Apparatus and methods for increasing bandwidth in an infiniband switch

• US 20030223435A1
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsemi Solutions (U.S.), Inc. (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Palau Acquisition Corporation
• Inventors: Gil, Mercedes E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,149,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/400
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5602 Bandwidth control in ATM Networks, e.g. leaky bucket

Abstract

A switch for use with an InfiniBand network. The switch includes a hub that redirects packets from a first InfiniBand device to a second InfiniBand device, a buffer that receives packets from the first InfiniBand device, and plurality of ports for transferring the data to the hub. A plurality of registers are coupled to the buffer for storing data from the packets. A switch network for selectively connecting the registers to the ports such that each register transfers a different portion of the data to a selected port.

Claims

1. A switch for use with an InfiniBand network, the switch comprising:

a hub that redirects packets from a first InfiniBand device to a second InfiniBand device;

a buffer that receives packets from the first InfiniBand device;

a plurality of registers coupled to the buffer for storing data from the packets;

a plurality of ports for transferring the data from the registers to the hub; and

a switch network for selectively connecting the registers to the ports such that each register transfers a different portion of the data to a selected port.

2. A switch, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the plurality of registers are connected in a series such that a first register receives a word from the buffer and transfers the word to a next register.

3. A switch, as set forth in claim 2, wherein the buffer concatenates words of the packets into larger words and wherein at least the first register can store the larger word.

4. A switch, as set forth in claim 3, wherein control data is appended to the larger word that controls the operation of the switch network.

5. A switch for use with InfiniBand network, the switch comprising:

a plurality of ports for transferring packets to a hub;

a buffer that receives the packets in 32-bit words and concatenates a plurality of the 32-bit words to form a large word;

a pipeline, comprising a plurality of stages, connected to the buffer, the pipeline receiving large words from the buffer and at each of a plurality of stages transferring a portion of a large word to an assigned port.

6. The switch, as set forth in claim 5, wherein the pipeline can hold a plurality of large words.

7. The switch, as set forth in claim 6, wherein the pipeline can hold at least three words.

8. The switch, as set forth in claim 5, further comprising:

a switch network connected to each of the stages that connects a stage to a port associated with the packet currently in the stage.

9. The switch, as set forth in claim 8, the switch network is responsive to a state variable.

10. The switch, as set forth in claim 9, wherein each large word has an associated state variable.

11. The switch, as set forth in claim 5, wherein the concatenates at least three 32-bit words to form a large word.