Methods and apparatus for provisioning connection oriented, quality of service capabilities and services
First Claim
1. A switching device, comprising:
- an ingress media access control module to receive incoming frames;
a classification engine to process frame data from the media access control module based upon at least on attribute;
a queue ingress manager to assign data to one of a plurality of queues based upon the processing by the classification engine, and to update registers, tables, and counters describing memory system status;
a plurality of transmit queues to receive data from the queue ingress manager;
a metadata generator coupled to the plurality of queues to encapsulate the data from the transmit queues as the data is transmitted out of the queues;
a switch fabric to receive the encapsulated data;
a queue egress manager coupled to the plurality of transmit queues to manage transmission of frame data from the plurality of transit queues to the switching fabric, and to update registers, tables, and counters describing the memory system status;
a metadata stripper coupled to the switch fabric to strip the encapsulation data;
a receive memory system to store the un-encapsulated data; and
an egress media access control to receive data from the receive memory system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention describes a system for providing quality of service (QoS) features in communications switching devices and routers. The QoS provided by this system need not be intrinsic to the communication protocols being transported through the network. Preferred embodiments also generate statistics with the granularity of the QoS. The system can be implemented in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), in a chassis-based switch or router, or in a more general distributed architecture. The system architecture is a virtual output queued (VOQed) crossbar. The administrator establishes policies for port pairs within the switch, and optionally with finer granularity. Frames are directed to unique VOQs based on both policy and protocol criteria. Policies are implemented by means of a scheduling engine that allocates time slices (minimum units of crossbar access).
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Citations
52 Claims
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1. A switching device, comprising:
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an ingress media access control module to receive incoming frames;
a classification engine to process frame data from the media access control module based upon at least on attribute;
a queue ingress manager to assign data to one of a plurality of queues based upon the processing by the classification engine, and to update registers, tables, and counters describing memory system status;
a plurality of transmit queues to receive data from the queue ingress manager;
a metadata generator coupled to the plurality of queues to encapsulate the data from the transmit queues as the data is transmitted out of the queues;
a switch fabric to receive the encapsulated data;
a queue egress manager coupled to the plurality of transmit queues to manage transmission of frame data from the plurality of transit queues to the switching fabric, and to update registers, tables, and counters describing the memory system status;
a metadata stripper coupled to the switch fabric to strip the encapsulation data;
a receive memory system to store the un-encapsulated data; and
an egress media access control to receive data from the receive memory system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A switching device, comprising:
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a switching fabric; and
a processing means coupled to the switching fabric, the processing means to enable meeting QoS requirements for data in a connectionless format. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32-44. -44. (canceled)
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45. A method comprising:
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receiving data at a first port within a network switching device;
queuing the received data into a plurality of queues;
causing data to be output from specific ones of the queues, based on a set of QoS criteria and time dependent attributes of the plurality of queues;
associating the data output from the queues with QoS related metadata; and
transmitting the data output from the queues and the associated metadata into a switching fabric within the network switching device, for transmission to a second port within the network switching device. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification