Atomic network switch with integrated circuit switch nodes
First Claim
1. For a network switch including a mesh of interconnected network switch nodes, a network switch node comprising:
- a set of ports having more than two members, and the ports in the set including respective medium access control units for transmission and reception of data frames according to a network protocol, the ports in the set of ports being connectable to a port on another network switch node inside the mesh, or to a network communication medium outside the mesh; and
node route logic, coupled with the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports to route a received frame for transmission according to the network protocol to a selected port in the set of ports, including logic to select the selected port according to rules for navigating through the mesh inside to the network switch, and wherein the node route logic forwards the received frame for transmission to a default location of a multiprotocol router resource associated with the switch when the node route logic cannot otherwise determine a route for the received frame.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An atomic type switch mesh is combined with standard local area network links, such as high speed Ethernet, and a bridge-like protocol to provide a high performance scalable network switch. The network switch comprises a plurality of switch nodes, a first set of communication links which are coupled between switch nodes internal to the network switch, and a second set of communication links which comprise network links from switch nodes on the border of the network switch to systems external to the network switch. The respective switch nodes include a set of ports (having more than two members) which are connected to respective communication links in either the first or second set of communication links. Each port in the set comprises a medium access control (MAC) logic unit for a connectionless network protocol, preferably high speed Ethernet. The switch nodes also include a route table memory which has a set of accessible memory locations that store switch route data specifying routes through the plurality of switch nodes within the boundaries of the network switch. Flow detect logic is coupled with the set of ports on the switch node, which monitors frames received by the set of ports and generates an identifying tag for use in accessing the route table memory. Finally, the switch node includes node route logic which is coupled with the flow detect logic, the route table memory and the set of ports. The node route logic monitors frames received by the set of ports to route a received frame for transmission out a port in the set of ports.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1. For a network switch including a mesh of interconnected network switch nodes, a network switch node comprising:
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a set of ports having more than two members, and the ports in the set including respective medium access control units for transmission and reception of data frames according to a network protocol, the ports in the set of ports being connectable to a port on another network switch node inside the mesh, or to a network communication medium outside the mesh; and node route logic, coupled with the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports to route a received frame for transmission according to the network protocol to a selected port in the set of ports, including logic to select the selected port according to rules for navigating through the mesh inside to the network switch, and wherein the node route logic forwards the received frame for transmission to a default location of a multiprotocol router resource associated with the switch when the node route logic cannot otherwise determine a route for the received frame. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An integrated circuit, comprising:
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a set of ports for access to respective communication media, the set of ports having more than two members, and the ports in the set including respective medium access control logic for a network protocol; a memory interface for connection to a route table memory having a set of accessible locations for storing switch route data; flow detect logic, coupled with the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports and generates an identifying tag for use in accessing the route table memory; and node route logic, coupled with the flow detect logic, the memory interface and the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports to route a received frame for transmission to a port in the set of ports, the node route logic determining whether the received frame includes a switch route field indicating a port in the set of ports, and if the received frame includes a switch route field, updates the switch route field, and forwards the received frame with the updated switch route field to the port indicated by the switch route field, and if the received frame does not include a switch route field, accesses the route table memory through the memory interface using the identifying tag generated in the flow detect logic to retrieve switch route data indicating a port in the set of ports, adds a switch route field to the received frame, and forwards the received frame with the switch route field to the port indicated by the switch route data and if the route table memory does not include switch route data for the identifying tag, then forwards the received frame to a default location of a multiprotocol router resource associated with the switch. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A network switch, comprising:
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a plurality of switch nodes; a first set of communication links, communication links in the first set coupled between switch nodes in the plurality of switch nodes internal to the network switch; a second set of communication links, communication links in the second set comprising network links external to the network switch; the respective switch nodes in the plurality of switch nodes including a set of ports connected to respective communication links in either the first set of communication links or the second set of communication links, the set of ports having more than two members, and the ports in the set including respective medium access control logic for a network protocol; route table memory having a set of accessible locations for storing switch route data which specify routes through the plurality of switch nodes; flow detect logic, coupled with the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports and generates an identifying tag for use in accessing the route table memory; and node route logic, coupled with the flow detect logic, the route table memory and the set of ports, which monitors frames received by the set of ports to route a received frame for transmission to a port in the set of ports, the node route logic determining whether the received frame includes a switch route field indicating a port in the set of ports, and if the received frame includes a switch route field, updates the switch route field, and forwards the received frame with the updated switch route field to the port indicated by the switch route field, and if the received frame does not include a switch route field, accesses the route table memory using the identifying tag generated in the flow detect logic to retrieve switch route data indicating a port in the set of ports, adds a switch route field to the received frame, and forwards the received frame with the switch route field to the port indicated by the switch route data, and if the route table memory does not include switch route data corresponding to the identifying tag, then forwarding the received frame to a default location of a multiprotocol router resource associated with the switch. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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Specification