Abstract: The present disclosure concerns systems for enriching liquids with one or more additives. More particularly, the disclosure concerns systems for in-line addition of various nutrients into drinking water, the system being configured to add an accurate amount of nutrient into the water as it flows in the supply line based on the actual volume of water flowing through the line.

Abstract: A memory architecture for storing information units, the memory architecture comprising a plurality of memory banks or a plurality of memory devices and a memory controller for initiating storage of an information unit and a number of replicas of the information unit in the memory banks or in the memory devices, the memory controller discriminating the replicas in dependence on a size of the information unit.

Abstract: There are provided a system and method of assessing latency of forwarding data packets in virtual environment. The method comprises: generating packet signatures SGD and SGA respectively for departing and arriving data packets; maintaining a first data structure comprising records related to departing packets associated with a first virtual function (VF), each record informative of SGD and registered departure time TD of a given departing packet; responsive to registering arriving time TA of a given monitored arriving packet SGA associated with a second VF, searching the first data structure for a record matching a matching condition SGD=SGA; modifying the matching record to become informative of latency ?T=TA?TD and adding the modified record to a second data structure; and using data in the second data structure for assessing latency of forwarding packets from the ingress virtual port to the egress virtual port.

Abstract: There are provided a system and method of assessing latency of forwarding data packets in virtual environment. The method comprises: generating packet signatures SGD and SGA respectively for departing and arriving data packets; maintaining a first data structure comprising records related to departing packets associated with a first virtual function (VF), each record informative of SGD and registered departure time TD of a given departing packet; responsive to registering arriving time TA of a given monitored arriving packet SGA associated with a second VF, searching the first data structure for a record matching a matching condition SGD=SGA; modifying the matching record to become informative of latency ?T=TA?TD and adding the modified record to a second data structure; and using data in the second data structure for assessing latency of forwarding packets from the ingress virtual port to the egress virtual port.

Abstract: An embodiment delay timer for timing a plurality of delays includes a delay clock comprising a number of clock memories, wherein the number of clock memories corresponds to a number of digit positions of a delay clock value, and a delay memory configured to store the plurality of delays. The delay timer further includes a delay logic unit configured to add a new delay by storing it in the delay memory and to time the new delay by coupling it to that clock memory which corresponds to the most significant digit position of the delay value of the new delay that is not zero, by subsequently coupling the new delay to that clock memory which corresponds to the next less significant digit position of the delay value according to the delay value of the new delay and by generating a delay signal when the new delay expires.

Abstract: A memory architecture for storing information units, the memory architecture comprising a plurality of memory banks or a plurality of memory devices and a memory controller for initiating storage of an information unit and a number of replicas of the information unit in the memory banks or in the memory devices, the memory controller discriminating the replicas in dependence on a size of the information unit.

Abstract: An embodiment delay timer for timing a plurality of delays includes a delay clock comprising a number of clock memories, wherein the number of clock memories corresponds to a number of digit positions of a delay clock value, and a delay memory configured to store the plurality of delays. The delay timer further includes a delay logic unit configured to add a new delay by storing it in the delay memory and to time the new delay by coupling it to that clock memory which corresponds to the most significant digit position of the delay value of the new delay that is not zero, by subsequently coupling the new delay to that clock memory which corresponds to the next less significant digit position of the delay value according to the delay value of the new delay and by generating a delay signal when the new delay expires.

Abstract: A network element and a method for propagating data packet from an input port of a network element to an output port of the network element, the network element comprising a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports interconnected by an optical switch, the method including the steps of: receiving the data packet at an input port; processing the data packet to determine a destination output port out of the output ports of the network element; partitioning the data packet to a plurality of fixed sized cells; for each fixed sized cell of the data packet: optically transmitting in parallel optical signals to an optical switch, the optical signals being representative of all the bits of a fixed sized cell, switching the optical signals across the optical switch in view of the destination output port, during a single switching cycle, and converting the optical signals to electrical signals being representative of the fixed size cells; accumulating electrical signals being representative of fixed size

Abstract: The invention provides a network element that simplifies the forwarding decision and the maintenance of optical paths by locally maintaining and selecting local paths across each network element. According to another aspect of the invention, the forwarding decision relating to data packets destined to output ports of egress elements of the network external routers by allocating a predefined wavelength for each output port such that the selection of a local path that leads to such an output port is performed by a wavelength conversion.

Abstract: The invention provides a network element and method for preventing a disorder of a sequence of data packets traversing a network. Each network element balances the traffic load among local paths across the network element by applying a distribution function such as a hashing function. Data packets that belong to the same class of flows are sent to the same local path across the network element.

Abstract: Network element and a method for propagating a data packet across a network. The network configured to accommodate a plurality of optical paths. At least one optical path includes a packet switched path and at least one optical path includes a circuit switched path. An optical path can include both a circuit switched path and an packet switched path. The distribution of data packet among the optical paths is based upon at least one of the following parameters: (i) the data packet flow; (ii) the ingress network element that received the data packet; (iii) the destination of the data packet; (iv) at least one predefined criterion. Usually, the selection of a selected optical path is preceded by a step of monitoring the propagation of data packets flows across the optical paths and determining whether the data packet flow fulfilled a predefined criterion. The selection is based upon the determination.

Abstract: A method for forwarding variable length packets across a multiport switch, the method comprising the steps of: (i) checking, at each time slot, forwarding requests to forward variable length packets from source ports of the multiport switch to destination ports of the multiport switch, wherein ignoring forwarding requests from source ports that were previously scheduled to forward at least a portion of a variable length packet during a next time slot and ignoring forwarding requests from destination ports that are scheduled to receive at least a portion of a variable length packet during the next time slot; (ii) selecting selected forwarding requests out of the forwarding requests; and (iii) configuring the multiport switch for allowing to service the selected forwarding requests during the next time slot.