EP1135895A1

EP1135895A1 - Abr service engine in packet switching system

Info

Publication number: EP1135895A1
Application number: EP00966568A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Song Byeoksan Apt. 101-1304 CHONG; Sung-Ho Kang; Young-In Choi
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 1999-10-02
Filing date: 2000-10-02
Publication date: 2001-09-26
Also published as: KR20010050809A; CN1339210A; CA2351352A1; JP2003511907A; KR100383571B1; WO2001026306A1

Abstract

An ABR (Available Bit Rate) service engine in a packet switching system. A forward cell processing unit generates a first start signal and extracts CCR (Current Cell Rate) and MCR (Minimum Cell Rate) from a forward RM (Resource Management) cell, upon receipt of the forward RM cell. A locally bottlenecked virtual circuit number (|Q|) estimation unit determines whether (CCR-MCR) is less than ER (Explicit Rate) upon receipt of the first start signal, considers that the received RM cell contributes to |Q| if (CCR-MCR) is less than ER, accumulates the degree of contribution, and calculates |Q|. An ER engine calculates the ER upon receipt of a third start signal. A backward cell processing unit determines whether the ER calculated by the ER engine is less than the sum of ER and MCR extracted from a backward RM cell upon receipt of the backward RM cell, and writes the calculated ER in the backward RM cell if the calculated ER is less than the sum of ER and MCR. A timer feeds the second start signal to the |Q| estimation unit every first period and the third start signal to the ER engine every second period.

Description

ABR SERVICE ENGINE IN PACKET SWITCHING SYSTEM

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a packet switching system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an Available Bit Rate (ABR) service engine in a packet switching system.

2. Description of the Related Art

Packet switching technology is utilized in the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks and the Internet networks. One of the general traffic management problems lies in the congestion flow control of the packet switching networks such as the ATM.

The ATM layer provides the following four services: Constant Bit Rate (CBR), Variable Bit Rate (VBR), Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR), and Available Bit Rate (ABR). In the ABR service, the source adapts its bit rate responsive to the changes of the network condition to transmit data at a bit rate available from the network. The ABR service was introduced to the ATM network in order to support data applications with a guaranteed bandwidth service, because such service was not efficiently supported by the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) service. For more details and background information, see S. Sathaye, ATM forum Traffic Management Specification, Version 4.0, Feb. 1996; F. Bonomi and K. W. Fendick "The Rate-Based Flow Control Framework for the Available

Bit Rate ATM Service", IEEE Network, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 25-39, 1995; and, R. Jain "Congestion Control and Traffic Management in ATM Networks: Recent Advances and Survey", Computer Network and ISDN Systems, vol. 28, no. 13, pp. 1723-1738, 1996.

Most congestion occurs due to burst traffic, causing cell loss and unpredictable cell delays. Due to these characteristics, the network is designed to modify its data transfer rates according to the loading conditions of the network. Accordingly, the notion of elastic traffic services was introduced and the data transfer rates are adjusted according to the network bandwidth availability. A representative example of the elastic traffic services is the ABR service provided in the ATM networks.

The ATM forum has selected a closed-loop rate-based scheme as the flow control scheme for the ABR service due to its simplicity. The closed-loop rate-based flow control scheme uses the feed back information from the network to control the rate at which each source can transmit the cells into the network. The feed back information is conveyed to the source through specific control cells called resource management (RM) cells. For the rate-based flow control, information about the network congestion is written in the RM cell using mechanisms, such as explicit forward congestion indication

(EFCI), relative rate (RR), and explicit rate (ER). The ABR service does not require a complex traffic characterization and a call admission control at the source and at the switches, respectively. Due to this simplicity, it has been expected that the implementation and the deployment of the ABR service would be much easier than other bandwidth-guaranteed services, such as the CBR or the VBR service. In reality, however, the implementation of ABR-capable switches appears to be much more difficult than originally expected. The difficulty mainly lies in the designing of a simple, scalable, and stable ABR flow algorithm, more specifically an ER allocation algorithm in an asynchronous and distributed network environment.

Moreover, the long and diverse round trip delays (RTDs) involved in the closed loop and the distributed bottle neck locations of ABR VCs (Virtual Circuits) make it difficult to design a high performance ER allocation algorithm. ABR queues in the network can hardly be stabilized when the transmission rates of ABR sources are determined based on the network state information at different time. In particular, if only a binary feed back mechanism (either EFCI or RR marking, or both) is employed, the ABR queues in a steady state inevitably exhibits persistent oscillation with its magnitude and period. For more details and background information, see E. Hernandez- Valencia, et al, "Rate Control Algorithms for the ATM ABR Service", European Transactions on Telecommunications, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 7-20, 1997, F. Bonomi, D. Mitra, and J. B. Serry "Adaptive Algorithms for Feedback-Based Flow Control in High-Speed, Wide- Area ATM Networks", IEEE J. Select. Areas on Communications, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 1267-1283, 1995, and K. K. Ratmarkrishnan and Jain "A Binary Feedback Scheme for Congestion Avoidance in Computer Networks with a Connectionless Network Layer", Proc. ACM SIGCOMM'88, pp. 303-313, 1988.

The above-described oscillatory behavior of the ABR queues will increase the likelihood of cell loss and link under-utilization due to a periodic buffer overflow and underflow. Thus, the ABR flow control scheme using the ER marking has been introduced to realize aymptotic stability of the ABR queues to overcome the drawbacks of the binary feedback mechanisms. Yet, designing an asymptotically stable ER allocation algorithm particularly in a simple form is a difficult problem. This problem naturally falls into a feed back control problem with the delay. L. Benmohanmed and S. M. Meerkov formulated the rate-based flow control problem as a discrete-time feedback control problem with the delay, and derived an ER allocation algorithm that achieves the asymptotic stability and allows for the arbitrary control of the closed-loop performance. This is described in "Feedback Control of

Congestion in Packet Switching Networks: The Case of Single Congested Node", IEEE/ ACM Trans. On Networking, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 693-708, 1993, and "Feedback Control of Congestion in Packet Switching Networks: The Case of Multiple Congested Nodes", International Journal of Communication Systems, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 227-246, 1997. Their ER allocation algorithm is represented as:

r[k + 1] = r[k] - X fl.i(q[k - i]- q_τ) - ∑ ?,r[k - j] (1), ι = 0 j=0

where r[k] is the ER calculated by the switch at the discrete time k, q[k] is per- class ABR queue length at the time k, qT is a target queue length, αi and βj are controller gains, τmax is the largest RTD of an ABR VC, and I is an arbitrary constant greater than 0.

Despite its solid theoretical foundation, the practical use of the above algorithm is limited by its high degree of implementation complexity. The shortcomings and the limitations of the algorithm are described in A. Kolarov and G. Ramamurthy, "A Control Theoretic Approach to the Design of Close Loop Rate Based Flow Control for High Speed ATM Networks", Proc, IEEE INFOCOM'97, vol. 1, pp. 293-301, 1997. It is purported that in the ER allocation algorithm, the ER terms should be maintained at present and in the past, up to time lags τmax, and the number of floating point multiplications should be performed in every discrete time slot.

