Abstract: According to various embodiments, high priority traffic is obtained from one of a plurality of virtual channels servicing high priority traffic. High priority traffic is placed in a high priority queue. Low priority traffic is obtained from one of a plurality of virtual channels. A weighting value associated with an element in the active queue is determined. The element corresponds to a virtual channel associated with the low priority traffic. The low priority traffic is placed either in a low priority traffic active queue or a low priority traffic pending queue based on the weighting value.

Abstract: A port adapter for connecting zero or more network interfaces to a host system having a SPI-4 bus is disclosed. The port adapter comprises zero or more network interfaces; a SPI-4 bus coupled to a host system to provide a communication channel between the host and the network interfaces; a control bus coupled to the host system for controlling and monitoring the port adapter; and interface logic that interfaces the SPI-4 bus and the control bus to the network interfaces. Methods are provided for selecting and using one of a small plurality of different packet formats for various networking technologies, so that the port adapter can hide details of the technology that it handles from the host system, and for operating the host system's SPI-4 bus at one of several speeds based on bandwidth requirements of the port adapter.

Abstract: A port adapter for connecting zero or more network interfaces to a host system having a SPI-4 bus is disclosed. The port adapter comprises zero or more network interfaces; a SPI-4 bus coupled to a host system to provide a communication channel between the host and the network interfaces; a control bus coupled to the host system for controlling and monitoring the port adapter; and interface logic that interfaces the SPI-4 bus and the control bus to the network interfaces. Methods are provided for selecting and using one of a small plurality of different packet formats for various networking technologies, so that the port adapter can hide details of the technology that it handles from the host system, and for operating the host system's SPI-4 bus at one of several speeds based on bandwidth requirements of the port adapter.

Abstract: Presently disclosed is an apparatus and method for returning control of bandwidth allocation and packet scheduling to the routing engine in a network communications device containing an ATM interface. Virtual circuit (VC) flow control is augmented by the addition of a second flow control feedback signal from each virtual path (VP). VP flow control is used to suspend scheduling of all VCs on a given VP when traffic has accumulated on enough VCs to keep the VP busy. A new packet segmenter is employed to segment traffic while preserving the first in, first out (FIFO) order in which packet traffic was received. Embodiments of the invention may be implemented using a two-level (per-VC and per-VP) scheduling hierarchy or may use as many levels of flow control feedback-derived scheduling as may be necessitated by multilevel scheduling hierarchies.

Abstract: A port adapter for connecting zero or more network interfaces to a host system having a SPI-4 bus is disclosed. The port adapter comprises zero or more network interfaces; a SPI-4 bus coupled to a host system to provide a communication channel between the host and the network interfaces; a control bus coupled to the host system for controlling and monitoring the port adapter; and interface logic that interfaces the SPI-4 bus and the control bus to the network interfaces. Methods are provided for selecting and using one of a small plurality of different packet formats for various networking technologies, so that the port adapter can hide details of the technology that it handles from the host system, and for operating the host system's SPI-4 bus at one of several speeds based on bandwidth requirements of the port adapter.