Dynamic fair queuing to support best effort traffic in an ATM network

Claim 1

Traffic control apparatus implemented in a ATM communication system, said communication system comprising a plurality of hops (50) interconnected by links (501), each of said link defined by a link identifier comprising a plurality of virtual paths (503), each of said virtual path defined by a virtual path identifier VPi comprising a plurality of virtual channels (502), each of said channel being defined by a virtual channel identifier VCi, the combination of said identifiers defining a virtual connection, wherein said hops route incoming data cells (51) conveyed by a virtual connection to downstream hops, said data cells being identified by a virtual path identifier CVPi, and a virtual channel identifier CVCi, said routing being performed with regard to said virtual path identifier CVPi, said apparatus comprising at each hop (50): - identifying means (500) for identifying said CVPi and said CVCi for each incoming data cell (51), said apparatus being characterized in that it comprises managing means including : - a pool of free queues (510) for storing ATM data cells, and - means for leasing a queue (520), from said pool of free queues, corresponding to the virtual connection on which said incoming data cell is conveyed if said queue does not already exist, and queuing said incoming data cell into said leased queue, and - means for queuing (540) an incoming data cell in the queue corresponding to the virtual connection on which said incoming data cell is conveyed, if said queue already exists.