摘要:
A protocol-independent error-control system includes several components (840a, 830a, 820a, 150b, 820b, 830b, 840b) that assist in providing more reliable data transmission between endpoints (110, 120): 1) an ATM adaptation layer that supports quality-critical and time-critical data; 2) a rate converter that uses a priority scheme to adjust the data rate for different types of data; and 3) an error-control subsystem that implements a data link protocol optimized for error-prone links, and capable of recognizing traffic from many kinds of network sources. The error-control subsystem may be used alone or in combination with the ATM adaptation layer (170, 172, 180, 182) and/or the rate converter (830).