Method and apparatus for interconnecting LANs
First Claim
1. Apparatus for directly interconnecting a plurality of sub-emulated local area networks (sub-ELANs) across a common asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network to form a single ELAN, each of said sub-ELANs including a LAN Emulation Server (LES) and a Broadcast and Unknown Server (BUS), said apparatus comprising:
- an ELAN contronect network directly connected to said common ATM network for interconnecting the LES and BUS of each of said sub-ELANs, the ELAN contronect network being configured to present itself to the LES and BUS of each of said sub-ELANs as a LAN Emulation Client (LEC).
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Accused Products
Abstract
A so-called "ELAN contronect network" is employed to interconnect sub-ELANs to form an ELAN. More specifically, the "ELAN contronect network" is a separate network for interconnecting the servers of the sub-ELANs, where a sub-ELAN is a part of an ELAN having its own LES and BUS that may also be configured as a stand-alone ELAN. Each of the sub-ELANs is connected to the ELAN contronect network via a point-to-point connection-oriented connection, e.g., an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connection and the ELAN contronect network is configured to present itself to each of the servers of the sub-ELANs as clients thereof. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the ELAN contronect network includes an address server, a broadcast/route server, a configuration server, multimedia servers, and at least one LAN hub interconnected over a high-speed backbone. The address server contains an address data base for performing address resolution between the at least two addresses of each ELAN end-point in response to requests for such translations. The broadcast/route server receives data packets for broadcast to a different sub-ELAN from which the packets originated and broadcasts the received data packets to at least one other sub-ELAN. The broadcast/route server also recognizes that a packet which is a broadcast packet at layer 2 is actually a request for an address resolution at layer 3. If so, the broadcast/route server collaborates with the address server to perform the necessary address resolution and insures that a response is sent only to the client originating the request.
239 Citations
26 Claims
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1. Apparatus for directly interconnecting a plurality of sub-emulated local area networks (sub-ELANs) across a common asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network to form a single ELAN, each of said sub-ELANs including a LAN Emulation Server (LES) and a Broadcast and Unknown Server (BUS), said apparatus comprising:
an ELAN contronect network directly connected to said common ATM network for interconnecting the LES and BUS of each of said sub-ELANs, the ELAN contronect network being configured to present itself to the LES and BUS of each of said sub-ELANs as a LAN Emulation Client (LEC). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method for use in a contronect network which directly interconnects a plurality of sub-emulated local area networks (sub-ELANs) across a common asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network to form a single ELAN, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a layer-3 packet originated by a LAN Emulation Client (LEC) connected to one of said sub-ELANs, said received packet containing a broadcast indication at layer 2; determining that said received packet is an address query at layer 3 and contains a layer-3 received client address; obtaining a corresponding address for said received client address; and responding to said layer-3 packet with said corresponding address.
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Specification