US 9,258,232 C1 (12,795th)
Ingress traffic flow control in a data communications system
John Madsen, Ottawa (CA); Joey Chow, Nepean (CA); and Dion Pike, Stittsville (CA)
Filed by John Madsen, Ottawa (CA); Joey Chow, Nepean (CA); and Dion Pike, Stittsville (CA)
Assigned to WSOU INVESTMENTS, LLC, Los Angeles, CA (US)
Reexamination Request No. 90/019,094, Jun. 29, 2022.
Reexamination Certificate for Patent 9,258,232, issued Feb. 9, 2016, Appl. No. 13/360,310, Jan. 27, 2012.
Application 90/019,094 is a continuation of application No. 11/907,871, filed on Oct. 18, 2007, granted, now 8,130,649.
Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate issued on Dec. 11, 2024.
Int. Cl. H04L 5/12 (2006.01); H04L 12/801 (2013.01); H04L 12/825 (2013.01); H04L 12/851 (2013.01); H04L 47/10 (2022.01); H04L 47/2441 (2022.01); H04L 47/263 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 47/10 (2013.01) [H04L 47/2441 (2013.01); H04L 47/263 (2013.01); H04L 47/29 (2013.01)]
AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION, IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT:
Claims 6, 12 and 19 are cancelled.
Claims 1, 8 and 14 are determined to be patentable as amended.
Claims 2-5, 7, 9-11, 13, 15-18 and 20, dependent on an amended claim, are determined to be patentable.
New claims 21-24 are added and determined to be patentable.
1. A method performed by a traffic flow control system for performing flow control on a flow of data packets for transmission over a link, the method comprising:
receiving, by a controller of the traffic flow control system, a backpressure signal, wherein the backpressure signal indicates a period of congestion;
determining, by the controller of the traffic flow control system, at least one weighting factor to be applied to the flow of data packets based on the received backpressure signal; and
adjusting an amount of rate limiting applied to at least a portion of the flow of data packets based on both the determined at least one weighting factor and a content of the backpressure signal; [ and
generating a traffic preference message for transmission to a source of the flow of data packets, the traffic preference message indicating a type of data packet preferred for transmission over the serial link in accordance with the determined at least one weighting factor.]
8. A traffic flow control system for controlling a flow of ingress data packets to be transmitted over a link, the traffic flow control system comprising:
a first rate limiter configured to provide an amount of rate limiting to a first portion of the flow of ingress data packets, the amount of rate limiting being dependent upon a first weighting factor; and
a controller, where in the controller comprises a processor, configured to:
receive a backpressure signal,
determine a first weighting factor value to be applied to the flow of ingress data packets based on the received backpressure signal, and
adjust an amount of rate limiting applied to the first portion of the flow of ingress data packets by adjusting the first weighting factor used by the first rate limiter based on both the determined first weighting factor value and a content of the backpressure signal [ , and
generate a traffic preference message for transmission to a source of the flow of ingress data packets, the traffic preference message indicating a type of data packet preferred for transmission over the serial link in accordance with the determined first weighting factor value.]
14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for execution by a traffic flow control system for performing flow control on a flow of data packets for transmission over a link, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising:
instructions for receiving, by a controller of the traffic flow control system, a backpressure signal, wherein the backpressure signal indicates a period of congestion;
instructions for determining, by the controller of the traffic flow control system, at least one weighting factor to be applied to the flow of data packets based on the received backpressure signal; and
instructions for adjusting an amount of rate limiting applied to at least a portion of the flow of data packets based on both the determined at least one weighting factor and a content of the backpressure [ signal; and
instructions for generating a traffic preference message for transmission to a source of the flow of data packets, the traffic preference message indicating a type of data packet preferred for transmission over the serial link in accordance with the determined at least one weighting factor.]
[ 21. A traffic flow control system for controlling a flow of ingress data packets to be transmitted over a link, the traffic flow control system comprising:
a first rate limiter configured to provide an amount of rate limiting to a first portion of the flow of ingress data packets, the amount of rate limiting being dependent upon a first weighting factor;
a second rate limiter configured to provide an amount of rate limiting to a second portion of the flow of ingress data packets that is different from the first portion of the flow of ingress data packets, the amount of rate limiting of the second rate limiter being dependent upon a second weighting factor; and
a controller, where in the controller comprises a processor, configured to:
receive a backpressure signal,
determine a first weighting factor value to be applied to the flow of ingress data packets based on the received backpressure signal,
adjust an amount of rate limiting applied to the first portion of the flow of ingress data packets by adjusting the first weighting factor used by the first rate limiter based on both the determined first weighting factor value and a content of the backpressure signal
determine a second weighting factor value to be applied to the flow of ingress data packets based on the received backpressure signal, and
adjust an amount of rate limiting applied to the second portion of the flow of ingress data packets by adjusting the second weighting factor used by the second rate limiter based on the determined second weighting factor value.]
[ 22. The traffic flow control system of claim 21, wherein the backpressure signal is a backpressure message that indicates a fill level state of at least one packet queue.]
[ 23. The traffic flow control system of claim 22, wherein, in determining the first weighting factor value, the controller is configured to read the first weighting factor value from a mapping of various fill level states for the at least one packet queue to various weighting factor values.]
[ 24. The traffic flow control system of claim 21, wherein the content of the backpressure message indicates that at least one fill-level threshold for a packet queue has been crossed.]