Integration of an operative standalone router into a multi-chassis router
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- transitioning an operative standalone router into a first component of a multi-chassis router while continuing to operate the standalone router in a standalone mode, wherein the transitioning comprises;
incrementally replacing standalone switch cards within the operative standalone router with multi-chassis switch cards;
forwarding a portion of network traffic to a second component of the multi-chassis router via one or more of the multi-chassis switch cards during the incremental replacement; and
receiving the portion of network traffic from the second component via the one or more of the multi-chassis switch cards,wherein the standalone router is a core router in a service provider network, wherein the portion of network traffic is a first portion of network traffic, the method further comprising;
receiving the network traffic via the service provider network;
forwarding the first portion of the network traffic to destination devices on the service provider network using the multi-chassis switch cards after receiving the first portion of the network traffic from the second component of the multi-chassis router; and
forwarding a second portion of the network traffic directly to destination devices on the service provider network using the standalone switch cards.
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Abstract
A standalone router is integrated into a multi-chassis router. Integrating the standalone router into a multi-chassis router requires replacing switch cards in the standalone router with multi-chassis switch cards. The multi-chassis switch cards forward packets to a central switch card chassis for routing within the multi-chassis router. By incrementally replacing standalone switch cards with multi-chassis switch cards in the standalone router, packet forwarding performance is maintained during the integration.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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transitioning an operative standalone router into a first component of a multi-chassis router while continuing to operate the standalone router in a standalone mode, wherein the transitioning comprises; incrementally replacing standalone switch cards within the operative standalone router with multi-chassis switch cards; forwarding a portion of network traffic to a second component of the multi-chassis router via one or more of the multi-chassis switch cards during the incremental replacement; and receiving the portion of network traffic from the second component via the one or more of the multi-chassis switch cards, wherein the standalone router is a core router in a service provider network, wherein the portion of network traffic is a first portion of network traffic, the method further comprising; receiving the network traffic via the service provider network; forwarding the first portion of the network traffic to destination devices on the service provider network using the multi-chassis switch cards after receiving the first portion of the network traffic from the second component of the multi-chassis router; and forwarding a second portion of the network traffic directly to destination devices on the service provider network using the standalone switch cards. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification