IMPARTIAL SCHEDULING FOR ATM CELL TRANSMISSION UNDER OVERSCHEDULED CONDITION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To schedule ATM cell transmission impartially in asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) data communication. SOLUTION: A network hub and ATM translator system 5 are provided with a translator card 15 and a host controller 10 interfacing the translator card 15. A segmentation and reassembly SAR device 12 of the translator card 15 connects to a SONET transmission reception circuit 20 making communication with a transceiver 22 and sends/receives ATM packets/cells via a communication facility OF. A scheduler 14 is provided with a heap sort state machine that stores sorted entry lists to on-chip parameter and off-chip parameter memories 18 in a state of heap and informs to the SAR device 12 a transmission credit issued for a cell to allow the device 12 to send the cell.