Redundant transmission system with shutdown of a faulty transmission link

摘要

The method involves assigning cyclically continuous sequence numbers to message cells of a virtual connection, and copying a message cell to a group of redundant message cells, whose amount equals the amount of redundant transmission paths. The message cells are transmitted over the redundant transmission paths, and only one message cell which follows the currently processed message cell according to the sequence number carried by the message cell, is selected for further processing. The sequence number of the last transferred message cell is stored for each transmission path, and compared to the sequence number of an arriving message cell. A decision is made whether the arrived message cell is assumed for further processing according to the comparison result. A counter is provided for each transmission path, whereby the counter is increased by a first value in case of an acceptance of the arrived message cell of the concerned transmission path. The counter of the concerned transmission path is reduced by a second value if the sequence number of the arrived message cell does not match. A transmission path whose count reaches a lower threshold level is exempt from receiving message cells for further processing.