Invalidity dossier
US 6160808
Technique for transmitting incoming multi-link point-to-point (PPP) packet traffic over multiple outgoing links in a multi-link bundle
Current assignee: HP Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 5:43:36 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,160,808 A
Title: Technique for transmitting incoming multi-link point-to-point (PPP) packet traffic over multiple outgoing links in a multi-link bundle
Patent number / application: US 6,160,808 A; Application US 08/993,541
Inventor: Sanjiv Kumar Maurya
Original assignee: 3Com Corporation. The source lists current assignees as HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP, with recorded reassignments to Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (these are recorded assignments; no analysis made here).
Key dates (as listed): Filed 1997-12-18; priority 1997-12-18; granted/published 2000-12-12; anticipated expiration 2017-12-18; legal status listed "Expired – Lifetime."
Purpose: To let incoming multi-link PPP packets that arrive on one of several incoming physical links be carried over a "pipe" of several outgoing physical links, increasing transmission bandwidth. The stated problem: conventional high-speed devices that implement the multi-link protocol (e.g., ISDN terminal adapters) buffer and reorder incoming packets by sequence number, but packets distributed round-robin across several such devices arrive with gaps and never arrive at one device, so these devices cannot accept incoming multi-link PPP packets. The invention addresses this by setting an endpoint discriminator of each multi-link PPP device at one end of the pipe to the same value as its neighboring PPP device, recursively, so all devices at that end share a common endpoint discriminator value. This is done during LCP negotiations via LCP Endpoint Discriminator packets, causing all links in the pipe to be viewed as one bundle. The described application is, e.g., a BRI ISDN terminal adapter accepting multi-link PPP on its DTE side and negotiating it on multiple PSTN-side links.
Plain-language scope: Sharing one endpoint discriminator across chained multi-link PPP devices so their links form a single bundle.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6160808/en
Not established by the excerpt: the full claim set, dependent claims, the complete specification, figures, any prior-art references, prosecution history, or the accuracy of the listed assignees/legal status. No litigation, validity, or prior-art research was performed.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:43:20 PM
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