Abstract: Traffic congestion control is provided for a network node multiport switch capable of switching data packets of different priorities from input lines, via receive adapters, to output lines via transmit adapters. A spacing function is performed to limit the rate of data transfers through the switch in the absence of high priority data at the input lines and in the absence of a backpressure signal indicating the switch is congested at its output. If high priority data is detected or a backpressure signal has been generated, the data transfer rate is increased to deal with possible congestion.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus implementing a shaping function in a fixed length cell switching network node adapter supporting output lines in a telecommunication network. The adapter includes a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) table where each entry is a pointer to a first cell of a queue of cells stored in the adapter for a given traffic. When a new traffic is established, the TDM table is updated. A placement device performs the pre-computation of the best placement of the entries reserved for one traffic in the TDM table. The placement device minimizes the Cell Delay Variation as computed by a Generic Cell Rate Algorithm (GCRA--ITU standard organization) policer. The Cell Delay Variation (CDV) is defined as the deviation of the placement of the cells from their ideal position in an output stream, the ideal placement being when the cells are spaced with an interval corresponding to the period of traffic negotiated at traffic establishment time.