Apparatus and method for classifying traffic in a distributed architecture router
First Claim
1. A router for interconnecting N interfacing peripheral devices, said router comprising:
- a switch fabric; and
a plurality of routing nodes coupled to said switch fabric, each of said routing nodes comprising;
a plurality of physical medium device (PMD) modules to transmit data packets to and receiving data packets from selected ones of said N interfacing peripheral devices;
an input-output processing (IOP) module coupled to said PMD modules and said switch fabric, wherein said IOP module routes said data packets between said PMD modules and said switch fabric and between said PMD modules; and
a classification module associated with said IOP module for classifying a first data packet received from said IOP module, wherein said classification module causes said IOP module to forward said first data packet based on said classification, andwherein said classification module replaces at least one of;
a medium access control (MAC) address and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of said first data packet with a replacement address selected from a pool of addresses associated with said router.
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Abstract
A router for interconnecting N interfacing peripheral devices. The router comprises a switch fabric and routing nodes coupled to the switch fabric. Each routing node comprises: i) a plurality of physical medium device (PMD) modules for transmitting data packets to and receiving data packets from selected ones of the N interfacing peripheral devices; ii) an input-output processing (IOP) module coupled to the PMD modules and the switch fabric for routing the data packets between the PMD modules and the switch fabric and between the PMD modules; and iii) a classification module associated with the IOP module for classifying a first data packet received from the IOP module. The classification module causes the IOP module to forward the first data packet based on the classification. The router architecture incorporates streams-based billing support, firewall capabilities, and data surveillance functionality.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A router for interconnecting N interfacing peripheral devices, said router comprising:
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a switch fabric; and a plurality of routing nodes coupled to said switch fabric, each of said routing nodes comprising; a plurality of physical medium device (PMD) modules to transmit data packets to and receiving data packets from selected ones of said N interfacing peripheral devices; an input-output processing (IOP) module coupled to said PMD modules and said switch fabric, wherein said IOP module routes said data packets between said PMD modules and said switch fabric and between said PMD modules; and a classification module associated with said IOP module for classifying a first data packet received from said IOP module, wherein said classification module causes said IOP module to forward said first data packet based on said classification, and wherein said classification module replaces at least one of;
a medium access control (MAC) address and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of said first data packet with a replacement address selected from a pool of addresses associated with said router. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A communication network comprising a plurality of routers to transmit data packets to and receiving data packets from each other and from interfacing peripheral devices associated with said communication network, a first one of said plurality of routers comprising:
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a switch fabric; and a plurality of routing nodes coupled to said switch fabric, each of said routing nodes comprising; a plurality of physical medium device (PMD) modules to transmit data packets to and receiving data packets from selected ones of said N interfacing peripheral devices; an input-output processing (IOP) module coupled to said PMD modules and said switch fabric, wherein said IOP module routes said data packets between said PMD modules and said switch fabric and between said PMD modules; and a classification module associated with said IOP module for classifying a first data packet received from said IOP module, wherein said classification module causes said IOP module to forward said first data packet based on said classification, and wherein said classification module replaces at least one of a medium access control (MAC) address and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of said first data packet with a replacement address selected from a pool of addresses associated with said router. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for use in a router comprising:
- i) a switch fabric;
ii) physical medium device (PMD) modules for transmitting data packets to and receiving data packets from N interfacing peripheral devices;
iii) input-output processing (IOP) modules coupled to the PMD modules and the switch fabric for routing the data packets between the PMD modules and the switch fabric and between the PMD modules, the method comprising the steps of;in a classification module associated with one of the IOP modules, classifying a first data packet received from the IOP module; causing the IOP module to forward the first data packet based on the classification of the first data packet; and replacing at least one of a medium access control (MAC) address and an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first data packet with a replacement address selected from a pool of addresses associated with the router. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
- i) a switch fabric;
Specification