Conduit port for network chips

• US 20060187913A1
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kootstra, Lewis S., Watts, Jonathan M., LaVigne, Bruce E., Wickeraad, John A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems

Abstract

Network devices and methods are provided for device monitoring. One embodiment includes a network device having a processor, a high speed interconnect and a number of network chips. The number of network chips are coupled to one another through the high speed interconnect. The number of network chips have a conduit port which can be selectively chosen to exchange packets, received to any network chip, with the processor.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a processor;

a high speed interconnect;

a number of network chips coupled to one another through the high speed interconnect; and

wherein the number of network chips have a conduit port which can be selectively chosen to exchange packets, received to any network chip, with the processor.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the processor includes a single conduit port to receive packets from a selected conduit port on one of the number of network chips.

3. The network device of claim 2, wherein the processor exchanges packets with the selected conduit port on one of the number of network chips through a multiplexor and a buffer.

4. The network device of claim 3, wherein the selected conduit port is selected by the multiplexor and sends packets to an input side of the single conduit port of the processor, and an output side of the single conduit port of the processor is broadcast through the buffer to an input side of the selected conduit port.

5. The network device of claim 2, wherein the selected conduit port is connected to the single conduit port of the processor through a switch.

6. The network device of claim 2, wherein the selected conduit port is connected to the single conduit port of the processor through a hub.

7. The network device of claim 1, wherein the processor is separate from the high speed interconnect.

8. The network device of claim 1, wherein each of the conduit ports is an IEEE 802.3 media access control (MAC) port.

9. A network device, comprising:

a number of network chips coupled to one another through a high speed interconnect of the device, the number of network chips having a conduit port which can be selectively chosen to exchange packets, received to any network chip on the device, with a processor responsible for processing packets; and

wherein the processor includes a single conduit port to receive packets from a selected conduit port on one of the number of network chips.

10. The network device of claim 9, wherein the processor exchanges packets with the selected conduit port through a multiplexor and a buffer.

11. The network device of claim 10, wherein an output side of each conduit port on the number of network chips is connected to the multiplexor.

12. The network device of claim 11, wherein the selected conduit port is selected by the multiplexor and sends packets to an input side of the single conduit port of the processor, and an output side of the single conduit port of the processor is broadcast through the buffer to an input side of each of the conduit ports on the number of network chips.

13. The network device of claim 12, wherein each network chip includes hardware filtering logic such that each network chip can operate on packets received from the single conduit port of the processor.

14. The network device of claim 9, wherein the device is selected from the group of a network switch and a network router.

15. The network device of claim 9, wherein the device is part of a local area network (LAN).

16. A network device, comprising:

a number of network chips coupled to one another through a high speed interconnect on the device;

a processor responsible for processing packets, received to any network chip on the device, wherein the processor includes a single conduit port to receive packets from the number of network chips; and

means for selecting a conduit port on one of the number of network chips to exchange packets with the processor.

17. The network device of claim 16, wherein each of the number of network chips includes a conduit port and the means includes a switch.

18. The network device of claim 16, wherein each of the number of network chips includes a conduit port and the means includes a multiplexor.

19. The network device of claim 18, wherein the means includes a buffer to broadcast an output from the single conduit port on the processor to an input side of each of the conduit ports on the number of network chips.

20. The network device of claim 19, wherein the means includes hardware filtering logic on each of the network chips such that certain network chips can operate on packets to send to a local processor and other packets will be operated on by only a particular network chip to be sent out an external network port.

21. The network device of claim 19, wherein the device includes a number of processors each having a single conduit port to exchange packets with the number of network chips through an independent multiplexor and buffer pair.

22. The network device of claim 21, wherein the mulitplexor in each pair is to select the conduit port on one of the number of network chips to exchange packets with the single conduit port on a selected processor.

23. The network device of claim 22, wherein the buffer in each pair is to broadcast an output from the single conduit port on the selected processor to a number of multiplexors, each of the number of multiplexors independently associated with an input side of the conduit port on a particular network chip.

24. A method for moving packets on a network device, comprising:

using a high speed interconnect to connect a number of network chips on the device;

coupling a conduit port on each of the number of network chips to a selector; and

using the selector to select one conduit port from among the conduit ports on each of the number of network chips to connect with a processor responsible for processing packets received to any network chip on the device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the method includes receiving packets from a selected conduit port on one of the number of network chips to a single conduit port on the processor via the selector.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the selector is a multiplexor and the method includes exchanging packets between the processor and the selected conduit port through the multiplexor and a buffer.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the selector is a multiplexor and the method includes using the multiplexor to select one conduit port to send packets to an input side of a single conduit port on the processor.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the method includes broadcasting an output from the single conduit port on the processor through a buffer to an input side of the conduit port on each of the number of network chips.

29. A method for moving packets on a network device, comprising:

coupling a number of network chips to one another through a high speed interconnect of the device, the number of network chips having a conduit port which can be selectively chosen to exchange packets, received to any network chip on the device, with a processor; and

receiving packets from a selected conduit port on one of the number of network chips to a single conduit port on the processor.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the method includes exchanging packets between the processor and the selected conduit port through a multiplexor and a buffer.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the method includes coupling an output of each conduit port on the number of network chips to the multiplexor and using the multiplexor to chose the selected conduit port and to the processor.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the method includes receiving packets to an external port of any network chip on the device and forward the packets to the selected conduit port via the high speed interconnect.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the method includes broadcasting an output of the single conduit port on the processor through a buffer to an input side of a subset of the conduit ports on the number of network chips.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the method includes providing hardware filtering logic on each of the number of network chips such that each network chip can operate on packets received from the single conduit port of the processor.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the method includes forwarding the output broadcast to the subset of the conduit ports to an external port.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the method includes forwarding the output broadcast to the subset of the conduit ports to local processing on another network chip via the high speed interconnect.