unit is chosen because its corresponding request agent is the next request agent in the round robin grant eligibility hierarchy to be recognized as being eligible for a grant.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transferring information in a communications system is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises creating a frame of information on a first line card and sending the frame over a backplane to a second line card using a serial link interconnect. The frame comprises first, second and third portions. The first portion includes information to process the second and third portions. The second portion has packet and time-division multiplexed (TDM) data in multiple channels. Each of the channels is allocable to packet data or TDM data. The third portion includes data placed into the frame to accommodate for differences in timing references between the line cards.

Abstract: An electronic system is described having electronic components and an air flow channel that directs cooled air across the electronic components and directs warmed air into a heat exchanger. The electronic components and air flow channel are within a thermal insulating barrier. The heat exchanger converts the warmed air into the cooled air. The heat exchanger has an interface that couples to a ground loop that accepts warmed fluid from the heat exchanger and provides cooled fluid to the heat exchanger when the ground loop is at least partially located within the earth.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising a first plate having a plurality of v-shaped grooves to hold a set of optical fibers and a second plate having a v-shaped groove to hold a secondary optical fiber is disclosed. In one embodiment, the second plate being movable relative to the first plate, so that the secondary optical fiber can be selectively coupled to one of the optical fibers of the first set of optical fibers.

Abstract: A network box is described. In one embodiment, the network box comprises multiple card slots. Each of the slots has multiple ports. The network box also includes a full mesh interconnect backplane coupling each of the cards slots to each other using point-to-point serial links. The network box includes at least one card inserted into one of the slots. This card has a controller to maintain information specifying a mapping of connections between each of the ports on each of the card slots in order to configure connections between the card ports of the plurality of card slots.

Abstract: Flows are grouped according to a first flow rate and a second flow rate. Each flow comprises of a plurality of packets. The flows in the first flow rate are sorted according to an arrival time of a first packet in each flow. These flows are placed in a first FIFO (first-in-first-out) queue with a flow having an earliest first packet arrival time located at a head of the first FIFO queue. The flows in the second flow rate are sorted according to an arrival time of a first packet in each flow. These flows are placed in a second FIFO queue with a flow having an earliest first packet arrival time located at a head of the second FIFO queue. A comparison is performed to select a packet from between the first packet of the flow at the head of the first FIFO queue with the first packet of the flow at the head of the second FIFO queue.

Abstract: An ingress is coupled with the switch fabric to send flows of data across the switch fabric. Each of the flows of data is associated with a flow identification information and a priority level. An egress is coupled with the switch fabric to receive the flows of data from the ingress. The egress is configured to send one or more flow control messages to the ingress to control a pace that the ingress sends the flows of data to the egress. Each of the flow control messages includes one or more of a flow identification information, an egress space availability information and a new priority level for a flow.