Thereafter, S. Chong has proposed a simpler control-theoretic ER allocation algorithm ("Second-Order RateOBased Flow Control with Dynamic Queue Threshold for High-Speed Wide- Area ATM Networks", preprint 1997). Also, A. Elwalid ("Analysis of Adaptive Rate Based Congestion Control for High-Speed Wide-Area Networks", Proc. IEEE ICC'95, pp. 1948-1953, 1995) has proposed a continuous-time ER allocation algorithm, which is represented by the following equation: r(t) = -Ar(t)-B(q(t)-qT), A, B > 0 (2),

and obtained the necessary and sufficient condition for the closed-loop system to be asymptotically stable when the RTDs of all the VCs are identical. Chong has extended the stability analysis of this algorithm to the general case with arbitrary RTDs.

Meanwhile, S. Chong, R. Nagarajan, and Y. T. Wang proposed a more simplified ER allocation algorithm ("Designing Stable ABR Flow Control with Rate Feedback and Open-Loop Control: First-Order Control Case", Performance Evaluation, vol. 34, no. 4) that can readily achieve an asymptotically stable system, which is expressed by,

r(t) = [-K(q(t)-qT)r, K > 0 (3)

where [X]⁺ = max[x, 0] indicates that the greater of x and 0 should be selected.

In the algorithm (2), two other stabilization conditions have been induced. One of them is a sufficient condition for a general case with heterogeneous RTDs and the other is a necessary and sufficient condition for a particular case with homogeneous

RTDs. Yet, a common drawback of the algorithms (2) and (3), as compared to the algorithm (1), is that unless controller gains and the queue length threshold are properly chosen according to the instantaneous knowledge on the available bandwidth to the ABR traffic and the fraction of the available bandwidth utilized by remotely bottlenecked VCs, the ABR queue length can converge to zero which is undesirable since at this equilibrium point the link can not be fully utilized.

The remotely bottlenecked VCs cannot fairly share the link as the bottleneck occurring at another link if the transmission rates of the VCs are not limited by their PCRs (Peak Cell Rates). In contrast, if the algorithm (1) is applied, there exists no such an undesirable equilibrium point.

The applicant of the present invention also proposed an ABR service algorithm which is described in the Provisional application No. 60/157,420 entitled, "A Scalable and Stable Explicit Method for Max-Min Flow Control with Guarantees", which was filed on October 2, 1999 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The above algorithm needs to be implemented in hardware with a minimal required memory capacity or hardware, and the operation accuracy is required to make the algorithm work.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an ABR service engine in a packet switching system, for which the ABR service algorithm can be implemented with minimal hardware or memory requirements and produce accurate operation results. The above object of the present invention can be achieved by providing an ABR

(Available Bit Rate) service engine in a packet switching system. In the AVR service engine, a forward cell processing unit generates a first start signal and extracts CCR (Current Cell Rate) and MCR (Minimum Cell Rate) from a forward RM (Resource Management) cell upon receipt of the forward RM cell. A locally bottlenecked virtual circuit number (|Q|) estimation unit determines whether (CCR-MCR) is less than ER

(Explicit Rate) upon receipt of the first start signal, determines that the received RM cell contributes to |Q| if (CCR-MCR) is less than ER, accumulates the degree of contribution by dividing a forward RM cell transmission period by (first period x CCR) and adding the division result to a previous contribution degree, and calculates |Q| by adding (accumulated contribution degree x (1- low pass filtering parameter)) and ((previous |Q|

+ total IQI) x low pass filtering parameter) upon receipt of a second start signal. An ER engine calculates the ER by subtracting (((average queue length - previous average queue length) x first gain) ÷ calculated |Q|) + ((average queue length - target queue length) x ((second gain x third start signal period) ÷ calculated |Q|)) from a previous ER, upon receipt of a third start signal. A backward cell processing unit determines whether the ER calculated by the ER engine is less than the sum of ER and MCR extracted from a backward RM cell upon receipt of the backward RM cell, then writes the calculated ER in the backward RM cell if the calculated ER is less than the sum of ER and MCR. A timer feeds the second start signal to the |Q| estimation unit every first period and the third start signal to the ER engine every second period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of a packet switching network according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an I/O card for a switch shown in FIG. 1 ; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an ABR service engine according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of an RM cell;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a forward cell processing unit shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a forward cell decoder shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a cell element counter shown in FIG. 6;

FIGs. 8 and 9 illustrate cell buffering;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an EFCI marker shown in FIG. 6; FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a |Q| estimation unit shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a δ computation decider and a δ calculator shown in FIG. 11 ;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the |Q| estimation unit shown in FIG. 11; FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an ER engine shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a gain selector shown in FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the gain selector shown in

FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the ER engine shown in FIG.

3;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a backward cell processing unit shown in FIG. 3; FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a backward cell decoder shown in FIG. 18; and FIG. 20 is a block diagram of an Nr corrector.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the purpose of clarity, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of a packet switching network for implementing the ABR service according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. With reference to FIG. 1, the packet switching network includes a plurality of switches El, E2, and E3. Each switch is connected to a plurality of sources. In the drawing, the first switch El is connected to a first through a Nth sources, SI to SN. Each source transmits/receives data through a switch connected thereto. Data transmitted from the source reaches a destination in a so-called VC path having a plurality of nodes.

In the ABR service, information relating to the bandwidth availability of the network is conveyed to the source through a RM cell. Here, the processing of the source-generated RM cells falls into the scope of the embodiment of the present invention. A source-generated RM cell is transmitted to a destination through a VC path. The transmission direction of the cell is forward. Upon receiving the forward RM cell, the destination processes the forward RM cell and transmits back to the source through the backward RM cell. Switches are provided to write the allowed bandwidth information in the backward RM cell. Then, the source adapts its rate to changing network conditions based on the received bandwidth information. Here, the bandwidth- related information includes EFCI which provides information about the available bandwidth, CI (Congestion Indication) that allows a network element to indicate that there is congestion in the network, and NI (No Increase) that is used to prevent a source from increasing its ACR (Allowed Cell Rate). EFCI in a data cell indicates congestion.

As described above, a switch calculates a bandwidth available for the ABR service, writes the calculated available bandwidth information on a backward RM cell, then transmits the backward RM cell to a source. An ABR engine serving this function is provided in an input/output (I/O) port card of the switch.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the I/O port card. As shown in FIG. 2, the I/O port card 100 includes an I/O buffer management unit 102, an ABR service engine 104, and an output interface 106. The I/O buffer management unit 102 is connected to the switch and responsible for I/O queuing. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the I/O buffer management unit 102 applies a queue write signal to the ABR service engine 104 for queue writing and a queue read signal to the ABR service engine 104 for queue reading. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the ABR service engine 104 processes the ABR algorithm and its related operations for the ABR service based on various parameters received from a microprocessor 108. The output interface

106 acts as a user network interface at the ATM layer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the ABR service engine 104. As shown in FIG. 3, a forward cell processing unit 200 receives a forward RM cell and provides a first start signal to a |Q| estimation unit 202 (Q represents the number of locally bottlenecked VCs and |Q| represents the cardinality/number of Q) if it confirms that the received RM cell is forward, source-generated, and free of CRC errors. |Q| estimation unit 202 assumes the queuing in the output port. The forward cell processing unit 200 extracts the CCR (Current Cell Rate) and the MCR (Minimum Cell Rate) from the forward RM cell and feeds them to the |Q| estimation unit 202. During EFCI congestion, the forward cell processing unit 200 marks the EFCI in a data cell among input forward cells. It should be noted that a floating-point number system is used to provide precision and range in obtaining ER. The floating-point number guarantees sufficient precision in order to prevent the problem associated with the feedback of ER value. Thus, the floating-point number system includes all range of numbers that can be computed in the ER engine.

Upon receipt of the first start signal, the |Q| estimation unit 202 determines whether the received RM cell contributes to |Q|. That is, whether the difference between the CCR and the MCR retrieved from the received RM cell exceeds a current ER (δ) received from the ER engine 208. If the condition is satisfied, the RM cell is said to contribute to the |Q|. Then, the |Q| estimation unit 202 calculates its contribution degree (δ), accumulates δ for use in |Q| estimation until it receives a second start signal, which is generated periodically from a timer. Here, δ represents the updated ER measured by the ER engine 208 at a predetermined time interval. The |Q| estimation unit 202 estimates ]Q| upon receipt of the second start signal and feeds the estimated |Q| to the ER engine 208. In estimating the |Q|, the |Q| estimation unit 202 uses δ received from the ER engine 208. δ is the margin to avoid the underestimation of the number of locally bottlenecked VCs particularly near the steady state. As the system approaches the steady state, the CCR of a locally bottlenecked VC stays around the sum of the MCR and the common ER. Thus, without the margin δ the VC could be counted wrongly as a remotely bottlenecked VC even for a small perturbation in the CCR. By having this margin, however, this type of underestimation can effectively be avoided. Through simulations, it is found out that δ = 0.9 is the recommended choice.

The embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the node keeps updating the ER periodically regardless of arrival of RM cells. The benefit of the background calculation is that the latest ER prepared by the ER engine 208 is directly provided to the estimator unit 202, upon arrival of an RM cell in the corresponding node.

The ER engine 208 calculates the ER upon receipt of a third start signal that is generated periodically from the timer 210 and feeds the calculated ER to a backward cell processing unit 212 so that the backward cell processing unit 212 can write the calculated ER in a backward RM cell.

A queue counter 206 provides the current queue length and the number of queue variations to the ER engine 208 using the queue write signal and the queue read signal received from the I/O buffer management unit 102. The queue counter 206 feeds the queue length to the forward cell processing unit 200 to allow the forward cell processing unit 200 to detect the EFCI congestion and write the EFCI mark. Also, the queue counter 206 feeds the queue length to the backward cell processing unit 212 to allow the backward cell processing unit 212 to detect "congestion" and "serious congestion" for RR service and to write NI (No Increase) and CI (Congestion Indication) marks in the backward RM cell.

The backward cell processing unit 212 determines whether the sum of the ER and MCR of a received backward RM cell is less than the ER transmitted from the ER engine 208. If the sum is less than the ER delivered from the ER engine 208, the backward cell processing unit 212 writes the ER of the ER engine 208 in the backward RM cell. In addition, the backward cell processing unit 212 detects congestion and serious congestion based on the received queue length and the NI and CI marks of the backward RM cell when detecting the RM cell. After completing the ER writing and NI and CI markings, the backward cell processing unit 212 calculates CRC for the backward RM cell and writes the CRC in the backward RM cell.

The timer 210 generates the second start signal every first predetermined period and provides it to the |Q| estimation unit 202. The timer 210 also generates the third start signal every second predetermined period and provides it to the ER engine 208.

A microprocessor interface 204 provides parameters received from the microprocessor 108 to the |Q| estimation unit 202 and the ER engine 208. The parameters are latched in registers, which is a well-known technique and will not be described herein.

Now a detailed description will be made of the ABR service engine 104 in the following sections.

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of an RM cell. As shown in FIG. 4, the RM cell is comprised of ATM Header, Protocol Identifier, Message Type, ER, CCR, MCR, Queue Length, Sequence Number, and CRC. ATM Header has PTI (Payload Type Identifier) that defines a payload type. One PTI bit is used for EFCI. In the Message Type field, DIR indicates which direction of data flow is associated with the RM cell,

BN indicates whether the RM cell is a backward explicit congestion notification (BECN) cell (i.e., non-source generated) or not, CI (Congestion Indication) allows a network element to indicate that there is congestion in the network, and NI (No Increase) is used to prevent a source from increasing its ACR (Allowed Cell Rate). The CCR (Current Cell Rate) field is set by the source to its current ACR when the source generates the RM cell. The MCR (Minimum Cell Rate) field indicates the minimum allocated bandwidth of each VC when a source generates the RM cell. ER is an available bandwidth written in a backward source-generated RM cell by the ABR service engine as the RM cell passes through the switch. Only when the calculated available bandwidth of the ABR service engine is less than the existing available bandwidth, the former value is written in the ER field. Therefore, the smallest available bandwidth in the VC path is conveyed to the source.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the forward cell processing unit 200 that deals with forward RM cells.

With reference to FIG. 5, a UTOPIA interface 300 of the forward cell processing unit 200 provides the UTOPIA interfacing. The Universal Test & Operations

Physical Layer Interface for ATM (UTOPIA) defines the interface between the physical layer and the upper layer module, such as the ATM layer, is followed in the input of the cell decoder and the output of the cell encoder. A forward cell decoder 302 receives a forward cell and an SOC (Start of Cell) signal and checks whether the forward cell is an RM cell or a data cell.

If the input is a RM cell, the forward cell decoder 302 determines whether the RM cell is source-generated or not. In the case of a source-generated RM cell, the forward cell decoder 302 performs CRC on the RM cell. If no CRC errors are detected, it generates a first start signal, extracts CCR and MCR from the RM cell, then provides the first start signal and the CCR & MCR to the |Q| estimation unit 202. A CRC is provided to check for the CRC of the forward cell and sends the CRC check result to the forward cell decoder 302. Upon receiving a congestion signal from a congestion detector 306, the forward cell decoder 302 marks EFCI in the received forward data cell. The congestion detector 306 compares the current queue length with the EFCI congestion threshold gEFCI value and generates the EFCI congestion signal to the forward cell decoder 302 if the current queue length is greater than gEFCI.

FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of the forward cell decoder 302. Referring to FIG. 6, a cell element counter 400 starts to count forward clock pulses when the SOC

(Start of Cell) signal of UTOPIA is generated, outputs a cell count, and is reset by a reset signal generated whenever the cell count is completed for one RM cell. The transfer of a cell is synchronized by the SOC signal. A 4 or 5-byte header may be added before the cell. To make a cell count indicate PTI, DIR & BN, CCR, and MCR of the RM cell in position despite the header addition, the cell element counter 400 subtracts cell type/2 from the cell count. A cell buffer multiplexer (MUX) 414 arranges input forward cells and outputs them. FIG. 7 is a detailed block diagram of the cell element counter 400. Referring to FIG. 7, a flip-flop D has an input terminal D connected to a power supply, a clock terminal for receiving the SOC signal, and a reset terminal for receiving the reset signal. The flip-flop D generates a cell start signal that becomes high upon receipt of the SOC signal and low upon receipt of the reset signal. The cell start signal and the reset signal are applied to an AND gate (AND). The AND gate generates a signal for resetting a counter (CNT) when both signals are low at the same time. The counter counts forward clock pulses and is reset when the cell start signal and the reset signal are simultaneously generated. The output of the counter and cell type/2 are applied to the input of a subtracter (AD). The subtracter subtracts the cell type/2 from the output of the counter and outputs the subtraction result as a cell count. The cell type/2 may be provided by the microprocessor 108.

