Information routing system and apparatus

• US 6,999,454 B1
• Filed: 01/17/2002
• Issued: 02/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Crump, Richard H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Wellington
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fox, Jamal A.
• Application Number:
  US10/052,128
• Time in Patent Office: 1,489 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/473, 370/474, 370/351, 370/238, 370/241, 370/445, 370/254, 370/252, 370/469, 370/467, 370/230, 370/362, 370/364, 370/365, 370/401, 370/420, 370/421, 370/423, 370/256, 370/390, 370/432, 370/400, 370/466, 370/412, 370/463, 370/396, 370/910, 370/911, 370/395.1, 370/395.31, 709/230, 709/220, 709/249, 709/238, 709/201, 709/225, 709/229, 709/217, 709/219, 709/203, 709/251, 709/213, 710/100, 710/381, 710/301, 710/303, 710/74, 711/114, 711/100, 711/6, 712/1, 712/29, 712/33, 712/220, 712/200
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/645 Splitting route computation layer and forwarding layer, e.g. routing according to path computational element [PCE] or based on OpenFlow functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/201 Multicast operation; Broadcast operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/352 Gigabit ethernet switching [GBPS]

Abstract

An information routing system and apparatus includes separate control and forwarding planes. The control plane is split into box management control functions and routing control functions. The box management control functions are isolated to a single processing card, while the routing control functions are distributed across multiple processing cards. The routing table is also distributed across multiple processing cards. The multiple processing cards are interconnected via a high-speed backplane bus for control plane traffic and by a fabric for forwarding plane traffic.

Claims

1. An information routing system comprising:

at least one control processor component;

at least one service termination component;

control plane logic including box management control logic isolated to the at least one control processor component and routing control logic distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

forwarding plane logic separate from the control plane logic and distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

routing table management logic distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

a control interface for transporting control plane information between the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component; and

a routing fabric separate from the control interface for transporting forwarding plane information between the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component.

2. The information routing system of claim 1, wherein the control interface comprises a 1 Gigabit Ethernet backplane bus.

3. The information routing system of claim 1, wherein the routing fabric comprises a 640 Gigabit routing fabric.

4. The information routing system of claim 1, wherein the at least one control processor component comprises:

a first processor for executing the box management control logic; and

a second processor for executing the routing control logic.

5. The information routing system of claim 1, wherein the at least one service termination component comprises a processor for executing the routing control logic independently of the forwarding plane logic.

6. The information routing system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one fabric component for managing the routing fabric.

7. The information routing system of claim 1, wherein the distributed routing table management logic is operably coupled to learn local and remote routes and to distribute local best routes to peer control processor components and service termination components.

8. The information routing system of claim 7, wherein each peer component stores all routes it receives through the distributed routing table management logic.

9. The information routing system of claim 7, wherein each peer component stores only routes it receives through the distributed routing table management logic that will be immediately used and discards routes that will not be immediately used.

10. An information routing apparatus comprising:

at least one control processor component;

at least one service termination component;

control plane logic including box management control logic isolated to the at least one control processor component and routing control logic distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

forwarding plane logic separate from the control plane logic and distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

routing table management logic distributed across the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component;

a control interface for transporting control plane information between the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component; and

a routing fabric separate from the control interface for transporting forwarding plane information between the at least one control processor component and the at least one service termination component.

11. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the control interface comprises a 1 Gigabit Ethernet backplane bus.

12. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the routing fabric comprises a 640 Gigabit routing fabric.

13. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one control processor component comprises:

a first processor for executing the box management control logic; and

a second processor for executing the routing control logic.

14. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one service termination component comprises a processor for executing the routing control logic independently of the forwarding plane logic.

15. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

at least one fabric component for managing the routing fabric.

16. The information routing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the distributed routing table management logic is operably coupled to learn local and remote routes and to distribute local best routes to peer control processor components and service termination components.

17. The information routing apparatus of claim 16, wherein each peer component stores all routes it receives through the distributed routing table management logic.

18. The information routing apparatus of claim 16, wherein each peer component stores only routes it receives through the distributed routing table management logic that will be immediately used and discards routes that will not be immediately used.