LOGICAL BRIDGING SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
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1. A bridge for routing data packets on a network, the bridge comprising:
- a physical ingress port to receive a data packet from the network;
a classification engine to assign source logical port information to the data packet based on characteristics of the data packet, wherein an assigned logical ingress port is decoupled from the physical ingress port;
a bridging engine downstream of the classification engine to learn the source logical port information and to forward the data packet to a logical egress port based on a destination address of the data packet; and
a logical port mapping engine to map the logical egress port to a physical egress port at which the data packet is to be egressed.
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Abstract
A system and method of extending a standard bridge to enable execution of logical bridging functionality are disclosed. In some implementations, a logical bridge may assign source logical port information to a data packet based on characteristics of the data packet, employ the source logical port information to learn the source address and to forward the data packet to a logical egress port, and map the logical egress port to a physical egress port at which the data packet is to be egressed. A tunnel interface may optionally be applied to a data packet upon egress.
452 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A bridge for routing data packets on a network, the bridge comprising:
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a physical ingress port to receive a data packet from the network; a classification engine to assign source logical port information to the data packet based on characteristics of the data packet, wherein an assigned logical ingress port is decoupled from the physical ingress port; a bridging engine downstream of the classification engine to learn the source logical port information and to forward the data packet to a logical egress port based on a destination address of the data packet; and a logical port mapping engine to map the logical egress port to a physical egress port at which the data packet is to be egressed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A pipeline for routing data packets on a network, the pipeline comprising:
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a network bridge to receive data packets originating from a wireless network and from a wired network; a classification engine to assign a source logical port to a data packet, wherein the assignment is independent of whether the data packet originated on the wireless network or on the wired network, and wherein the source logical port is decoupled from physical ports in the bridge; and a bridging engine downstream of the classification engine to forward the data packet to a logical egress port, wherein the bridging engine makes a forwarding decision based upon the source logical port. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A bridge for routing data packets in a network, the bridge comprising:
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a plurality of physical ingress ports to receive data packets originating from a wireless network and from a wired network, wherein the bridge is in communication with one or more wireless access points; a plurality of egress ports; a bridging engine that directs a data packet from an ingress port where it is received to one or more selected egress ports; and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) collection module to extract RSSI information from the data packets originating from the wireless network. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of routing data packets on a network, the method comprising:
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receiving a data packet from the network at a physical ingress port of a switch; assigning source logical port information to the data packet based on characteristics of the data packet; employing the source logical port information to transport the data packet to a logical egress port based on a destination address of the data packet; and mapping the logical egress port to a physical egress port at which the data packet is to be egressed from the switch. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification