Method and Apparatus for Simulating IP Multinetting
First Claim
1. A method of processing a packet at a network element, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving the packet at an Internet Protocol (IP) Multinetting port of the network element from a local area network;
determining whether the packet contains a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Identifier (ID) corresponding to an IP Multinetting VLAN on the local area network;
determining whether the packet is addressed to an IP subnet corresponding to the IP Multinetting VLAN; and
if the packet was received at the IP Multinetting port, contains the VLAN ID corresponding to the IP Multinetting VLAN, and is addressed to one of the IP subnets assigned to the IP multinetting VLAN, performing VLAN Translation to change the packet so that the packet contains a VLAN ID corresponding to the IP subnet before passing the packet internally to be processed by the network element.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
IP Multinetting on a local area network is simulated by performing VLAN translation at a port connecting to the local area network. This allows IP addresses from multiple subnets to be associated with a single VLAN on the Local Area Network (LAN), while allowing the core switch to process the packets with a one-to-one correspondence between IP Subnet and VLAN. When a packet is received from the local area network at an IP multinetting port, the VLAN ID will be read to determine if the packet contains the IP Multinetting VLAN ID. The IP Subnet address will also be checked to see if the packet is associated with an IP Subnet that is part of the Multinetting. If so, the multinetting VLAN ID will be changed to an IP Subnet specific VLAN ID before the packet is processed by the core switch. In the reverse direction, IP subnet specific VLAN IDs will be translated to the IP Multinetting VLAN ID.
12 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of processing a packet at a network element, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving the packet at an Internet Protocol (IP) Multinetting port of the network element from a local area network; determining whether the packet contains a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Identifier (ID) corresponding to an IP Multinetting VLAN on the local area network; determining whether the packet is addressed to an IP subnet corresponding to the IP Multinetting VLAN; and if the packet was received at the IP Multinetting port, contains the VLAN ID corresponding to the IP Multinetting VLAN, and is addressed to one of the IP subnets assigned to the IP multinetting VLAN, performing VLAN Translation to change the packet so that the packet contains a VLAN ID corresponding to the IP subnet before passing the packet internally to be processed by the network element. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of supporting IP multinetting on a network element that has a data plane configured to require a one-to-one correspondence between IP subnet and VLAN ID, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a packet by the network element at a first network port; classifying the packet according to IP subnet to determine a first VLAN for the packet; processing the packet within the VLAN to determine an output port for the packet; passing the packet to the output port; determining whether the packet is to be translated on an IP multinetting VLAN; and if the packet is to be translated on an IP multinetting VLAN, performing VLAN translation to change the first VLAN to a second VLAN, the second VLAN being associated with the IP multinetting VLAN so that the packet may be transmitted within the IP multinetting VLAN on an attached Local Area Network. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A network element, comprising:
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processing circuitry designed to process packets under the assumption that addresses from at most one class C IP subnet will be associated with a particular VLAN; and a multinetting port configured to perform VLAN translation to enable IP multinetting to be supported on an attached Local Area Network such that hosts with IP addresses assigned from multiple class C IP subnets are able to participate in an IP multinetting VLAN on the LAN, while allowing the network element to process traffic from the hosts under the assumption that addresses from at most one class C IP subnet will be associated with a particular VLAN. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification