| 摘要 |
<p>A method and apparatus for prioritizing ATM cells within time transmission slots is disclosed. The present invention takes cells which have been prioritized by traditional priority circuitry and adds to them information regarding the need to begin transmitting cells in the current time slot in order to ensure that a list of cells which must be transmitted by a future time slot can all be transmitted timely. If no list of cells in a future time slot mandate immediately transmission in the current time slot, a cell from the standard prioritization buffer will be transmitted. If, on the other hand, a subsequent slot contains so many entries that one of its cells must be transmitted in the current slot in order to ensure that all cells in the list are transmitted before their time deadline, one of the cells from the subsequent time slot list will be transmitted in lieu of the standard priority cell of the current slot.</p> |
