ETHERNET ADDRESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A system for generating a plurality of unique locally administered virtual Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for emulating an Ethernet network, said system comprising:
- a MAC address database for storing original MAC addresses for all nodes in the network;
means for accessing the MAC address database to extract original MAC addresses;
means for mapping the original MAC address for each node in the network to a unique locally administered virtual MAC address, said mapping means comprising;
means for defining a MAC domain for the virtual MAC address utilizing a first portion of the virtual MAC address;
means for indicating that the address is a locally administered address utilizing a second portion of the virtual MAC address;
means for denoting a unit-specific use utilizing a third portion of the virtual MAC address; and
means for denoting an organizationally assigned unit-unique MAC address utilizing a fourth portion of the virtual MAC address;
wherein the unique locally administered virtual MAC address includes six octets, and wherein the first portion of the virtual MAC address that is utilized to define the MAC domain is the six most significant bits of the first octet of the virtual MAC address; and
means for utilizing the unique locally administered virtual MAC addresses for all of the nodes in the network to perform an emulation of the Ethernet network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for mapping original Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to unique locally administered virtual MAC addresses in an Ethernet network. A first field of the address may include a domain for the address, and a second field may indicate that the address is a locally administered MAC address. A third field of the address may include an index indicating a number of virtual MAC addresses for each user. Fourth and fifth fields of the address may include a Network Element ID (NE ID) for uniquely identifying a given access node in a given domain, and a Port ID for uniquely identifying an end-user port at the given access node. The system may be implemented in an access node or in a network emulator, which generates unique locally administered MAC addresses for all of the nodes in the Ethernet network for performing emulations of the network.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A system for generating a plurality of unique locally administered virtual Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for emulating an Ethernet network, said system comprising:
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a MAC address database for storing original MAC addresses for all nodes in the network; means for accessing the MAC address database to extract original MAC addresses; means for mapping the original MAC address for each node in the network to a unique locally administered virtual MAC address, said mapping means comprising; means for defining a MAC domain for the virtual MAC address utilizing a first portion of the virtual MAC address; means for indicating that the address is a locally administered address utilizing a second portion of the virtual MAC address; means for denoting a unit-specific use utilizing a third portion of the virtual MAC address; and means for denoting an organizationally assigned unit-unique MAC address utilizing a fourth portion of the virtual MAC address; wherein the unique locally administered virtual MAC address includes six octets, and wherein the first portion of the virtual MAC address that is utilized to define the MAC domain is the six most significant bits of the first octet of the virtual MAC address; and means for utilizing the unique locally administered virtual MAC addresses for all of the nodes in the network to perform an emulation of the Ethernet network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer-controlled method of generating a plurality of unique locally administered virtual Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for emulating an Ethernet network, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing original MAC addresses for all nodes in the network in a MAC address database; accessing the MAC address database to extract original MAC addresses; mapping the original MAC address for each node in the network to a unique locally administered virtual MAC address, said mapping step comprising; defining a MAC domain for the virtual MAC address utilizing a first portion of the virtual MAC address; indicating that the address is a locally administered address utilizing a second portion of the virtual MAC address; denoting a unit-specific use utilizing a third portion of the virtual MAC address; and denoting an organizationally assigned unit-unique MAC address utilizing a fourth portion of the virtual MAC address; wherein the unique locally administered virtual MAC address includes six octets, and wherein the first portion of the virtual MAC address that is utilized to define the MAC domain is the six most significant bits of the first octet of the virtual MAC address; and utilizing the unique locally administered virtual MAC addresses for all of the nodes in the network to perform an emulation of the Ethernet network. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer program loaded on an internal or external memory of a controller of an access node of a communications system, comprising software code portions for performing the following steps when the computer program is run on a processor of the controller:
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utilizing a first portion of the virtual MAC address to define a MAC domain for the address; utilizing a second portion of the virtual MAC address to indicate that the address is a locally administered address; utilizing a third portion of the virtual MAC address to indicate a unit-specific use; and utilizing a fourth portion of the virtual MAC address to indicate an organizationally assigned unit-unique MAC address; wherein the step of utilizing a first portion of the virtual MAC address to define a MAC domain for the address includes defining different MAC domains for units that have the same unit-unique MAC address, thereby ensuring each unit has a unique locally administered virtual MAC address. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. In an Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) serving a plurality of units, a method of mapping an original Media Access Control (MAC) address to a unique locally administered virtual MAC address having a plurality of fields, said method comprising the steps of:
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utilizing a bit of the virtual MAC address to indicate that the virtual MAC address is a locally administered address; and utilizing additional fields of the virtual MAC address to ensure each unit has at least one unique locally administered virtual MAC address. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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Specification