Abstract: A process of increasing the cellular production of biologically active compounds is provided. The process is particularly useful for increasing antibiotic production by bacterial cells. The process includes the step of inhibiting the activity of methylmalonyl-CoA mutase.

Abstract: In a method for cell level scheduling for handling multicast traffic in routing devices, such as cross-bar switches having, a plurality of ingress line interface cards (LICs), a plurality of egress LICs, a cross-bar and a controller, multicast and unicast data traffic passes from the ingress LICs via the cross-bar to the egress LICs. A given multicast data packet is sent from a given ingress LIC to a predetermined set of egress LICs known as the fanout of the given packet. Each ingress LIC has an associated rate of send opportunities. The method allows multicast send opportunities to be spread as evenly as possible over cell periods, by invoking a conventional unicast scheduling scheme when one or more multicast send opportunities are present. The schedule is filled out with the fanouts of multicast packets in accordance with the send priority associated with the respective ingress LICs upon which each of the respective multicast packets is queued.

Abstract: A pump (100) includes a pump housing (200) having a fluid inlet (114) and a fluid outlet (116). An impeller (252) is disposed within the pump housing (200) and is rotatable about an axis (156) to move fluid from the inlet (114) to the outlet (116). A flexible drive spring (270) connects the impeller to a rotating drive mechanism (312). The spring (270) transmits torque to the impeller (252) from the drive mechanism (312) and preloads the impeller against a surface (232) of the pump housing (200).

Abstract: The invention relates to a switching device (300) having a plurality of line interface cards (LICs) (310), a plurality of egress LICs (320), a cross-bar (330) and a management card (340). The switching device (300) routes fixed sized cells of data across the cross-bar (330). The cells comprise fragments of variable length data packets. Each ingress LIC (312, 314, 316) is associated with a respective schedule or timetable (362, 364, 366) governing the transmission of cells by the ingress LIC. Similarly, each egress LIC (322, 324, 326) is also associated with a respective schedule or timetable (382, 384, 386) governing the reception of cells by said egress LIC. The schedules are in the form of a table whose entries are the identities of transmission queues corresponding to a respective egress LIC identification number (for ingress LICs) and ingress LICs from which to receive (egress LICs). Each ingress and egress LIC maintains a pointer into its associated schedule.

Abstract: Described herein is a method for reassembling variable length packets from fixed length cells. When a variable length packet, for example, an Internet Protocol (IP) packet, is transmitted between routers over a link which transmits data as fixed length cells, for example, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) link, the packet must be segmented into compatible fixed length cells. The receiving router must reassemble the original packet from the cells as they arrive. A packet buffer free pool (300) is provided which is maintained as a linked list, known as a ‘free list’, and which comprises a plurality of buffer elements (302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 340). When a first cell for a given packet arrives, a buffer element (302) is taken from the head of the free list and allocated to that packet.

Abstract: A method of deriving a metric for a link in a network, the network having a plurality of nodes (A-G) and links between nodes comprises for each link applying a weighting factor to the physical link length, the link occupancy and the number of transponders on a link and summing the weighted values of link length, link occupancy and number of transponders to derive a metric for that link. Further, a method of routing a path through a network comprises selecting a start point (A) and an end point (B) for the desired path; applying a metric attributed to each link which has been derived by a method in accordance with the above method; and connecting the path between the start point and end point through the links and nodes which give a lowest total metric of any such path.

Abstract: A method of deriving a route through a network comprises analysing constraints imposed by a stream of data to be routed through the network; calculating a best path through the network between a first node (A) and a second node (G); and setting up, between the first and second nodes, a bearer trail which satisfies the constraints. The method further comprises analysing the chosen route using a state machine to ensure compliance before defining the bearer trail.

Abstract: The invention relates to cell level scheduling for handling multicast traffic in routing devices, for example cross-bar switches. The routing device has a plurality of ingress line interface cards (LICs), a plurality of egress LICs, a cross-bar and a controller. Multicast and unicast data traffic passes from the ingress LICs via the cross-bar to the egress LICs. A given multicast data packet is sent from a given ingress LIC to a predetermined set of egress LICs known as the fanout of the given packet. Each ingress LIC has an associated rate of send opportunities. The inventive method allows multicast send opportunities to be spread as evenly as possible over cell periods. The method also invokes a conventional unicast scheduling scheme when no multicast send opportunity is scheduled and a multicast scheduling scheme when one or more multicast send opportunities are present.

Abstract: Described herein is a method of cell level scheduling for handling unicast traffic in routing devices, for example, crossbar switches. This is achieved by the provision of support for multimedia and real-time traffic in large bandwidth routing devices known as terabit routers. Each terabit router has a plurality of ingress line interface cards (210, 212, 214, 216), a plurality of egress line interface cards (220, 222, 224, 226) and a cell based cross-bar (202). Each ingress card has a plurality of queues, a different queue for each of the egress cards respectively. The cross-bar (202) is controlled by a cross-bar controller (204) in association with a bandwidth controller (206). In operation, a target rate matrix is maintained over a set period. At the beginning of each period, a matrix of numbers of cells queued to be transmitted is calculated in accordance with the target rate.

Abstract: Described herein is a method for reassembling variable length packets from fixed length cells. When a variable length packet, for example, an Internet Protocol (IP) packet, is transmitted between routers over a link which transmits data as fixed length cells, for example, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) link, the packet must be segmented into compatible fixed length cells. The receiving router must reassemble the original packet from the cells as they arrive. A packet buffer free pool (300) is provided which is maintained as a linked list, known as a ‘free list’, and which comprises a plurality of buffer elements (302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, 316, 318, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 340). When a first cell for a given packet arrives, a buffer element (302) is taken from the head of the free list and allocated to that packet.

Abstract: The invention relates to a router device (200) having a plurality of ingress line interface cards (LICs) (212, 214, 216, 218), a plurality of egress LICs (222, 224, 226, 228)), a backplane (230) and a controller (240). Transmission of signals from the ingress LICs (212, 214, 216, 218) to the controller (240) and likewise the transmission of signals from the controller (240) to each of the ingress LICs (212, 214, 216, 218) and each of the egress LICs (222, 224, 226, 228) takes place across the backplane (230). Each ingress LIC (212, 214, 216, 218) is provided with a dedicated timeslot in which it can send information to the controller (240) via connection (242). Information is sent in a slice within the dedicated timeslot and each egress LIC (222, 224, 226, 228) ignores data sent by a given ingress LIC within the timeslot assigned to said ingress LIC. A similar system is used for transmission of communications from the controller (240) to the LICs.

Abstract: The invention relates to a switching device (300) having a plurality of line interface cards (LICs) (310), a plurality of egress LICs (320), a cross-bar (330) and a management card (340). The switching device (300) routes fixed sized cells of data across the cross-bar (330). The cells comprise fragments of variable length data packets. Each ingress LIC (312, 314, 316) is associated with a respective schedule or timetable (362, 364, 366) governing the transmission of cells by the ingress LIC. Similarly, each egress LIC (322, 324, 326) is also associated with a respective schedule or timetable (382, 384, 386) governing the reception of cells by said egress LIC. The schedules are in the form of a table whose entries are the identities of transmission queues corresponding to a respective egress LIC identification number (for ingress LICs) and ingress LICs from which to receive (egress LICs). Each ingress and egress LIC maintains a pointer into its associated schedule.