Returning back to FIG. 6, the generated cell count by the cell element counter 400 is applied to a comparator 402. The comparator 402 generates a PTI clock signal when the cell count indicates the position of PTI in the forward RM cell, a DIR_BN clock signal when it indicates the position of Message Type, a CCR clock signal when it indicates the position of CCR, and an MCR clock signal when it indicates the position of

MCR. When the cell count indicates the end of the forward RM cell, an End clock signal is generated. The PTI, DIR_BN, CCR, MCR, and End clock signals are synchronized to the forward clock signal through a first register unit 404. An inverter

(INV) inverts the End clock signal received from the first register unit 404 and provides the inverted signal as the reset signal to the cell element counter 400. The PTI, DIR_BN,

CCR, and MCR clock signals of the first register unit 404 are applied to a PTI register 406, a DIR_BN register 408, a CCR register 410, and an MCR register 412, respectively.

If the added header is four bytes, the cell buffer MUX 414 reads 16 cell bits from a second register 420, and if the added header is five bytes, it reads 8 cell bits from the second register 420 and 8 bits from a first register 418. Thus, cells are arranged regardless of a 4-byte header or a 5 -bit header.

FIGs. 8 and 9 illustrate RM cell buffering in the first and second registers 418 and 420. An RM cell is buffered in the first and second registers 418 and 419 at a byte level. In the case of a 4-byte header, the first two bytes are buffered in the registers in alignment, as shown in FIG. 8. On the other hand, in the case of a 5-byte header, the first two bytes of the RM cell are buffered in non-alignment, as shown in FIG. 9. Headers are identified by cell type. If cell type is 0100, this indicates that the 4-byte header is added. If cell type is 0101, this indicates that the 5-byte header is added. That is, the header of the RM cell can be identified by checking the LSB (Least Significant Bit) of the cell type.

Thus, the cell buffer MUX 414 receives the LSB of the cell type. If the LSB is 0, the cell buffer MUX 414 reads 16 bits from the second register 420 and if the LSB is 1, the cell buffer MUX 420 reads 8 bits from the second register 414 and 8 bits from the first register 418.

The cell buffer MUX 414 arranges the read RM cell bits and outputs the RM cell to a second register unit 416. The second register unit 416 outputs the received RM cell in synchronization to the forward clock signal to the PTI register 406, the DIR BN register 408, the CCR register 410, and the MCR register 410. The PTI register 406, the DIR_BN register 408, the CCR register 410, and the MCR register 412 latch corresponding data received at the time when the PTI, DIR_BN, CCR, and MCR clock signals are respectively generated. As a result, the PTI register 406, the DIR_BN register 408, the CCR register 410, and the MCR register 412 latch PTI, Message Type, CCR, and MCR of the RM cell and the CCR and MCR are fed to the |Q| estimation unit 202.

A RM cell detector 428 receives the Message Type and determines whether the corresponding cell is a forward source-generated RM cell by checking the DIR and BN of Message Type. If the cell is a forward source-generated RM cell, the RM cell detector 428 generates an RM start signal and feeds it to an EFCI marker 430 and an AND gate. The AND gate generates the first start signal when a CRC error detection signal and the RM start signal are concurrently generated and the generated first start signal is provided to the IQI estimation unit 202.

On the other hand, if the input cell is a data cell (i.e., the RM start signal is not received) and the congestion signal and the cell start signal are generated, the EFCI marker 430 marks EFCI in the PTI of the cell header. If a header is added to the cell, the

PTI may pass through the first to fifth registers 418 to 426 as lower eight bits or upper eight bits of the cell. In this case, the EFCI marker 430 adaptively marks the EFCI, which will be described with reference to FIG. 10. When a 4-byte header is added to the cell, the PTI passes through the first to fifth registers 418 to 426 as the upper eight bits. If a 5-byte header is added to the cell, the PTI passes through the first to fifth registers

418 to 426 as the lower eight bits. A first AND gate (AND1) of the EFCI marker 430 provides 1 to a first OR gate (OR1) when the congestion signal and the LSB of the cell type are 1 s concurrently. The first OR gate OR-gates the EFCI bit of the PTI with the output of the first AND gate. That is, the EFCI of the PTI that has passed as the upper eight bits is marked to 1 when the congestion signal and the LSB of the cell type are Is at the same time. A second AND gate (AND2) of the EFCI marker 430 provides 1 to a second OR gate (OR2) when the congestion signal and the LSB of a cell type inverted by the inverter are Is at the same time. The second OR gate OR-gates the EFCI bit of the

PTI with the output of the second AND gate. That is, when the congestion signal is 1 and the LSB of the inverted cell type is 0, the EFCI of the PTI that has passed as the lower eight bits is marked to 1.

The first to fifth registers 418 to 426 buffer the received forward cell along with the SOC signal and an Empty signal.

Now, the structure and operation of the |Q| estimation unit 202 for estimating IQI using the first start signal and the CCR & MCR will be described hereinbelow with reference to FIG. 11.

The IQI estimation unit 202 is comprised of a δ computation decider 500 for deciding whether an RM cell contributes to |Q| upon receiving the first start signal from the forward cell processing unit 200, a δ calculator 502 for calculating a contribution degree δ when it is determined that the RM cell contributes to |Q| and accumulates it to the previous value, and a |Q| calculator 504 for calculating an estimated |Q| using the accumulated δ.

The δ computation decider 500 checks whether K*ER received from the ER engine 208 is less than the subtraction of the CCR (Current Cell Rate) and the MCR

(Minimum Cell Rate). If the K*ER is less than the difference of CCR-MCR, it determines that the RM cell contributes to |Q| and generates a control signal S for controlling δ to be calculated. A first register 506 in the δ computation decider 500 provides the K*ER received from the ER engine 208 in synchronization with the SOC signal to a number system converter 508. The number system converter 508 converts the K*ER to a 32-bit floating point number and outputs the floating point number as ER to an input terminal B of a first adder 510. The first adder 510 receives the MCR and ER respectively through its input terminals A and B, adds the MCR and ER, and outputs the sum to a B input terminal of a comparator 512 through its output terminal C. The comparator 512 receives the CCR and the sum of MCR and ER through its input terminals A and B, respectively, compares the sum with CCR, then provides the comparison result to an And gate 514. If the sum of MCR and ER is less than CCR, the AND gate 514 outputs a high signal to a second register 516 upon receiving the first start signal. The second register 16 outputs the signal received from the AND gate 514 as the signal S upon receipt of a signal END_I_clk. That is, the signal S is 1 and applied to the δ calculator 502 when there is no CRC error in a received cell and when K*ER is less than CCR-MCR.

The δ calculator 502 calculates and accumulates the contribution degree δ of RM cells received for the first period (i.e., a |Q| estimation period) to |Q| by:

δ = δ_mEV + — — f—^- (4),

1^st Period x CCR

where Nrm is a forward RM cell transmission period negotiated upon establishment of a connection. Nrm/first period (being the period of the second start signal) may be provided by the microprocessor 108.

A number system converter 518 in the δ calculator 502 converts the CCR received from the forward cell processing unit 200 to a 32-bit floating point number. A divider 520 receives the converted CCR and the Nrm/second start signal period upon the generation of the MCR clock signal and divides the Nrm/second start signal period by the CCR. A third register 522 latches the output of the divider 520 on receiving a DONE signal from the divider 520. A second adder 524 adds the previous δ δprev and the output of the third register 522 upon receipt of the signal DONE from the divider 520. A fourth register 526 latches the output of the second adder 524 according to a clock signal from an AND gate 528 when a DONE signal received from the second adder 524 and the signal S received from the AND gate 528 are Is at the same time, and outputs the latched value as δ. The δ is fed to the |Q| calculator 504 and as δprev to the second adder 524. Upon receipt of the signal S, the δ calculator 502 does not start to calculate δ but outputs the calculated δ, to thereby implement δ computation in real time.

The divider 520 and the second adder 524 are reset by a reset signal generated through an inverter 530 and an AND gate 532 when the reset signal and the second start signal are simultaneously generated. Therefore, the accumulated δ is reset to 0 every time the second start signal is generated.

Referring to FIG. 12, the operation of the δ computation decider 500 and the δ calculator 502 will be described. Upon receipt of a RM cell, the δ computation decider 500 determines whether K*ER is less than CCR-MCR in step 600. If K*ER is less than CCR-MCR, the δ calculator 502 calculates and then accumulates δ in step 602.

Returning to FIG. 11B, a controller 534 of the |Q| calculator 504 activates the IQI calculator 504 upon receiving the second start signal and provides overall control to the IQI calculator 504. A 1-α calculator 536 subtracts a low pass filtering parameter α of a IQI generation formula from 1. A register unit 538 latches nr being a total |Q|, α, 1-α, a previous |Q| |Q|prev, and the computation results of a second selector 546. A first selector 540 selects some of a plurality of values received from the register unit 538 and transmits the selected values to a multiplier 542 or a third adder 544 under the control of the controller 534. The multiplier 542 and the third adder 544 multiply and add their received outputs from the first selector 540 and transmit the operation results to the second selector 546. The second selector 546 provides the outputs of the multiplier 542 and the third adder 544 to a limiter 548 or the register unit 538 under the control of the controller 534. The limiter 548 simply outputs a value received from the second selector

546 as IQI if the received value is between 0 and nr. If the received value is less than 0, the limiter 548 limits the value to 0 and outputs 0 as |Q|. If the received value is greater than nr, the limiter 548 limits the value to nr and outputs nr as |Q|. The output of the limiter 548 is fed as |Q|ρrev to the register unit 538.

The controller 534 controls the first and second selectors 540 and 546 to compute |Q| by:

IQI = (IQIprev + nr) x α + δ x (1-α) (5)

This control operation will be described with reference to FIG. 13. In FIG. 13, the controller 534 controls the first selector 540 to feed nr and IQIprev to the third adder 544 and (1-α) and δ to the multiplier 542 in step 1. The third adder 544 adds nr and IQIprev and feeds (|Q|prev + nr) to the second selector 546. The multiplier 542 multiplies δ by (1-α) and feeds δ x (1-α) to the second selector 546. The controller 534 controls the second selector 546 to feed back the outputs of the third adder 544 and the multiplier 542 to the register unit 538.

In step 2, the controller 534 controls the first selector 540 to provide (|Q|prev + nr) and α latched in the register unit 538 to the multiplier 542. Then, the multiplier 542 multiplies (|Q|prev + nr) by α and provides (|Q|prev + nr) x α to the second selector 546.

The controller 534 controls the second selector 546 to feed (|Q|prev + nr) x α to the register unit 538.

In step 3, the controller 534 controls the first selector 540 to provide (|Q|prev + nr) x α and δ x (1-α) latched in the register unit 538 to the third adder 544. Then, the third adder 544 adds (|Q|prev + nr) x α and δ x (1-α) and provides (|Q|prev + nr) x α + δ x (1-α) as IQI to the second selector 546. The controller 534 controls the second selector

546 to feed |Q| to the limiter 548.

As stated above, since |Q| is computed not in real time but every first period, the controller 534 repeatedly reuses the third adder 544 and the multiplier 542 in the above steps in order to decrease hardware requirements.

The limiter 548 limits |Q| to a value between 0 and nr and outputs a final |Q|. The final |Q| is applied to the ER engine 208.

Arithmetic units for floating point calculation may be used as the first to third adders, 510, 522, and 544 and the multiplier 542 in the |Q| estimation unit 202 in order to increase computation accuracy.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the ER engine 208. The ER computation using the IQI received from the |Q| estimation unit 202 will be described referring to FIG. 14.

In FIG. 14, a number system converter 700 in the ER engine 208 converts the target queue length qT, the second period Δ, and a comparison margin K to be multiplied by ER received from the microprocessor 114 through the microprocessor interface 204 to 32-bit floating point numbers and feeds them to a first selector 704. The number system converter 700 also converts |Q| received from the |Q| estimation unit 202, the number of queue variations and queue length received from the queue counter 206, and the variation of Nr received from an Nr corrector (not shown), ndiff to 32-bit floating point numbers and feeds them to the first selector 704.

A gain selector 702 receives a queue length gTH for gain selection and gains A0, Al, B0, and BI from the microprocessor 114 and the current queue length q from a register unit 714 and compares gTH with q. If q is less than gTH and Aland BI have never been selected as gains A and B, the gain selector 702 selects A0 and B0 as A and

B and provides them to the first selector 704. If q is less than gTH, and Aland BI have been selected as gains A and B, the gain selector 702 selects Al and BI as A and B and provides them to the first selector 704. If q is greater than gTH, the gain selector 702 selects Al and BI as A and B and provides them to the first selector 704.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the gain selector 702. The operation of the gain selector 702 will be described with reference to FIG. 15.

In FIG. 15, a subtracter 800 subtracts gTH from q. A comparator 802 determines whether the subtraction result is less than 0. If the subtraction result is less than 0, the comparator 802 outputs 0 and if the subtraction result is greater than 0, the comparator 802 outputs 1. The output of the comparator 802 is applied as a clock signal to a flip-flop 804. The flip-flop 804 is reset at an initialization state, outputs 0s, and then outputs Is received through its input terminal through its output terminal at rising edges of a clock signal. Since q is increased from 0 gradually, the flip-flop 804 outputs 0s until q reaches gTH and then outputs Is regardless of q. The output of the flip-flop 804 is applied as a select signal to first and second selectors 806 and 808. The first and second selectors 806 and 808 receive A0 & Aland B0 & BI, respectively. If the output of the flip-flop 804 is 0, they output A0 and B0 as A and B. If the output of the flip-flop 804 is 1, they output Aland BI as A and B.

The above operation of the gain selector 702 will be described with reference to

FIG. 16.

In FIG. 16, the gain selector 702 determines whether q is less than gTH in step

900. If q is less than gTH, the gain selector 702 proceeds to step 902. Otherwise, it jumps to step 904. In step 902, the gain selector 702 checks whether the current state is an initialization state where Aland BI are not selected as A and B. In the initialization state, the gain selector 902 selects A0 and B0 as A and B in step 906.

Different gains are used in an initialization state and a non-initialization state in order to bring ER to a steady state rapidly in the initialization state where the ER is unstable and then minimize the oscillation of the ER at the steady state.

In FIG. 14, the first selector 704 provides qr, Δ, |Q|, queue variation number, queue length, and ndiff in the floating point format received from the number system converter 700, A and B received from the gain selector 702, and some of the operation results received from the register unit 714 to a multiplier 706, a divider 708, and an adder 710 under the control of an ER engine controller 730. The multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 subject their received values to multiplication, division, and addition and output operation results to a second selector 712. The second selector 712 transmits the operation results of the multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 to the register unit 714 under the control of the ER engine controller 730. The register unit 714 is comprised of a first register portion 716, a second register portion 722, and a third register portion 728. The first register portion 716 includes a first register 718 for latching the average queue length q received from the second selector

712 and outputting the latched q to the first selector 704 and the gain selector 702 and a second register 720 for latching the previous q qprev and outputting qprev to the first cell selector 704. The second register portion 722 includes feedsback operation results received from the second selector 712 to the first selector 704. The third register portion 728 includes a third register 724 for latching ER delivered from the second selector 712 and outputting the latched ER to the first selector 704 and a fourth register 726 for transmitting the ER latched in the third register 724 as the previous ER ERprev to the first selector 704.

The ER engine controller 730 controls the first and second selectors 704 and

712 so that the multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 compute ER by:

A BΔ

ER = ER_PREV - τ-r ^χ {q - q_PREV} - T^r ^x (q - Q,} (6).

The control operation of the ER engine controller 730 for ER computation in the multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 will be described with reference to

FIG. 17.

Referring to FIG. 17, in step 1, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to send the queue variation number and the queue length received from the number system converter 700 to the divider 708 and |Q| and ndiff to the adder 710. Then, the divider 708 divides the queue length by the queue variation number and transmits the division result as q to the second selector 712. The adder 710 adds |Q| and ndiff and sends (|Q|+ndiff) as corrected |Q| to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back q received from the divider 708 to the first selector 704 through the first register 714 and the coπected |Q| received from the adder 710 to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722. Here, q is provided to the gain selector 702 so that the gain selector 702 can select A and B by comparing q with gTH.

In step 2, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to send Δ received from the number system converter 700 and the gain B selectively received from the gain selector 702 to the multiplier 706. The multiplier 706 multiplies Δ by the gain B and transmits the product (1) to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (1) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

In step 3, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide q latched in the first register 718 and qprev latched in the second register 720 to the adder 710 and (1) and the coπected |Q| to the divider 708. Then, the adder 710 subtracts qprev from q and provides the subtraction result (2) to the second selector 712. The divider 708 divides (1) by the corrected |Q| and transmits (l)/corrected |Q| to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back

(2) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

Computation time in the divider 708 is longer than that in the adder 710. Hence, although (2) is completed in the adder 710, the divider 708 continues its operation.

In step 4, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide q latched in the first register 718 and qr received from the number system converter 700 to the adder 710. Then, the adder 710 subtracts qr from q and transmits the subtraction result (3) to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (3) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion

722.

In step 5, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide

(3) latched in the second register 722 and the gain A received from the gain selector 702 to the multiplier 706. The multiplier 706 multiplies (q-qprev) by A and provides the product (4) to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (4) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

In steps 2 through 5, the divider 708 divides (1) by corrected |Q| and provides the division result (5) to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (1)/|Q| to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

In step 6, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide

(3) and (5) received from the second register portion 722 to the multiplier 706 and (4) and the coπected |Q| received from the second register portion 722 to the divider 708. The multiplier 706 multiplies (3) by (5) and provides the product (6) to the second selector 712. The divider 708 divides (4) by the corrected |Q| and provides the division result (7) to the second selector 712.

The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (6) and (7) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

In step 7, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide

(6) and (7) received from the second register portion 722 to the adder 710. The adder

710 adds (6) and (7) and feeds the sum (8) to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back (7) to the first selector 704 through the second register portion 722.

In step 8, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide

(8) received from the second register portion 722 and ERprev received from the fourth register 728 to the adder 710. The adder 710 subtracts (8) from ERprev and outputs the sum as ER to the second selector 712. The ER engine controller 730 controls the second selector 712 to feed back ER to the first selector 704 through the third register 726.

In step 9, the ER engine controller 730 controls the first selector 704 to provide ER received from the third register 726 and K received from the number system converter 700 to the multiplier 706. The multiplier 706 converts ER in the floating point format to a 16-bit integer by adding ER and K and outputs the integer as K*ER through the second register portion 722. Here, K*ER is the final ER output from the ER engine 208.

As noted from the above description, ER computation is performed not in real time but every interval period. Therefore, the multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 are repeatedly used in steps 1 through 9 to reduce hardware requirements.

Arithmetic units for floating point computation are used as the multiplier 706, the divider 708, and the adder 710 to increase computation accuracy.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the backward cell processing unit 212 for processing backward RM cells. The configuration and operation of the backward cell processing unit 212 will be described referring to FIG. 18.

In FIG. 18, a UTOPIA interface 1000 in the backward cell processing unit 212 provides UTOPIA interfacing. A backward cell decoder 1002 receives the SOC signal and a backward cell from the UTOPIA interface 1000 and determines whether the backward cell is a source-generated RM cell. If the received cell is a source-generated RM cell, the backward cell decoder 1002 reads ER and MCR from the RM cell and feeds them to an ER writing decider 1008. Upon receipt of the ER from the ER writing, the backward cell decoder 1002 writes the ER in the RM cell. Also, the backward cell decoder 1002 marks NI or CI in the RM cell according to the NI and CI received from a congestion detector 1006. The backward cell decoder 1002 receives CRC for the RM cell with ER and NI/CI marked from a CRC check and generation unit 1004 and writes the CRC in the RM cell. The CRC check and generation unit 1004 detects CRC eπors from the received backward RM cell, generates CRC for the RM cell with ER and NI/CI marked, and transmits the CRC to the backward cell decoder 1002. The congestion detector 1006 receives a high queue threshold qHT and a low queue threshold qLT from the microprocessor 108. If a queue length is between qHT and qLT, the congestion detector 1006 determines that the network is congested and feeds NI=1 and CI=0 to the backward cell decoder 1002. If the queue length is greater than qHT, the congestion detector 1006 determines that the network is seriously congested and feeds NI=1 and

CI+1 to the backward cell decoder 1002. If the queue length is less than qLT, the congestion detector 1006 determines that the network is not congested and feeds NI=0 and CI=0 to the backward cell decoder 1002. The ER writing decider 1008 determines whether the sum of the MCR of the input RM cell received from the backward cell decoder 1002 and ER received from the ER engine 208 is less than the ER of the input

RM cell. If the sum is less than the ER of the input RM cell, the ER writing decider 208 provides the ER delivered from the ER engine 208 to the backward cell decoder 1002.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of the backward cell decoder 1002. Referring to FIG. 19, a cell element counter 1100 starts to count backward clock pulses when the

SOC signal is generated, outputs the count value as a cell count, and is reset by a reset signal that is generated when the cell count represents a whole RM cell. A comparator

1102 generates the PTI clock signal every time the cell count indicates the position of the PTI in the RM cell, the DIR_BN clock signal every time the cell count indicates the position of Message Type, the ER clock signal every time the cell count indicates the position of ER, the MCR clock signal every time the cell count indicates the position of

MCR, and the END clock signal when the cell count coπesponds to the whole length of the cell. The PTI, DIR BN, ER, MCR, and END clock signals are output from the comparator 1102 in synchronization to the backward clock signal through a first register unit 1104. An inverter (INV) inverts the EN clock signal received from the first register unit 1104 and outputs the inverted signal as the reset signal. The first register unit 1104 applies the PTI, DIR_BN, ER, and MCR clock signals to a PTI register 1106, a DIR_BN register 1108, an ER register 1 110, and an MCR register 1112, respectively. A cell buffer MUC 1 114 reads 16 cell bits from the second register 1120 if a 4- byte header is added, and 8 cell bits from the second register 1120 and 8 cell bits from the first register 1118 if a 5-byte header is added. A second register unit 1116 outputs a received RM cell in synchronization to the backward clock signal to the PTI, DIR_BN, ER, and MCR registers 1106, 1108, 1110, and 1112. The above registers latch their received data when the PTI, DIR_N, ER, and MCR clock signals are generated, separately. As a result, the registers latch PTI, Message Type, ER, and MCR of the RM cell, respectively. An RM cell detector 1132 receives PTI and Message Type to determine whether the received backward cell is a source-generated backward RM cell. An ER writing decider 1008 receives ER and MCR to decide as to whether to write ER delivered from the ER engine 208 in the received RM cell.

The RM cell detector 1132 determines whether a coπesponding cell is a source- generated backward RM cell by checking the PTI and DIR & BN included in Message Type. In the case of a source-generated backward RM cell, the RM cell detector 1132 generates an RM start signal.

First to fifth registers 418 to 426 buffer receive forward cells and output buffered SOC and Empty signals as SOC and Enable signals.

An NI & CI marker 1124 is interposed between the third register 1122 and the fourth register 1126. The NI & and CI marker 1124 marks NI and CI of an RM cell buffered between the third and fourth registers 1122 and 1126 with NI and CI information received from the congestion detector 1006. An ER writer 1128 is interposed between the fourth and fifth registers 1128 and 1130. The ER writer 1128 writes the ER received from the ER writing decider 1008 in the ER field of an RM cell buffered between the fourth and fifth registers 1126 and 1130. NI and CI markings and the ER writing are well known and their detailed description is avoided here.

The reason for writing ER in an RM cell buffered between the fourth and fifth registers 1126 and 1130 is that the RM cell should be buffered during the time taken for the ER writing decider 1008 to decide whether the ER is to be written or not since the decision is made after reading MCR despite MCR subsequent to ER in position. In the prefened embodiment of the present invention, a received backward RM cell is buffered using a few registers, thereby preventing unnecessary use of memory.

Meanwhile, the microprocessor 108 may vary Nr without prior notice and variation of Nr has a great influence on each computation. Therefore, an Nr corrector can be added to the ABR service engine 104.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram of the Nr corrector. Referring to FIG. 20, the first register 1200 latches Nr and provides it to a second register 1202 and a subtracter 1204. The second register 1202 latches the Nr received from the first register 1200 as the previous Nr. The subtracter 1204 obtains the variation of Nr, Ndiff by subtracting the Nr received from the second register 1202 from the Nr received from the first register 1200. A comparator 1206 determines whether Ndiff is 0. If Ndiff is not 0, the comparator 1206 enables an adder 1208 to add the previous Nr and Ndiff, thereby coπecting Nr. The coπected Nr is fed as the previous Nr to the adder 1208 through a third register 1210.

The coπected Nr is provided to the |Q| estimation unit 202 for |Q| estimation.

In accordance with the prefened embodiment of the present invention, the ABR service engine implements an ABR service algorithm in such a way that (1) maximal link utilization and minimal cell loss are guaranteed regardless of RTDs in an ABR closed loop; (2) ABR queue size requirements are minimized by ensuring asymptotical stabilization of ABR queues: (3) the MAX-MIN fairness based on the ATM forum standards is guaranteed by ensuring a fair share of an available bandwidth to each user; (4) communication network environmental change is fast reacted to such as changes in the number of ABR users and the ABR bandwidth; (5) all functions including EFCI, RR, and ER markings are provided as specified in the ATM forum traffic management specification; (6) high utilization, low cell loss, and the MAX-MIN fair rate allocation are achieved through the existence of an asymptotically stable operating point; (7) high responsiveness to network loading changes is achieved at multiple time scales, i.e., at the cell level rate changes of VBR and ABR VCs and at the cell level arrivals and departures of VBR and ABR VCs; (8) the number of operations required to compute the algorithm is minimized; and (9) low and scalable degree of implementation complexity is achieved by virtually removing per-VC operations including per-VC queuing, per-VC accounting, and per-VC table access. In the ABR service engine, |Q| estimation and ER computation are performed not in real time but at every predetermined period. The periodical |Q| estimation and the ER computation facilitate the control operation allow the ABR service engine to reuse arithmetic units, thereby minimizing the hardware requirements. Internal floating point computation is implemented using the floating point calculators so that operation results are more accurate.

Furthermore, the ABR service engine obviates the need for storing an input backward RM cell by employing the scheme of deciding as to whether ER is to be written in the RM cell while buffering the RM cell in a few registers. As a result, memory use is minimized.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to a certain prefened embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. An available bit rate (ABR) service engine for managing congestion control in a packet switching system, comprising: a forward cell processing unit for generating a first start signal and for extracting a cunent cell rate (CCR) and a minimum cell rate (MCR) from a forward resource management (RM) cell; a timer for transmitting a second start signal and a third start signal; an estimation unit for accumulating contribution degree (δ) and for determining a number of bottlenecked virtual circuits (|Q|) in response to the second start signal for a predetermined time period; an explicit rate (ER) engine for periodically transmitting a cunent ER to the estimating unit and for calculating a new explicit rate (ER) in response to the third start signal; and, a backward cell processing unit for writing the calculated new ER in a backward RM cell.

2. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein the number of the bottlenecked virtual circuits (|Q|) is determined if a difference between the CCR and the MCR (CCR-MCR) retrieved from the forward cell is less than the cunent ER transmitted from the ER engine in response to the first signal.

3. The ABR search engine of claim 2, wherein the contribution degree (δ) is accumulated by adding (accumulated contribution degree x (1- low pass filtering parameter)) and ((previous |Q| + total |Q|) x low pass filtering parameter) in response to the second start signal, wherein the low pass filter parameter is received from a microprocessor and the accumulating the contribution degree is determined by dividing a forward RM cell transmission period by (first period x CCR) and adding the division result to a previous contribution degree.

4. The ABR search engine of claim 3, wherein the new ER is calculated by subtracting (((average queue length - previous average queue length) x first gain) ÷ calculated |Q|) + ((average queue length - target queue length) x ((second gain x third start signal period) ÷ calculated |Q|)) from a previous ER in response to the third start signal.

5. The ABR search engine of Claim 1, further comprising a backward cell processing unit for determining whether the new ER calculated by the ER engine is less than the sum of ER and MCR extracted from a backward RM cell upon receipt of the backward RM cell and for writing the calculated new ER in a backward RM cell if the new ER is less than the sum of ER and MCR.

6. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein the forward cell processing unit generates the first start signal only when there are no eπors in the received forward RM cell.

7. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein one of a header having a first size and a second size is added to the RM cell.

8. The ABR service engine of claim 7, wherein the forward cell processing unit includes a cell buffer multiplexer for ananging the forward RM cell with the header with the first size or the second size, and for outputting the starting portion of the forward RM cell.

9. The ABR service engine of claim 4, further comprising a queue counter for receiving a queue write signal for queue writing and a queue read signal for queue reading from an input/output buffer management unit, for managing input/output queuing and for generating a queue variation number and a queue length.

10. The ABR service engine of claim 9, wherein the forward cell processing unit receives the queue length from the queue counter and for marking EFCI (Explicit Forward Congestion Indication) of a forward data cell if the queue length is greater than a predetermined EFCI congestion threshold.

11. The ABR service engine of claim of claim 10, wherein the forward cell processing unit includes a plurality of registers for extracting the CCR and the MCR from the forward RM cell and for buffering the forward RM cell during the EFCI marking.

12. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein the forward cell processing unit comprises: a cell element counter for counting forward clock pulses and outputting a cell count; a comparator for generating a first clock signal if the cell count indicates the position of DIR(Direction)-BN(BECN) in the forward RM cell, a second clock signal if the cell count indicates the position of the CCR in the forward RM cell, a third clock signal if the cell count indicates the position of the MCR in the forward RM cell, and a reset signal if the cell count indicates the end of the forward RM cell; a first register for latching a part of passing forward cell upon receipt of the first clock signal; a second register for latching a part of the passing forward cell upon receipt of the second clock signal and providing the latched bits as the CCR; a third register for latching a part of the passing forward cell upon receipt of the third clock signal and providing the latched bits as the MCR; and a detector for determining whether the forward cell is a source-generated RM cell based on the part of the forward cell in the first register and for generating the first start signal if the forward cell is a source-generated RM cell.

13. The ABR service engine of claim 3, wherein the backward cell processing unit includes a cell buffer multiplexer for ananging the backward RM cell with the header with the first size or the second size, and for outputting the starting portion of the backward RM cell.

14. The ABR service engine of claim 9, wherein the backward cell processing unit performs, upon receiving the queue length from the queue counter, the steps of: determining whether the queue length is greater than a predetermined congestion threshold or a predetermined serious congestion threshold, marking NI (No Increase) of the backward RM cell if the queue length is between the congestion threshold and the serious congestion threshold, and marking the NI and CI (Congestion Indication) of the backward RM cell if the queue length is greater than the serious congestion threshold.

15. The ABR service engine of claim 14, wherein the backward cell processing unit includes a plurality of registers for extracting the ER from the backward RM cell, marking the NI and the CI in the backward RM cell, and for buffering the backward RM cell when writing the new ER in the backward RM cell.

16. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein the backward cell processing unit comprises: a cell element counter for counting backward clock pulses and outputting a cell count; a comparator for generating the first clock signal if the cell count indicates the position of the ER in the backward RM cell, the second clock signal if the cell count indicates the position of the MCR of the backward RM cell, and the third clock signal if the cell count indicates the end of the backward RM cell; a first register for latching a part of passing backward cell upon receipt of the first clock signal and outputting the latched bits as the ER; a second register for latching a part of the passing backward cell upon receipt of the second clock signal and providing the latched bits as the MCR; and an ER writer for writing the new ER calculated by the ER engine in the backward RM cell if the new ER is less than the sum of the ER latched in the first register and the MCR latched in the second register.

17. The ABR service engine of claim 16, wherein the backward cell processing unit further comprises an enor detection and generation unit for checking whether the backward cell has an enor, for generating an enor conection code, and for adding the enor conection code to the backward RM cell where the ER is written.

18. The ABR service engine of claim 1, further comprising a microprocessor for providing parameters for estimating the |Q| and for calculating the updated ER and the new ER.

19. The ABR service engine of claim 1, wherein the |Q| estimation unit comprises: a decider for converting the updated ER to a floating point number, adding the MCR and the floating point number, for comparing the sum of the MCR and the floating point number with the CCR, and for considering that the received RM cell contributes to IQI if the CCR is less than the sum, upon receipt of the first start signal; a contribution degree calculator for converting the CCR to a floating point number, dividing the floating point number by (a forward RM cell transmission period ÷first period), for adding the division result and a previous |Q|, and for outputting the sum as a contribution degree if the decider considers that the received RM cell contributes to the |Q|; and a IQI calculator for receiving the contribution degree from the contribution degree calculator and calculating the |Q| by floating-point adding ((accumulated contribution degree) x (1- low pass filtering parameter) in a floating format) and ((previous |Q| + total |Q|) x (low pass filtering parameter) in the floating format) upon receipt of the second start signal.

20. The ABR service engine of claim 19, wherein the |Q| calculator comprises: a calculator for subtracting the low pass filtering parameter from 1 ; a register unit for latching the contribution degree received from the contribution degree calculator, the output of the calculator, the low pass filtering parameter, the total |Q|, and the previous |Q|; a first selector for selecting some of the values latched in a register unit; a multiplier for floating-point multiplying some of the outputs of a first selector; an adder for floating-point adding other outputs of the first selector; a limiter for limiting calculated |Q| to a value between the total |Q| and 0; a second selector for selectively providing the outputs of the multiplier and the adder to the limiter or the register unit; and a controller, upon receipt of the second start signal, for controlling the first selector to provide the previous |Q| and the total |Q| latched in the register unit to the adder and the output of the calculator and the contribution degree to the multiplier, controlling the second selector to feed back the outputs of the adder and the multiplier as first and second operation results to the register unit, controlling the first selector to provide the first operation result and the low pass filtering parameter to the multiplier, controlling the second selector to feed back the output of the multiplier as a third operation result to the register unit, controlling the first selector to provide the second and third operation results to the adder, and controlling the second selector to provide the output of the adder to the limiter.

21. The ABR service engine of claim 19, further comprising a conector for coπecting the variation of the total |Q|.

22. The ABR service engine of claim 9, wherein the ER engine calculates the average queue length by dividing the queue length by the queue variation number and latches the average queue length as a previous average queue length.

23. The ABR service engine of claim 9, wherein the ER engine comprises: a number system converter for converting a target queue length, the second signal, the |Q|, the queue variation number, and the queue length in floating point formats; a first selector for selectively providing parameters received from the number system converter and first and second gains; a multiplier for floating-point multiplying a part of the outputs of the first selector; a divider for floating-point dividing a part of the outputs of the first selector; an adder for floating-point adding a part of the outputs of the first selector; a second selector for outputting operation results received from the multiplier, the divider, and the adder in selected paths; a first latch unit for latching the average queue length received from the second selector as a previous average queue length; a second latch unit for latching the ER received from the second selector as a previous ER; a third latch unit for latching operation results received from the second selector; and a controller, upon receipt of the third start signal, for controlling the first selector to provide the queue length and the queue variation number to the divider and controlling the second selector to provide the average queue length received from the divider to the first latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the second gain and the second period to the multiplier and controlling the second selector to provide the multiplication result as a first operation result to the third latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the average queue length and the previous queue length latched in the first latch unit to the adder for subtracting the previous average queue length from the average queue length and the first operation result and the |Q| to the divider and controlling the second selector to provide the subtraction result as a second operation result to the third latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the average queue length and the target queue length to the adder for subtracting the target queue length from the average queue length and controlling the second selector to provide the subtraction result as a third operation result to the third latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the second operation result and the first gain to the multiplier and controlling the second selector to provide the multiplication result as a fourth operation result and the division result of the divider as a fifth operation result to the third latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the third and fifth operation results to the multiplier and the fourth operation result and the |Q| to the divider and controlling the second selector to provide the multiplication result as a sixth operation result and the division result as a seventh operation result to the third latch unit, controlling the first selector to provide the sixth and seventh operation results to the adder and controlling the second selector to provide the addition result as the ER to the second latch unit, and then controlling the first selector to provide the previous ER and the ER latched in the second latch unit to the adder for subtracting the ER from the previous ER and controlling the second selector to provide the subtraction result as a final ER.

24. The ABR service engine of claim 19, wherein the ER engine multiplies the final ER by a predetermined parameter.

25. The ABR service engine of claim 24, wherein the ER engine coπects the total |Q| used for the ER computation by adding an existing total |Q| and the variation of the existing total |Q|.

26. The ABR service engine of claim 24, wherein the ER engine further comprises a gain selector for receiving a third and a fourth gains that can be used as the first gain and a fifth and a sixth gains that can be used as the second gain, selecting the third gain as the first gain and the fifth gain as the second gain if the average queue length is less than a predetermined threshold or has never been greater than the threshold, and selecting the fourth gain as the first gain and the sixth gain as the second gain if the average queue length is greater than the predetermined threshold or has been greater than the predetermined threshold.