Stack manager protocol with automatic set up mechanism

• US 20060092853A1
• Filed: 12/29/2004
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Magret, Vincent, Santoso, Ignatius, Hicks, Timothy, da Silva, Roberto Henrique Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 7,483,383 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/583 Stackable routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/55 Prevention, detection or correction of errors

Abstract

A stack switch for performing pass-through forwarding operations, assigning stack switch identifiers to a plurality of stack switches, temporarily disabling supervision messages exchanged by stack switches, and electing a primary master stack switch is disclosed. In the pass-through mode, the stack switch automatically forwards packets between stack ports independent of their destination address to maintain connectivity between adjacent stack switches while conventional bridging and routing operations are disabled. The sequential identifiers are also preferably assigned in accordance with the sequential position of the various stack switches to better reflect the topology of those switches. The switch is also preferably adapted to temporarily disable the transmission of supervision messages between stack switches to prevent re-assignment of network management functions when switch resources are low. The switch may execute a stack switch identifier numbering scheme based on the time the switch became operational.

Claims

1. A switching device in a stack switch system comprising a plurality of stack switches operably coupled in a series, the switching device comprising:

two stack ports, at least one of the stack ports operably coupled to one of the plurality of stack switches; and

a stack manager adapted to;

identify one or more of the plurality of stack switches without an operational stack switch identifier;

automatically assign each of said one or more stack switches one of a set of operational stack switch identifiers;

wherein the set of operational stack switch identifiers comprise sequential integers, and wherein the sequential operational stack switch identifiers are assigned in accordance with a sequential position of said one or more stack switches in the series.

2. The switching device of claim 1, wherein the lowest integer of the set of operational stack switch identifiers is assigned to a stack switch having the lowest MAC address in the stack switch system.

3. The switching device of claim 1, wherein the set of operational stack switch identifiers comprises consecutive integers.

4. The switching device of claim 3, wherein the set of consecutive integers are assigned in ascending order.

5. The switching device of claim 4, wherein a first integer of the set of consecutive integers has a value of one.

6. The switching device of claim 3, wherein the first integer of the set of consecutive integers is assigned to a stack switch having the lowest MAC address in the stack switch system.

7. The switching device of claim 2, wherein the set of operational stack switch identifiers are unique element identifiers within the stack switch system.

8. The switching device of claim 4, wherein the set of consecutive integers are assigned to stack switches reachable from a first stack port of the plurality of stack ports.

9. The switching device of claim 8, wherein stack switch system possesses a ring topology.

10. The switching device of claim 8, wherein stack switch system possesses a chain topology.

11. The switching device of claim 1, wherein the set of sequential integers are assigned to stack switches reachable from a first stack port of the plurality of stack ports and a second stack port of the plurality of stack ports, wherein the sequential integers are assigned in accordance with a sequential position of said one or more stack switches in the series starting with an extreme end of the chain.