US 5381407

Patent Overview — US 5,381,407

Title: Method and system for controlling user traffic to a fast packet switching system

Patent number: US 5,381,407 A
Application number: US 07/893,274
Inventor: Hung-Hsiang J. Chao
Original assignee: Bell Communications Research Inc.
Priority/filing date: 1992-06-04
Publication (grant) date: 1995-01-10
Status shown in source: Expired – Lifetime

Purpose: The patent addresses controlling user traffic entering fast packet switching systems (broadband ISDN/ATM networks carrying fixed-length "cells"). It aims to monitor and enforce each virtual connection's compliance with negotiated traffic parameters to protect other connections from traffic that exceeds agreed limits. The described approach uses a leaky bucket scheme — a simple open-loop control involving only local actions and no real-time coordination between network components.

Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): The disclosed method receives packets, each originating at a source and having a virtual channel identifier (VCI) and an arrival time. Each received packet is stored at an addressable location in a first memory. A second memory stores addresses corresponding to locations in the first memory where no packet is yet stored; those addresses are used when storing received packets. The method determines whether a stored packet complies with predetermined traffic parameters based on its arrival time and VCI to obtain a validated packet, which is then retrieved from the first memory and transmitted to the packet switching system. The predetermined traffic parameters include average arrival rate and maximum burst rate. A system for carrying out these steps is also provided.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5381407/en

What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text is expressly marked as an excerpt with omitted material. It does not include the full claims, the detailed description, or most drawing descriptions, so the complete claimed scope cannot be determined from this text alone. The classification entries include terms such as "leaky bucket," "admission control," and "policing," but the excerpt does not specify all embodiments or alternatives. It also does not establish later ownership transfers, legal status beyond the listed "Expired – Lifetime" indication, validity, or prior-art effect. No litigation or assignment-chain analysis is undertaken here.