A data rate controller controls a rate that data is transferred over a backplane in a network processing device. A bandwidth allocator allocates bandwidth to an input port for transmitting data over the backplane to an output port. A bandwidth limiter identifies a maximum allowable bandwidth the input port is allocated on the backplane. A bandwidth tracker identifies an amount of bandwidth currently allocated to the input port for transmitting data over the backplane to the output port. When the current allocated bandwidth is used up, the data rate controller prevents that input port from connecting to output ports through the backplane until more bandwidth is allocated.

A pipeline-based matching scheduling approach for input-buffered switches relaxes the timing constraint for arbitration with matching schemes, such as CRRD and CMSD. In the new approach, arbitration may operate in a pipelined manner. Each sub-scheduler is allowed to take more than one time slot for its matching. Every time slot, one of them provides a matching result(s). The sub-scheduler can use a matching scheme such as CRRD and CMSD.

The present invention provides an improved method and a system for processing data packets in a router. The router includes a plurality of input/output ports and more than one packet processing units. The packet processing units derive from a piece of information associated to each data packet one output port to forward the data packet to. In response to a data packet arriving at one input port one packet processing unit is determined. The determined packet processing unit is then requested to derive a respective output port. The output port is derived from a piece of information within the packet. An identification identifying the respective output port is in the following returned to the requesting unit. Finally, the data packet is forwarded to the identified output port. The method and system according to the present invention optimize advantageously resource utilization that leads to higher packet processing speed and helps to lower the costs and power requirements. Furthermore, it leads to increased fault tolerance, i.e. increased reliability.

The present invention relates to a switching unit with a low-latency flow control. Queuing parameters of ingress queues, wherein the incoming traffic is backlogged, are measured to detect a short term traffic increase. An additional bandwidth is then negotiated to accommodate this unexpected additional amount of traffic, provided that the corresponding input and output termination modules still dispose of available bandwidth, and disregarding temporarily fairness. This additional bandwidth allows this unexpected additional amount of traffic to be drained from the ingress queue as soon as possible, without waiting for the next system bandwidth fair re-distribution, thereby improving the traffic latency through the switching unit.

A system for managing access to IP multicast traffic includes a join request manager within an access router. The access router includes a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory unit. The access router replicates multicast traffic flows for communication to one or more user devices within user systems coupled to the access router using a link. The join request manager receives a request to receive a multicast traffic flow, the request being received from one of the user devices within one of the user systems, and denies the request if a system metric is above a threshold.