Importance

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Abstract

A flow control system is disclosed, for a transmitting node and a receiving node. The transmitting node and the receiving node are linked together through multiple connections or virtual circuits. The receiving node includes a connection specific pool of buffers for receiving data transmission units from the transmitting node over each specific connection, and a common pool of buffers for storing data transmission units received from the transmitting node over any of the connections between the transmitting node and the receiving node. A flow control circuit in the transmitting node limits the number of data transmission units transmitted from the transmitting station, and not yet copied out of the receive buffers in the receiving node, to the total number of receive buffers in the receiving node. The flow control circuit in the transmitting node further controls the transmission of data transmission units on the multiple connections fairly, such that all connections are provided a proportional amount of the total available receive buffers in the receiving node. In an example embodiment, a global counter is used to maintain the total number of receive buffers containing data in the receiving node, and a global limit register contains the maximum number of receive buffers containing data in the receiving node allowed for a single connection.

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First Claim