Frame based quality of service

Details Frame based quality of service Frame based quality of service

1999-10-26

2001-01-02

Olms, Douglas W. (Department: 2732)

Multiplex communications

Communication techniques for information carried in plural...

Adaptive

C370S395430, C370S400000

Utility Patent

active

06169748

ABSTRACT:

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
N/A
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to a design for a communications switch, and more specifically to a system and method for using QoS groups to provide Quality of Service (QoS) levels for frames being transferred between two networks.
In contemporary communication systems, virtual connections are associated with Quality of Service (QoS) levels. The QoS level for a virtual connection specifies the acceptable delay and loss levels for data units carried over that connection. Accordingly, resources must be allocated to handle data units at network devices through which the virtual connection passes in a way that reflects the virtual connection's QoS.
In existing systems, when a virtual connection is established, in order to assure that the connection's QoS will not be compromised, complex and time consuming operations must be performed to assure that all necessary resources are allocated in each network device through which the virtual connection passes. When a system supports many virtual connections, the cost of establishing QoS related resources each time a virtual connection is formed may be unacceptably high. Moreover, any modification to the QoS level of one or more virtual connections would incur similar costs.
Additionally, during operation of existing systems, resources are allocated from shared resource pools to support traffic received over multiple different virtual connections. Accordingly, users are provided no mechanism for specifying that resources for one or more connections are to be isolated from resources available to other connections.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system which enables the QoS of a connection to be established and/or modified in a relatively inexpensive manner, and which permits a user to specify a level of resource isolation for one or more virtual connections. The system should be applicable to network devices such as a network switch, in order to provide end to end quality of service levels.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, a system and method are disclosed for providing QoS levels to received data units, such as ATM cells and/or Frame Relay Frames. In the disclosed system, a QoS level associated with a virtual connection is supported through allocation and management of resources used to process data units received over the connection. For example, resources such as receive buffers, receive queues, flow control credits and output link bandwidths are each managed in a way that reflects the QoS associated with each received data unit.
Resources used by the disclosed system to support QoS levels are assigned to groups of connections referred to as “QoS groups”. In this way, the resources used to support one group of connections are isolated from those resources supporting any other connections.
The disclosed system lowers the cost of establishing or modifying the QoS of a given connection in many cases. Specifically, when a connection is established, if a QoS group exists having the QoS level of the new connection, the connection may conveniently be added to that QoS group. Similarly, in the case where the QoS levels for multiple connections must be modified, if those connections are within a single QoS group, then modification of the QoS level for that group would advantageously result in modification of the QoS for each virtual connection within the QoS group.
In this way there is disclosed a system and method for consistently ensuring QoS levels with regard to received data units, and which also improves the process by which QoS levels for virtual connections are established or modified. The disclosed system further enables a user to specify what level of resource isolation is to be provided with respect to those resources providing the QoS level for that connection. Additionally, the disclosed system is specifically applicable to supporting end to end QoS levels.


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