Importance

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Abstract

In accordance with the present invention a method and apparatus are disclosed in which each data stream of a plurality of data streams is assigned to a queue and each queue is allocated a predetermined maximum numbers of buffers. Once the queue has exhausted its supply of buffers, the data from the corresponding data stream is discarded until buffers are refreshed thereby allowing the remaining data streams to operate in a normal fashion. Accordingly, excessive buffer usage by an individual data stream is prevented, as well as excessive demand of other related system resources such as CPU time. The data stream which has had its data discarded will begin having its incoming data processed upon the next refresh operation providing the queue associated with that data stream has had additional buffers allocated. The discarded data is lost and is not recovered. The refresh operation is performed in a manner that provides prioritization of the queues and a high degree of fairness within each priority level. The refresh operation may be scheduled to happen synchronously, such as being synchronized to a real-time clock within the system, or it may be constructed to occur asynchronously. When the refresh operations occur asynchronously the refresh operation will occur more often in a lightly loaded system and less frequently in a heavily loaded system, thereby allowing data streams exhibiting high buffer demands access to available buffers while the idle data streams are not requiring free buffers.

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First Claim