Integration of an operative standalone router into a multi-chassis router
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A router comprising:
- a first operative switch fabric, wherein the first switch fabric forms one or more standalone switch planes; and
a second operative switch fabric, wherein the second switch fabric combines with a third switch fabric to form one or more additional switch planes, wherein the third switch fabric is external to the router,wherein the third switch fabric is included in a second router that is a centralized control node of a multi-chassis router, further comprising a set of packet forwarding engines, wherein the set of packet forwarding engine receive routing information via one or more links to a centralized routing engine in the centralized control node.
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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
7 Claims
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1. A router comprising:
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a first operative switch fabric, wherein the first switch fabric forms one or more standalone switch planes; and a second operative switch fabric, wherein the second switch fabric combines with a third switch fabric to form one or more additional switch planes, wherein the third switch fabric is external to the router, wherein the third switch fabric is included in a second router that is a centralized control node of a multi-chassis router, further comprising a set of packet forwarding engines, wherein the set of packet forwarding engine receive routing information via one or more links to a centralized routing engine in the centralized control node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A system comprising:
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a router operating in a standalone mode, the router including; an operative standalone switch fabric; a plurality of network interfaces, wherein the network interfaces connect to the operative standalone switch fabric; and a routing engine that directs network traffic among the plurality of network interfaces; a switch card chassis including at least a portion of an operative multi-chassis switch fabric, wherein the network interfaces connect to the operative multi-chassis switch fabric; and a set of cables providing a physical connection between the portion of the operative multi-chassis switch fabric and the network interfaces, wherein the routing engine directs network traffic among the plurality of network interfaces via the standalone switch fabric and the multi-chassis switch fabric. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
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Specification