Nortel Networks Circuit Card User Manual

Page of 908
 NT6D80 MSDL card
 Page 397 of 906
Data flow
The MSDL transmit interface, managed by the MSDL handler, sends data 
from the system to the MSDL. This interface receives packetized data from 
the system and stores it in the transmit buffer on the MSDL. The transmit 
buffer transports these messages to the appropriate buffers, from which the 
messages travel over the MSDL port to the I/O equipment.
The MSDL uses the MSDL receive interface to communicate with the 
system. The MSDL card receives packetized data from the I/O equipment 
over the MSDL ports. This data is processed by the MSDL handler and sent 
to the appropriate function.
The flow control mechanism provides an orderly exchange of transmit and 
receive messages for each operation. Each operation has a number of 
outstanding messages stored in buffers waiting to be sent to their destinations. 
As long as the number of messages does not exceed the threshold specified, 
the messages queue in the buffer in a first-in-first-out process.
If the outstanding number of messages for an operation reaches the threshold, 
the flow control mechanism informs the sender to wait until the number of 
messages is below the threshold before sending the next message.
If buffer space is not available, the request to send a message to the buffer is 
rejected and a NO BUFFER fault indication is sent.
Engineering guidelines
Available network card slots
The number of available network slots depends on the system option, the 
system size, and the number of available network slots in each module for the 
selected system option.
Some of these network card slots are normally occupied by Network cards, 
Superloop Network cards, Conference/TDS, and others, leaving a limited 
number of unused slots for MSDL and other cards.