ENHANCED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT PACING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TCP CONNECTIONS

摘要

An enhanced acknowledgement pacing device (500) and method for TCP connections is disclosed. The invention includes a link layer entity (528) for receiving data packets from a source and forwarding the data packets (540) to a forward data link, the link layer entity (528) storing the received data packets (540) in a data packet buffer (530) until the data packets depart the link layer entity (528) and are forwarded to the forward link and an acknowledgement pacing device (500), coupled to the link layer entity, for pacing acknowledgement packets (532) to be sent to the source in response to receiving the data packets (540) from the source (540). The acknowledgement pacing device (500) further includes an acknowledgement control unit (510) for monitoring congestion at the link layer entity (528) and generating a control signal for controlling the processing of acknowledgement packets (532) based upon whether congestion is occurring at the link layer entity (528), an acknowledgement packet buffer (534), coupled to the acknowledgement control unit (510), for storing acknowledgement packets (532) received from the acknowledgement control unit (510) and a scheduler (520), coupled to the acknowledgement control unit (510) and the acknowledgement buffer (534), the scheduler (520) releasing acknowledgement packets (532) to the source (540) based upon the control signal generated by the acknowledgement control unit (510).