VTX1100
Advanced Datasheet
8 +1 -port HomePNA ETHERNET PACKET CONCENTRATOR
“Preparing Networks for Convergence”
November, 1999
6 Quality of Service
The PacMON VTX1100 utilizes Vertex Networks’ CoSMOS architecture that provides a new level of
Quality of Service (QoS) capability to unmanaged switch applications. Similar in operation to the
QoS capabilities of the XF2080 chipset members, VTX1100 provides two transmit queues per output
port.
The Frame Engine manages the output transmission queues for all the VTX1100 ports. Once the
destination address search is complete, and the switch decision is passed back to the FE, the packet
is inserted into the appropriate output queue. The packet entry into the high or low priority queue is
controlled by either the VLAN tag information or the Type of Service/Differentiated Service
(TOS/DS) field in the IP header. Either of these priority fields can be used to select the transmission
priority, and the mapping of the priority field values into either the high or low priority queue can be
configured using the VTX1100 configuration registers.
If the system uses the TOS/DS field to prioritize packets, there are two choices regarding which bits
of the TOS/DS field are used. Bits [0:2] of the TOS byte (known as the IP precedence field) or bits
[3:5] of the TOS byte (known as the DRT field) can be used to map the transmission queue priority.
Either bits, [0:2] or [3:5], can also be used as a packet drop precedence, by using bits 6 and 7 of the
FCB Buffer Low Threshold register (FCBST).
VTX1100 utilizes Weighted Round Robin (WRR) and Weighted Random Early Detection/Drop
(WRED) to schedule packets for transmission. To enable VTX1100’s QoS capabilities requires the
use of an external EEPROM to change the default register configurations and turn on QoS.
Weighted Round Robin is an efficient method to ensure that each of the transmission queues gets at
least a minimum service level. With two output transmission queues, VTX1100 will transmit “X”
packets from the high priority queue before transmitting “Y” packets from the low priority queue.
VTX1100 allows the designer to set the high priority weight to a value between 0 and 16. The low
priority weight is fixed at the value 1. If the high priority weight is set to the value 4, then it will
transmit 4 high priority packets before transmitting each low priority packet.
VTX1100 also uses a proprietary mechanism to ensure the timely delivery of high priority packets.
When the latency of high priority packets reaches a threshold, it will override the WRR weights and
transmit only high priority packets until the high priority packet delays are below the threshold.
This threshold limit is set at less than 1ms (last bit in and first bit out).
The QoS capabilities of the VTX1100 are enabled by loading the appropriate values into the
configuration registers. QoS for packet transmission is enabled by performing the following four
steps:
1. Select the TOS/DS or VLAN Priority Tag field as the control for IP packet transmission.
The selection is made using bit 7 of the Flooding Control (FCR[7]) register.
-
FCR[7]=0, use VLAN Priority Tag field to map the transmission priority if this Tag
field exists.
-
FCR[7]=1, use TOS/DS field for IP packet transmission priority mapping.
2. Select which TOS/DS field to use as the control for packet transmission priority if the
TOS/DS field was selected in step 1. The selection is made using bit 6 of the FCB Buffer
Low Threshold (FCBST[6]) register.
-
-
FCBST[6]=0, use DTR subfield to map the transmission priority.
FCBST[6]=1, use IP precedence subfield1 to map the transmission priority.
1 IP precedence and DTR subfields are referred to as TOS/DS[0:2] and TOS/DS[3:5] in the IP TOS/DS
byte.
VERTEX NETWORKS, INC.
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Ver 1.22