Shared Traffic Manager for Network Egress Resource Pooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
In complex network devices, such as high-bandwidth network switches, the conventional approach of having separate traffic managers for each egress block leads to inefficient resource utilization, resulting in data units being dropped when one egress block exceeds its resource limits, even if other blocks have available resources.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a shared traffic manager that pools resources across multiple egress blocks, allowing for peak capacity utilization during high traffic periods and enabling both dedicated and shared traffic management resources, with mechanisms like read instruction queues and arbitration units to optimize data unit processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate traffic managers are used for each egress block, then each block has dedicated resource control, but resource utilization becomes inefficient and data units are dropped when one block exceeds its resource limits
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges separate traffic managers into a shared traffic manager that pools buffer resources across multiple egress blocks. This consolidation allows data units to be redirected to alternative egress blocks with available buffer space when the original destination is full, thereby maintaining reliable data unit delivery while significantly improving overall resource utilization efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared traffic manager is designed to serve multiple egress blocks simultaneously, making the buffer resources universal rather than dedicated to single blocks. This multi-functional approach enables any egress block to utilize buffers from the shared pool, ensuring that resources are dynamically allocated based on actual demand rather than static assignments.
2Ease of operation
If dedicated traffic managers are used for each egress block, then resource allocation is simple and direct, but resources cannot be shared across blocks leading to waste
Solution Approach 1:
The shared traffic manager implements feedback mechanisms that continuously monitor buffer usage across all egress blocks. Based on this real-time information, the system dynamically redirects data units to egress blocks with available capacity, thereby eliminating resource waste while maintaining operational simplicity through automated decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static, dedicated resource allocation to dynamic, shared resource allocation. The shared traffic manager can adaptively adjust which egress blocks utilize which buffer resources based on current traffic conditions and availability, optimizing resource utilization without complicating the allocation process through automation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate traffic managers are implemented, then each block can independently manage its queue, but read operations are inefficient and resources cannot be consolidated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates read instruction queues from multiple egress blocks into a shared queue structure managed by the shared traffic manager. This merging enables efficient arbitration and coordination of read operations across blocks, improving overall read operation efficiency while maintaining the ability of each block to independently manage its specific queue requirements through logical separation within the unified structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A traffic manager is shared amongst two or more egress blocks of a network device, thereby allowing traffic management resources to be shared between the egress blocks. Among other aspects, this may reduce power demands and allow a larger amount of buffer memory to be available to a given egress block that may be experiencing high traffic loads. Optionally, the shared traffic manager may be leveraged to reduce the resources required to handle data units on ingress. Rather than buffer the entire unit in the ingress buffers, an arbiter may be configured to buffer only the control portion of the data unit. The payload of the data unit, by contrast, is forwarded directly to the shared traffic manager, where it is placed in the egress buffers. Because the payload is not being buffered in the ingress buffers, the ingress buffer memory may be greatly reduced.