Heterogeneous media packet bridging

• US 20050047407A1
• Filed: 08/27/2003
• Published: 03/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: CoSine Communications, Inc. (Steel Partners Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Sargor, Chandramouli, Desai, Sachin, Balay, Rajesh
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]

Abstract

Methods and Systems are provided for bridging heterogeneous media packets using a single processor resource having a virtual bridge. Network interfaces associated with heterogeneous media channels relay network packets to the virtual bridge. The virtual bridge accesses metadata associated with the relayed network packets and translates the network packets to between media formats. The translated network packets are then relayed to an appropriate network interface. In one embodiment, the virtual bridge is dynamically configurable within the processing resource.

Claims

1. A method to bridge network packet media, comprising:

receiving a first network packet from a first media channel via a first network interface;

receiving a second network packet from a second media channel via a second network interface;

relaying the first network packet and the second network packet to a single processing resource; and

using an application accessible to the single processing resource to bridge the first network packet to the second media channel via the second network interface and the second network packet to the first media channel via the first network interface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein in receiving the network packets, the first media channel is a different media channel from the second media channel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein in using the processing resource, the processing resource uses metadata associated with each of the media channels to translate the network packets between the media channels.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein in using the processing resource, the metadata includes Ethernet header data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein in using the application, the application relays at least one of the network packets to other applications accessible to a second processing resource in order to assist in bridging between the media channels.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein in using the application, the application is a virtual bridge application accessible to the processing resource to bridge between the media channels.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein in using the application, the virtual bridge application uses a translation table to bridge between the media channels.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein in receiving the network packets, the processing resource and the network interfaces are implemented in at least one of a network router, a network switch, and a high-density server.

9. A method to bridge network packet media, comprising:

receiving a first network packet associated with a first media format;

receiving a second network packet associated with a second media format; and

accessing a translation data structure accessible to a single network resource in order to translate the first network packet from the first media format to the second media format.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising, accessing the translation data structure to translate the second network packet from the second media format to the first media format.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein in receiving the first and second network packets, the network packets are each received from different network interfaces, where each network interface is associated with a different media channel.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein in receiving the first and second network packets, the network packets include Ethernet header data.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein in accessing, the translation data structure is configurable to accept a plurality of media format translations from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) application.

14. A network packet media bridging system, comprising:

a plurality of network interfaces, wherein each network interface accepts network packets from a different media transmission channel; and

a bridging application that is accessible to a single processing resource for receiving the network packets from the network interfaces and for translating a number of the network packets between media formats for delivery to a number of the media transmission channels.

15. The network packet media bridging system of claim 14, wherein the bridging application is dynamically instantiated and configurable within the processing resource.

16. The network packet media bridging system of claim 14, wherein the bridging application accesses metadata associated with the network packets, where the metadata is associated with the media formats of the network packets.

17. The network packet media bridging system of claim 16, wherein the bridging application uses Ethernet header data included within the metadata to translate a number of the network packets to an Ethernet format before translating a number of the network packets between the media formats.

18. The network packet media bridging system of claim 14, wherein the bridging application communicates with one or more additional processing resources having one or more additional applications in order to translate the network packets between the media formats.

19. The network packet media bridging system of claim 14, wherein the media formats include at least one of a Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) format, a Frame Relay (FR) format, a Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) format, and an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) format.

20. The network packet media bridging system of claim 14, wherein the bridging application is a virtual media bridge using Ethernet to translate between the media formats.