Backplane interface adapter with error control and redundant fabric
First Claim
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1. A system, comprising:
- a first switching blade and a second switching blade, each switching blade having a plurality of cross points for receiving serial data streams; and
at least one blade coupled to each switching blade through a backplane connection, wherein said at least one blade includes a backplane interface adapter and a plurality of redundant fabric transceivers which can switch forwarding of traffic between the first switching blade and the second switching blade from the backplane interface adapter;
wherein the backplane interface adapter enables and disables transmitting packets and the redundant fabric transceiver is configured to switch forwarding of traffic received by the redundant fabric transceiver from a first switching blade to a second switching blade.
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Abstract
A backplane interface adapter with error control and redundant fabric for a high-performance network switch. The error control may be provided by an administrative module that includes a level monitor, a stripe synchronization error detector, a flow controller, and a control character presence tracker. The redundant fabric transceiver of the backplane interface adapter improves the adapter'"'"'s ability to properly and consistently receive narrow input cells carrying packets of data and output wide striped cells to a switching fabric.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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a first switching blade and a second switching blade, each switching blade having a plurality of cross points for receiving serial data streams; and at least one blade coupled to each switching blade through a backplane connection, wherein said at least one blade includes a backplane interface adapter and a plurality of redundant fabric transceivers which can switch forwarding of traffic between the first switching blade and the second switching blade from the backplane interface adapter; wherein the backplane interface adapter enables and disables transmitting packets and the redundant fabric transceiver is configured to switch forwarding of traffic received by the redundant fabric transceiver from a first switching blade to a second switching blade.
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2. A system comprising:
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a first switching fabric; a second switching fabric; and one or more blades, each blade including at least one backplane interface adapter and at least one redundant fabric transceiver, wherein each blade is configured to switch from using a first switch fabric to using a second switch fabric instead of the first switching fabric without dropping packets; wherein the backplane interface adapter enables and disables transmitting packets and the redundant fabric transceiver designates a switching fabric for receiving packets. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4)
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5. A system comprising:
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one or more blades, each blade including at least one backplane interface adapter and at least one redundant fabric transceiver, wherein each blade is configured to switch from using a first switch fabric to using a second switch fabric instead of the first switching fabric without dropping packets; wherein the redundant fabric transceiver is configured to; disable the back plane interface adapter from forwarding packets for a predetermined time period that is sufficient to transfer the packets stored in the redundant fabric transceiver to the first switching fabric; and designate a second switching fabric when a switch-over-timer indicates a lapse in time equal to the predetermined time period. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A method comprising:
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receiving packets at a backplane interface adapter; forwarding the received packets to a first designated switching fabric; changing from the first designated switching fabric to a second switching fabric without dropping packets; wherein the changing comprises; disabling the backplane interface adapter from forwarding packets; after disabling, for a predetermined time period, forwarding, to the first designated switching fabric, packets stored in a redundant fabric transceiver buffer associated with the backplane interface adapter after the backplane interface adapter is disabled; after the predetermined time period has lapsed, designating the second switching fabric for receiving packets from the redundant fabric transceiver buffer; and enabling the backplane interface adapter to forward packets received by the backplane interface adapter to the second switching fabric instead of the first switching fabric using the redundant fabric transceiver. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification