Importance

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Abstract

A full duplex repeater for collision-free transmission of data packets between node of a local area network. The repeater includes a multiple of ports, a signal path for communicating data between the ports, and an arbitration mechanism. Each of the ports has an input and output buffer. The mechanism routes data through the repeater by activating each of the ports one port at a time, such as with a round robin algorithm, to transmit stored data from the input buffer of an activated port through the signal path to the other ports. The repeater has a congestion control mechanism that includes level indicators and preset high and low threshold levels for the input buffers and a flow control device. The flow control device monitors the level indicators to determine if the amount of data in a buffer exceeds the high threshold level. If that occurs, the flow control device alerts the transmitting node to stop transmitting by inserting a congestion indication frame into the port's output buffer for transmission to the node. Once the amount of data in the input buffer then drops below the low threshold level, the flow control device alerts the transmitting node to resume transmitting by inserting a clear indication frame in the port's output buffer.

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First Claim