FRAME TRANSFER APPARATUS AND FRAME TRANSFER METHOD

• US 20140105020A1
• Filed: 08/07/2013
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: MITSUMORI, Yasuyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,548,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/16 in connection oriented networks, e.g. frame relay
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/215 using token-bucket
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric

Abstract

There is provided a frame transfer apparatus, which includes: a storage unit configured to store an address and a port in association with the address; a receiving unit configured to receive a frame; a switch unit configured to determine an output port based on a destination address of a received frame; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the received frame, from the output port determined by the switch unit, wherein the switch unit includes a copying unit configured to copy the received frame when the destination address of the received frame has not been stored in the storage unit, and a rate control unit configured to control an output rate of a frame to be copied.

Claims

1. A frame transfer apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store an address and a port in association with the address;

a receiving unit configured to receive a frame;

a switch unit configured to determine an output port based on a destination address of the received frame; and

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the received frame, from the output port determined by the switch unit,

wherein the switch unit includes

a copying unit configured to copy the received frame when the destination address of the received frame has not been stored in the storage unit, and

a rate control unit configured to control an output rate of a frame to be copied.

2. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rate control unit controls the rate of the frame copied by the copying unit among received frames.

3. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the switching unit further includes a distribution unit configured to distribute the received frame of which destination address has not been stored in the storage unit to a plurality of flows according to a flow identifier included in a header of the frame, and

the rate control unit performs a rate control for each flow.

4. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the rate control unit and the plurality of flows are defined as a first rate control unit and a plurality of first flows, respectively,

the distribution unit distributes the received frame to a plurality of second flows according to the flow identifier included in the header of the frame, and

the switching unit includes a second rate control unit configured to control the rate of any one of the second flows which includes both the received frame of which destination address has been stored in the storage unit and the received frame of the first flow not discarded by the first rate control unit.

5. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the distribution unit distributes received frames including a plurality of different flow identifiers in the header to the same flow.

6. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the distribution unit distributes received frames received by a plurality of different ports to the same flow.

7. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the distribution unit distributes received frames including a plurality of different flow identifiers in the header to the same second flow.

8. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the distribution unit distributes received frames received by a plurality of different ports to the same second flow.

9. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rate control unit controls the output rate according to the number of the received frame copied in the copying unit.

10. The frame transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the switch unit further includes a conversion unit configured to convert a priority designated by the header of the frame according to the flow identifier included in the header, and

the rate control unit controls the output rate according to the converted priority.

11. A frame transfer method implemented in a frame transfer apparatus including a storage unit configured to store an address and a port in association with the address, the frame transfer method comprising:

receiving a frame;

determining an output port based on a destination address of the received frame; and

transmitting the received frame, from the determined output port,

wherein the received frame is copied when the destination address of the received frame has not been stored in the storage unit,

and an output rate of a frame to be copied is controlled.