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Arrangement for rendering forwarding decisions for packets transferred among network switches

  • US 5,872,783 A
  • Filed: 07/24/1996
  • Issued: 02/16/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In a communications network, an arrangement comprising:

  • A) a first switch that includes a first-switch port from which the first switch forwards packets, each of a plurality of said packets including a path-identifier field and link-level destination- and source-address fields; and

    B) a second switch comprising;

    i) a plurality of second-switch ports, including second-switch output ports and a second-switch input port coupled to the first-switch port;

    ii) a forwarding table into which the second switch places at each of a plurality of table locations therein a respective entry that associates a respective link-level address with a second-switch output port at which the second switch has received a packet that included a source-address field containing that link-level address, each table location being represented by a respective index address; and

    iii) means for fetching the table entry at the table location represented by the contents of the path-identifier field of each of said plurality of packets forwarded from said first-switch port and received at the second-switch input port and, if that entry associates a given second-switch port with the contents of that packet'"'"'s destination-address field, forwarding that received packet from the given second-switch port.

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