Network switch having a programmable counter

• US 20050141501A1
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ambe, Shekhar, Kadambi, Shiri
• Granted Patent: US 7,643,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/42 Loop networks
• 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 12/4645 Details on frame tagging routing of packets H04L45/00; support for virtual LAN H04L49/354
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/467 Arrangements for supporting untagged frames, e.g. port-based VLANs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5602 Bandwidth control in ATM Networks, e.g. leaky bucket
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5665 Interaction of ATM with other protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/742 Route cache; Operation thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/286 Time to live
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/431 using padding or de-padding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3081 : ATM peripheral units, e.g. policing, insertion or extraction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 : for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/352 : Gigabit ethernet switching [GBPS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 : for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/602 : Multilayer or multiprotocol switching, e.g. IP switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 : Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9073 : Early interruption upon arrival of a fraction of a packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 : Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 : Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 : Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields

Abstract

A network switch for switching packets from a source to a destination includes a source port for receiving an incoming packet from a source, a destination port that contains a path to a destination for the packet, and a programmable counter unit for counting a number of packets of selected packet types which are received by the switch.

Claims

1. A network device for switching packets from a source to a destination, said network device including:

a source port for receiving a packet;

a destination port which contains a path to a destination for the packet; and

a programmable counter unit for counting a number of packets of selected packet types which are received by the device, the programmable counter unit including a rules table for storing rules which control packet flow;

wherein said rules table comprises a counter field, a filter value field, and a filter select field.

2. A network device as recited in claim 1, wherein said programmable counter unit comprises a filter unit which parses selected fields of an incoming packet and compares the selected field to a table to determine whether the incoming packet is of a selected packet type.

3. A network device as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a CPU interface for connecting the network device to a remote CPU, wherein said remote CPU is used to program the programmable counter unit.

4. A network device as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an internal memory for storing first selected incoming packets therein;

a memory management unit comprising an external memory interface for interfacing with an external memory, said external memory interface being configured to send second selected incoming packets to the external memory; and

a communication channel for communicating data and messaging information between the source port and the destination port, the internal memory, and the memory management unit.

5. A network device as recited in claim 1, wherein said programmable counter unit is configured to provide separate counts of a plurality of different types of incoming packets, and take different action based upon different count values for the different packet types.

6. A network device as recited in claim 1, wherein fields of the selected packet type include a new code point action field.

7. A network device for switching packets from a source to a destination, said network device including:

a source port for receiving a packet;

a destination port which contains a path to a destination for the packet; and

a programmable counter unit for counting a number of packets of selected packet types which are received by the device, the programmable counter unit including a rules table therein for storing rules which control packet flow;

wherein fields of a selected packet type include a new code point action field, and

wherein the new code point action field may be set to a value for one of no action, assign a new code point, assign the new code point and change the priority of the selected packet, and drop the packet.

8. A network device as recited in claim 7, wherein if the value for the new code point action field indicates assign the new code point, a class of service is changed for the selected packet.