Importance

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Abstract

In a packet switched communications system having a plurality of switching nodes, each user terminal transmits a packet of data-link layer control protocol including a network-layer control protocol to an adjacent switching node to cause it to be routed to an outgoing transmission link according to the network layer control protocol of the packet. Each switching node includes a plurality of line controllers to receive packets from the transmission links to update the network control protocol of a received packet with a logical address of the packet at the outgoing link and append a physical address of the outgoing link to the packet before transmission. Each switching node monitors the traffic flow of each line controller to detect whether it is overflowed. If overflow traffic is detected in a line controller, the latter is identified accordingly and an overflow traffic table is loaded with information to indicate which of the line controllers is overflowed. The table is accessed by each line controller whenever it receives a packet to be informed of whether the desired line controller is overflowed or not. If it is, the received packet is discarded.

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First Claim