Abstract: A scalable, high-speed router for routing packets of information through an interconnected network comprises an interface for receiving a packet containing header and data information; a device for extracting routing information from the header of an arrived packet and generating a corresponding header packet for the arrived packet; a memory device for storing the data information of the arrived packet at predetermined memory locations; a device for processing the corresponding header packet to determine a route for the arrived packet and assigning packet forwarding information to the header packet; and, a device for retrieving the data information from the predetermined memory locations and forwarding both the data and header packet containing the packet forwarding information to the interface for routing the packet to a further destination in accordance with the packet forwarding information.

Abstract: A method for determining the number of packets lost in a communications network. Marker packets are inserted before and after a predetermined number of packets in a data stream. The number of packets between the inserted marker packets are counted at two different points in the network. Each number of packets counted between the inserted marker packets at the two different points in the network are compared with one another to ascertain the number of packets lost between the two different points in the network.

Abstract: A packet switch interface, which may be an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) layer interface chip, may be connected to the inputs or the outputs of a packet switch. The interface chip modifies the virtual path identifier and the virtual channel identifier in packets directed to and from the switch. The interface chip also manipulates routing tags for the packets which are used for internal routing purposes in the switch. The interface chip includes a local interface through which packets may be extracted from or added to a packet stream flowing between a main input and a main output of the interface. The interface chip polices different communications channels handled in the interface chip by detecting whether traffic in those channels exceeds certain network usage parameters. The interface is also capable of gathering certain statistical information about the traffic in certain communications channels to allow evaluation of network performance.

Abstract: An apparatus and method is described for multicasting an inlet data cell, received as part of a multicast request, through a self-routing multistage routing network. Two algorithms are disclosed which use at most three passes to perform any arbitrary multicast. In the first pass, data is usually routed from the source to a set of consecutive outputs. These outputs are used as inputs in the second pass for routing to the destination cubes, and in some cases, a third pass can be used to route the remaining cubes. Since these cubes constitute a partition of the original multicast set, the multicast is completed when each of the cubes has been successfully routed. The routing algorithms guarantee that those cubes used in each pass through the network do not have internal blocking. The criterion to select a multicast routing algorithm for a particular application is to keep a appropriate balance between the control simplicity, the number of passes and the number of internal links used by the algorithm.

Abstract: The present invention is directed at both a method and an apparatus for executing a distributed algorithm or server in a Simple Network Management Protocol Version 1 (SNMPv1) based computer network. The invention involves configuring a peer arrangement of agent/manager nodes and encapsulating the algorithm or server into SNMPv1. In a peer configuration, each node acts as a manager node, the manager node sends a Get message to an agent node to read a certain location in an agent node's managed information base (MIB) and sends a Set message to an agent node to write to a certain location in an agent node's MIB. This peer configuration also provides that each node act as an agent node, the agent node sends a GetResponse message to a manager node in response to a Get message and sends a Trap message to a manager node in response to an event.

Abstract: A multi-stage, alternate routing switching network is enhanced with a switch architecture that is able to detect and mask all single faults. The switch employs a controller that develops dual rail control signals. In one embodiment, the controller is made up of two controllers that receive the same inputs but generate complementary outputs. The complementary outputs form the dual rail signals that control the multiplexers that are interposed between the inputs and the outputs of the switch. The dual rail control of the signal routing within the switch allow for effective detection of all signal faults in the signal routing means. Inclusion of totally self checking circuits at the switch outputs as well as inputs enables users to readily isolate a fault and identify its source.