Parallel data link layer controllers in a network switching device
First Claim
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1. A switching device comprising:
- one or more physical layer interfaces for receiving one or more frames from a communication network;
a plurality of data link layer processors being coupled to operate in parallel, wherein each data link layer processor comprises;
one or more media access controllers (MACs), wherein each MAC is operatively coupled to a physical layer interface, each of said one or more MACs includes a MAC preprocessor and a MAC postprocessor, said MAC preprocessor including a traffic policer, said traffic policer adapted to execute an ingress traffic policy and frame discard, said traffic policer utilizing a three color marker algorithm to identify frames for discard, wherein the MAC postprocessor includes a traffic shaper adapted to perform bandwidth-based flow control for the egress traffic received by at least one of said MACs, wherein the traffic shaper regulates output bandwidth of the MAC postprocessor using a token bucket algorithm in conjunction with one or more buckets each associated with a respective one of a plurality of flow classes, and wherein tokens allotted to each bucket and tracked using a first counter represent a capacity for each one of said flow classes; and
a statistics acquisition module, operatively coupled to the one or more MACs, for compiling statistics on each of the plurality of MACs; and
a network processor, operatively coupled to the plurality of data link layer processors, for routing the one or more frames received from the plurality of data link layer processors.
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Abstract
The present invention features a data link layer processor for performing VLAN tagging operations, policing, shaping, and statistics acquisition integrally with one or more media access controllers (MACs). When a plurality of data link layer processors are operated in parallel in a switching device, the computational burden carried by the route engine is significantly reduced. Moreover, the data link layer processor in its several embodiments may be used to introduce various forms of pre-processing and post-processing into network switching systems that employ route engines that do not posses such functionality.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A switching device comprising:
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one or more physical layer interfaces for receiving one or more frames from a communication network; a plurality of data link layer processors being coupled to operate in parallel, wherein each data link layer processor comprises; one or more media access controllers (MACs), wherein each MAC is operatively coupled to a physical layer interface, each of said one or more MACs includes a MAC preprocessor and a MAC postprocessor, said MAC preprocessor including a traffic policer, said traffic policer adapted to execute an ingress traffic policy and frame discard, said traffic policer utilizing a three color marker algorithm to identify frames for discard, wherein the MAC postprocessor includes a traffic shaper adapted to perform bandwidth-based flow control for the egress traffic received by at least one of said MACs, wherein the traffic shaper regulates output bandwidth of the MAC postprocessor using a token bucket algorithm in conjunction with one or more buckets each associated with a respective one of a plurality of flow classes, and wherein tokens allotted to each bucket and tracked using a first counter represent a capacity for each one of said flow classes; and a statistics acquisition module, operatively coupled to the one or more MACs, for compiling statistics on each of the plurality of MACs; and a network processor, operatively coupled to the plurality of data link layer processors, for routing the one or more frames received from the plurality of data link layer processors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification