Ingress-Port Queue Scheduling for Bounded Jitter Forwarding

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Solution Overview

Problem

In deterministic networks, the end-to-end jitter cannot be predicted due to conflicts between deterministic flows, making it difficult to meet the requirement of bounded jitter.

Innovation Solution

A method and apparatus for packet forwarding that caches packets received via the same incoming port to the same scheduling queue and packets received via different incoming ports to different scheduling queues, avoiding conflicts and unpredictable jitter by ensuring only one packet of a deterministic flow passes through the same incoming port at a time.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If packets from multiple incoming ports are cached to the same scheduling queue, then resource utilization is improved, but end-to-end jitter becomes unpredictable due to flow conflicts

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresource utilizationVSAvoidend-to-end jitter predictability
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the scheduling queue into multiple independent queues, each dedicated to packets from a specific incoming port. This segmentation eliminates conflicts between deterministic flows from different ports while maintaining high resource utilization through port-based queue assignment and scheduling.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Device complexity

If multiple deterministic flows share the same scheduling queue, then device complexity is reduced, but bounded jitter requirement cannot be met due to unpredictable queuing behavior

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvescheduling queue managementVSAvoidjitter bound guarantee
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by assigning different queuing characteristics to different incoming ports. Each port's packets receive dedicated queue treatment with guaranteed bandwidth and predictable delay, while the overall system maintains manageable complexity through automated port-based queue assignment and centralized scheduling control.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP4654660A1Message forwarding method and apparatus, device, and storage medium
Publication Date: 2025.11.26 NEW H3C TECH CO LTD
  • EP4654660A1 patent drawingFigure 1~3
  • EP4654660A1 patent drawingFigure 4~5
  • EP4654660A1 patent drawingFigure 6~8

AI summary

Embodiments of the present application provide a message forwarding method and apparatus, a device, and a storage medium, which are applied to a network device. The method comprises: receiving, by means of a first ingress port, a first message of a deterministic flow: caching the first message to a first scheduling queue corresponding to the first ingress port; and when a scheduling period of the first scheduling queue is reached, forwarding the message in the first scheduling queue. In the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, a network device, according to differences in ingress ports of received messages, caches the messages to different scheduling queues for forwarding, thus avoiding the problem of end-to-end jitter unpredictability caused by messages being received by different ingress ports and randomly queued in and forwarded from a same scheduling queue. Moreover, since only one message can be received through a same ingress port at a same moment, there will be no problem of conflict in said same scheduling queue, thereby achieving bounded jitter in deterministic networks.