Method and system for data link layer address classification
First Claim
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1. A method, comprising:
- mapping, on a gateway that is communicatively coupled to a physical Local Area Network (LAN) using one or more network interfaces, network addresses of a plurality of network devices operating in the physical LAN to a plurality of different logical domains of the same physical LAN;
after performing said mapping, receiving an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packet over a particular one of the one or more network interfaces;
associating the received ARP packet with an entry in the mapping by extracting information from a source Internet Protocol (IP) address field of the ARP packet and comparing the extracted information together with an identifier for the particular one of the network interfaces to the mapping, wherein the extracted information is limited to information included in the source IP address field of the ARP packet and the association is made using no other information from the received ARP packet other than the information included in the source IP address field of the ARP packet, and wherein said association allows the gateway to perform a logical domain classification for the ARP packet independently of whether the network devices are configured to mark ARP packets according to the partitioning of the physical LAN into the plurality of logical domains;
providing a plurality of separate ARP tables that are each associated with a different one of the logical domains; and
selecting one of the ARP tables to be updated according to the received ARP packet, wherein the ARP table is selected according to the association, and updating the selected ARP table according to the ARP packet.
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Abstract
A method and system for data link layer address classification. Data link layer address information is received from a device over a local area network (LAN), wherein the LAN is partitioned into a plurality of domains. The data link layer address information is classified as being associated with a domain of the plurality of domains based on a source address of the device. The data link layer address information is assigned to the domain.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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mapping, on a gateway that is communicatively coupled to a physical Local Area Network (LAN) using one or more network interfaces, network addresses of a plurality of network devices operating in the physical LAN to a plurality of different logical domains of the same physical LAN; after performing said mapping, receiving an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packet over a particular one of the one or more network interfaces; associating the received ARP packet with an entry in the mapping by extracting information from a source Internet Protocol (IP) address field of the ARP packet and comparing the extracted information together with an identifier for the particular one of the network interfaces to the mapping, wherein the extracted information is limited to information included in the source IP address field of the ARP packet and the association is made using no other information from the received ARP packet other than the information included in the source IP address field of the ARP packet, and wherein said association allows the gateway to perform a logical domain classification for the ARP packet independently of whether the network devices are configured to mark ARP packets according to the partitioning of the physical LAN into the plurality of logical domains; providing a plurality of separate ARP tables that are each associated with a different one of the logical domains; and selecting one of the ARP tables to be updated according to the received ARP packet, wherein the ARP table is selected according to the association, and updating the selected ARP table according to the ARP packet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 25)
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9. A network forwarding device comprising:
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a bus; a first interface coupled externally to a broadcast domain formed by local devices of a physical Local Area Network (LAN) partitioned into a plurality of logical domains; a second interface coupled externally to a distributed computer network; and a computer-readable memory coupled to said bus and encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in; mapping network addresses of said local devices to the plurality of logical domains; after performing said mapping, receiving, at said first interface of said forwarding device, data link layer address information from said broadcast domain formed by said local devices of said physical LAN; classifying said data link layer address information of a first one and a second one of said local devices as being associated with a first one and a second one of said plurality of logical domains, respectively, by comparing all or part of source Internet Protocol (IP) addresses included in the data link layer address information together with an identifier for the first interface to the mapping; and storing said data link layer address information of said first one and said second one of said local devices in separate data link layer address lookup tables each associated with a corresponding one of said first one and said second one of said logical domains, said storing conducted according to said classification. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A gateway, comprising:
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means for mapping network addresses of a plurality of network devices operating in a same physical Local Area Network (LAN) to a plurality of different logical domains of the same physical LAN; means for associating a received Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packet with an entry in the mapping by extracting information from a source Internet Protocol (IP) address field of the ARP packet and comparing the extracted information together with an identification of an ingress interface associated with the received ARP packet to the mapping, wherein said association according to the information from the source IP address field and the ingress interface identification allows the gateway to perform a logical domain classification for the ARP packet independently of whether information of the logical domain partitioning is fed back to the network devices; means for providing a plurality of separate ARP tables associated with the logical domains; and means for selecting one of the ARP tables to be updated according to the received ARP packet, wherein the ARP table is selected according to the association, and updating the selected ARP table according to the ARP packet. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A method for data link layer address classification, said method comprising:
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providing a forwarding device including a local interface and a plurality of network interfaces; receiving, at said local interface of said forwarding device, data link layer address information from a broadcast domain formed by local devices over a local area network (LAN), wherein said LAN is partitioned into a plurality of logical domains; classifying said data link layer address information of a first one and a second one of said local devices as being associated with a first one and a second one of said plurality of logical domains, respectively, based on information corresponding to the local interface together with a network layer source address of said first one and said second one of said local devices, respectively, using a processor of said forwarding device coupled to said local interface, said classifying including storing said data link layer address information of said first one and said second one of said local devices in separate data link layer address lookup tables each associated with a corresponding one of said first one and said second one of said logical domains; and dynamically assigning said data link layer address information of said first one and said second one of said local devices to update said logical domains including providing a separate mapping for each respective domain between a data link layer address included in said data link layer address information and said network layer source address for each local device classified under said respective domain such that a respective local device classified under a particular one of said logical domains is selectively assignable to a different one of said logical domains independently of any fixed network topology in which said forwarding device operates. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification