Weighed round-robin multiplexing of ATM cells by updating weights with counter outputs

摘要

In an ATM network node, cells of different service classes are stored in respective buffers and counters respectively associated with the buffers are initially loaded with full-count values respectively corresponding to the weight values of the service classes. The initial full-count values are updated respectively with the output values of the associated counters. Control circuitry sequentially interrogates the buffers and the counters in a round-robin fashion. If the output value of each interrogated counter is not decremented to a predetermined value, a cell is forwarded from the associated buffer and the counter is decremented by one. At the end of a round robin cycle, all of the counters are reloaded with the initial full-count values or the updated full-count values depending on the number of cells forwarded from each of the buffers.