Scalable Link-Level Flow-Control For A Switching Device
a switching device and flow control technology, applied in data switching networks, frequency-division multiplexes, instruments, etc., can solve the problems of high bandwidth consumption, inefficient use of bandwidth, and high cost of switch design, and achieve scalable to larger fabric sizes, enhanced performance, and reduced chip size
Inactive Publication Date: 2007-12-27
GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC
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Benefits of technology
The solution enables scalable and efficient packet switching by reducing chip size, improving switch utilization, and supporting forward progress of packets, making it suitable for larger fabric sizes and multistage fabrics.
Problems solved by technology
A large amount of the expenses invested in switch design goes into link technology, i.e. links, cables, and connectors.
Therefore bandwidth is expensive, but however the bandwidth is not used efficiently at present.
For N≧16 this presents tough hardware design challenges.
For ever larger switches it is nearly an impossible task.
Therefore the FIFO concept for storage and serialization is not a scalable solution.
Further problems arise from the limited bandwidth of the in-band flow-control channel.
An out-of-band flow-control is prohibitively expensive for terabit and betabit solutions.
Flow-control bandwidth becomes a real bottleneck if one scales existing switches to ever larger sizes realized as single or multistage fabrics.
Furthermore, for scalable multistage fabrics, there are severe restrictions that enforce a number of flow-control events per packet-cycle in the channel.
Method used
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[0028] In the following the embodiments of the invention are addressed. The number of modules and units is chosen for sake of example only and can be varied without leaving the scope of the invention. For sake of clarity in FIGS. 1 and 2 for a number of identical units arranged in parallel only some of these units are depicted.
[0029] Before embodiments of the present invention are described, a schematic illustration of a switch arrangement of the state of the art is addressed. FIG. 1 shows a switching device 1 that is connected via connecting means 4, 5, 6, 7 and switching device outputs 8, 9 to a communication unit 70, 72, hereafter referred to as adapter unit 70, 72. Each adapter unit 70, 72 comprises virtual output queues (VOQN), as indicated in the boxes labeled with 70, 72. The switching device 1 has a memory that here comprises memory units 10, also labeled with M. The memory is assumed as a shared memory with the defined memory units 10. These memory units 10 are arranged wi...
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The present invention discloses a scalable flow-control mechanism. In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a switching device for transporting packets of data, the packets being received at the switching device based on flow-control information, the device comprising a memory for storing the packets, a credit counter coupled to the memory for counting a credit number of packets departing from the memory, and a scheduler unit coupled to the credit counter for deriving the flow-control information in response to the credit number. Moreover, a switching apparatus and a method for generating flow-control information is disclosed.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a switching device for transporting packets of data, particularly for IP (Internet Protocol), ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), parallel interconnects, and SAN (System and Storage Area Network), e.g. IBA (Infiniband Architecture). More particularly the invention relates to a switching device that receives packets based on flow-control information. Further, the invention relates to a method for generating the flow-control information. The invention is also related to a switching apparatus comprising one or more switching devices and a communication device. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The unbroken popularity of the World Wide Web and its annual increase in size requires increasingly larger switching fabrics. To meet today's switching requirement of 1 Tb / s throughput and above, switches are growing not only in terms of port speed, but also in number of ports. With 5 Gb / s links, port sizes of 64, and today's link and fabrica...
Claims
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IPC IPC(8): H04L12/56
CPCH04L47/10H04L47/30H04L49/3045H04L49/103H04L47/39
Inventor GUSAT, MITCHGRAMSAMER, FERDINANDVERHAPPEN, MARKENGBERSEN, ANTONIUSLUIJTEN, RONALD P.ABEL, FRANCOIS G.MINKENBERG, CYRIELDUATO, JOSE
Owner GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC