Inventors:
David R. Meyer - Lakewood CO
Warner B. Andrews - Boulder CO
Assignee:
Conexant Systems, Inc. - Newport Beach CA
International Classification:
H04L 1254, H04L 1228, H04L 1256, H04L 1266
Abstract:
An edge device for an ATM system includes a fire wall protection which proactively limits the number of cells per connection provided to the devices connected to the edge device. The edge device may be connected to ethernets, LANs, frame relay networks, communication equipment, work stations, or various other computer and communication equipment. The edge device preferably includes a counter for each connection associated with the ATM system. The counter is decremented each time a memory location in the host memory is utilized and incremented whenever the memory location is relieved of storing the data cell. An SAR unit operates to proactively prevent congestion by limiting each connection to a particular number of storage elements.