Advanced switching mechanism for providing high-speed communications with high Quality of Service
First Claim
1. A method of switching digital information packets between network nodes, including the steps of:
- forming a digital Internet Protocol (IP) information packet having an IP header including a first portion allocated for service-related fields and a second portion allocated for IP address fields;
the second portion comprising at least one of the following fields;
a Packet Number field for indicating whether the packet is the first packet in a chain of packets, or a generic packet for a specific purpose;
at least one virtual connection identifier;
a Quality of Service (QoS) field for identifying parameters of Quality of Service;
a management field containing a management message; and
a security field for indicating security parameters for providing security of packet transmission; and
processing information contained in the IP header to provide switching of the IP information packet.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The method described here provides for high-speed, Quality of Service (QoS) driven, and secure transport of voice, video and data packets for facilitating the convergence of multiple networking facilities into one. The method involves replacing one or more bits in the IP header address fields and replacing them with or adding to them unique virtual connection or virtual circuit (VC) identifiers for node-to-node, that is device-to-device, connectivity as well as for representing values or parameters for packet type, QoS, security, network management and node/link resources. Identifiers for the above parameters are developed and saved at each node as a switching table. The values representing the identifiers from a switching table are used to assign virtual connections as well as control the flows of packets.
42 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of switching digital information packets between network nodes, including the steps of:
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forming a digital Internet Protocol (IP) information packet having an IP header including a first portion allocated for service-related fields and a second portion allocated for IP address fields;
the second portion comprising at least one of the following fields;a Packet Number field for indicating whether the packet is the first packet in a chain of packets, or a generic packet for a specific purpose; at least one virtual connection identifier; a Quality of Service (QoS) field for identifying parameters of Quality of Service; a management field containing a management message; and a security field for indicating security parameters for providing security of packet transmission; and processing information contained in the IP header to provide switching of the IP information packet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A packet switching system for switching digital information packets, comprising:
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a packet identifying unit for identifying an incoming IP packet to determine a virtual connection identifier and a type of digital information carried by the incoming IP packet having an IP header including a first portion allocated for service-related fields and a second portion allocated for IP address fields, the virtual connection identifier being arranged in the second portion of the incoming packet; and a path selection unit responsive to the virtual connection identifier for selecting a path suitable for the determined type of the digital information. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A communications system comprising
a packet identification mechanism for identifying a digital IP information packet having an IP header including a first portion allocated for service-related fields and a second portion allocated for IP address fields, the second portion having a virtual connection identifier, and a path selecting mechanism for by selecting paths suitable for digital information carried by the packet, based on the virtual connection identifier.
Specification