Abstract: A signalling exchange method for guaranteeing Internet Protocol (IP) Quality of Service (QoS), including: after a Call Agent (CA) receives a request from a source User Agent (UA) for transferring a user service stream, sending a QoS resource request from the CA to the bearer control layer; allocating resources for the user service stream on the bearer control layer, and carrying out flow mapping for an Edge Router (ER) according to the resource allocation result; after receiving a flow mapping command, the ER allocating a bearer path for the user service stream based on the allocated resources, and transferring an execution result to the CA via the bearer control layer.

Abstract: In a third generation (UMTS) mobile radiotelephone system, data are transmitted between a base station and a mobile station in packet form via the air interface. A connection control protocol with the task of, inter alia, establishing whether and which of the data packets have been lost during the transmission, using control data, functions in both stations. These control data are added to each packet that is sent by the connection control protocol. Several packets can be transmitted within the transmission interval and the number of packets can vary from interval to interval. This allows different data transmission rates. The inventive method enables the number of packets that are sent via the air interface to be reduced, by transmitting larger, rather than more, packets within a predetermined interval, while not affecting the possibility of varying the data transmission rate.

Abstract: A method for sharing an aggregate bandwidth among a group of traffic classes may include allocating a portion of the aggregate bandwidth to one of the group of traffic classes having a first priority associated therewith, where the allocated portion is referred to as a first bandwidth. The method may include allocating an unused portion of the aggregate bandwidth to a second one of the group of traffic classes having a second priority associated therewith in conjunction with a parameter associated with a downstream device.

Abstract: Path information is obtained in a VPLS-based network by generating special Layer 2 frames (referred to herein as “trace-request frames”), performing source MAC filtering to identify the trace-request frames, and generating a special frame (referred to herein as a “trace-reply frame”) when the source MAC filtering identifies a trace-request frame. Upon identifying a trace-request frame, path information is collected and embedded into the trace-reply frame. The trace-reply frame is then sent to the originating node where the path information is used to learn the path that the trace-request frame traversed. By sending multiple trace-request frames with different source MAC addresses, path information received from source MAC filtering at different nodes in the VPLS-based network can be collected and used to learn an entire path of interest.

Abstract: A method is provided for scheduling downlink and uplink data bursts in a frame for communication between a node station and a plurality of access terminals including half-duplex terminals, comprising the steps of allocating, in a current frame having a downlink and an uplink portion, a Tx burst in the uplink portion of the frame for each access terminal, the Tx burst of each access terminal starting at a time in the uplink portion which is greater than or equal to the start time in the downlink portion of corresponding Rx data incremented by the duration of said Rx data.

Abstract: In a packet switched network, network data can be recorded for measurement by transmitting a measurement packet across the network to store path records as it travels from an originating measurement device to a destination device. Some of the network devices located along the path traversed by the measurement packet are capable of recognizing that the measurement packet no longer has any further storage capacity for path records. The network device then copies or clones the measurement packet and erases the path record data from the original measurement packet. The original measurement packet then continues on its path to the destination address collecting further path records on the way, while the cloned packet is returned to the measurement host for processing of the path records when all cloned packets and the original measurement packet return to the measurement host.

Abstract: For switching or transmitting data packets, one can provide communication systems which consist of several modules —operating in parallel on segments of a packet —to increase speed and handling capacity. One module acts as master, others are slave modules controlled by control signals derived by the master module. It is important to correctly synchronize in each module the data segment and the respective control signal of each packet, because in large systems the data paths carrying packet segments and the control signal paths may have substantially different delays. The invention provides for measurement of the propagation delay differences and for introducing a controlled delay in each slave module, so that data segments and control signals can be correctly correlated by delaying either the one or the other. Synchronization packets are transmitted besides normal data packets, for obtaining time stamps which are used to determine the delay difference.

Abstract: A controller controls exchange of data between a plurality of storage units based on transfer rates of the storage units and a fixed rate. If at least one of the transfer rates of a transfer-source storage unit and a transfer-destination storage unit are different than the fixed rate, the controller accumulates a certain amount of data, and outputs accumulated data to the transfer-destination storage unit at the transfer rate of the transfer-destination storage unit so that data is transferred from the transfer-source storage unit to the transfer-destination storage unit at apparently at the fixed rate.

Abstract: A method for group communication over a network of processors comprises determining an overlay spanning tree comprising an origin node and at least one receiving node, and controlling a source communication rate to be less than or equal to a bottleneck rate of the overlay spanning tree.

Abstract: A scheduler utilizes a data structure in the form of an augmented, pruned, radix tree to implement 2-key scheduling.

Abstract: A communication system includes communication devices; a switch device having coaxial terminal units to which the communication device are connected, a switch unit of entirely or individually connecting the coaxial terminal units, and a switch control unit of controlling the connection status of the switch unit; and a transmittal right control device. The transmittal right control device is connected to the terminal, and manages the connection status of the switch unit, receives from the communication devices requests for time for communication with other communication devices, determines assignment of time for communications between the communication devices, notifies the communication devices of the assignment, and instructs the switch control unit not to make signals interfere among the communication devices in different combinations for communications in the same time period.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for data handling in a distributed communication network includes one or more data-handling nodes (DHNs) each residing at one of one or more centrals that are each operable to receive a stream of first data units from a routing system. The stream of first data units includes both stored mission data (SMD) and telemetry data having originated at one or more remote units. Each DHN is operable, in near real time, to remove redundant instances of first data units from the stream of first data units, properly order first data units in the stream of first data units received at the central out of order, remove misconfigured first data units from the stream of first data units, extract the SMD from the stream of first data units, generate second data units from the extracted SMD, and communicate a stream of the second data units to one or more interface data processors (IDPs).

Abstract: Providing communications between operating system partitions and a computer network. In one aspect, an apparatus for distributing network communications among multiple operating system partitions includes a physical port allowing communications between the network and the computer system, and logical ports associated with the physical port, where each logical port is associated with one of the operating system partitions. Each of the logical ports enables communication between a physical port and the associated operating system partition and allows configurability of network resources of the system. Other aspects include a logical switch for logical and physical ports, and packet queues for each connection and for each logical port.

Abstract: A method for determining a cumulative network layer reachability cost of traversing one or more autonomous network routing systems comprises receiving first network route information from an originating customer edge router, wherein the first network route information identifies a route in a customer network; determining a transit cost from the provider edge router to an endpoint associated with the originating customer edge router based upon a metric value received in a cost community attribute; repeating the determining step for each of one or more autonomous systems that lie in a path from the originating customer edge router to a destination customer edge router, to result in determining an accumulated transit costs across one or more autonomous systems; and determining, based at least in part upon the accumulated transit cost, a best path from the provider edge router to the endpoint associated with the originating customer edge router.

Abstract: A method and system for determining the bit-rate between a wireless station and one or more access points that takes into account the usage (congestion) of the access points. Each wireless station includes software and/or hardware for estimating the bit-rate between the wireless station and any available access points and provides automatic load balancing for the wireless network. Dual estimator and backpressure algorithms are utilized to better estimate the achievable bit-rate available to a wireless station associated with an access point and to provide congestion sensitive access point selection. Bandwidth estimation is provided while taking into account congestion information for building up associations to access points while automatically achieving load balancing of the traffic among available access points.

Abstract: A method and network access point selection logic are described for a redundantly connected industrial LAN node including at least primary and backup network access points. Network connectivity is determined by a redundantly connected node by testing connectivity between the node's primary and backup physical network access points. Upon detecting a loss of connectivity between the redundant node's primary and backup network access points, the node executes access point selection logic, based upon tests of connectivity between the redundantly connected (primary and backup) network access points and a set of nodes on the LAN, to select a preferred/primary one of the redundant access points. Thereafter, the redundantly connected node binds its connections according to primary and backup designations for its redundant network access points.

Abstract: A data network may be operated between a routing gateway for a subscriber and a data service provider providing a data service. More particularly, the data network may receive from the data service provider an identification of the routing gateway, an identification of the data service provider, and data flow characteristics of the data service for a session of the routing gateway using the data service provided by the data service provider. Responsive to receiving the identification of the routing gateway, the identification of the data service provider, and the data flow characteristics for the data service, the data flow characteristics of the data service for the routing gateway may be saved at the data network and forwarded to the routing gateway. Related data networks, data service providers, routing gateways, and computer program products are also discussed.

Abstract: A router comprising: i) a switch fabric; and ii) N Layer 2 modules coupled by the switch fabric, each of the N Layer 2 modules capable of receiving data packets in Layer 2 frames and forwarding the received data packets using Layer 2 addresses associated with the Layer 2 frames, wherein a first one of the Layer 2 modules comprises a Layer 3 routing engine capable of forwarding a first received data packet through the switch fabric directly to a second one of the Layer 2 modules using a Layer 3 address associated with the first received data packet if the first Layer 2 module does not recognize a Layer 2 address associated with the first received data packet.

Abstract: A method of providing peak scheduling in a wireless network is provided. The method includes determining a priority for each of a plurality of users in the network based on a throughput window of a finite length and scheduling the users based on the priority.

Abstract: A method and system for computing the maximum amount of admissible ingress and egress traffic of each edge router of the MPLS core network is presented. As long as the ingress and egress traffic amounts are below the admissible amount limit, traffic routes through any link in the network will never exceeds the link capacity. A calculation scheme and a load-distribution scheme make an Internet MPLS backbone network non-blocking. The output of the route computation algorithm includes a set of paths for any source-destination pair and the load distribution ratios among the paths. The routing algorithm and the associated distribution scheme will determine how to balance the loads that meet the distribution requirements specified by the ratios computed from the route algorithm. This greatly simplifies call admission control and allows hard QoS to be supported in a large scale and cross domains in the Internet.