Smuggling and recovery of non-packet information

• US 8,306,023 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2004
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kimball, Karen E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper, Kevin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): MURPHY, RHONDA L
• Application Number:
  US11/018,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20060133425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,878 Days
• Field of Search: 370/477, 370/235, 370/230.1
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/254 Centralised controller, i.e. arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/30 Peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches

Abstract

One embodiment disclosed relates to a networking apparatus. The networking apparatus includes a plurality of blade subsystems and a master system communicatively coupled to the blade subsystems. A particular blade subsystem is configured to provide an additional feature in relation to processing network packets. The remaining blade subsystems are configured to send non-packet information to the one blade subsystem by replacing original information in a packet with the non-packet information. The particular blade subsystem is further configured to retrieve the non-packet information from the packet. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A networking apparatus comprising:

a plurality of blade subsystems; and

a master system communicatively coupled to the blade subsystems, wherein a particular blade subsystem is configured to provide an additional feature in relation to processing network packets, wherein remaining blade subsystems are configured to send non-packet information to the particular blade subsystem by removing original information from a packet and replacing the original information with the non-packet information, the original information comprising a portion of a destination address of the packet, wherein the particular blade subsystem is further configured to retrieve the non-packet information from the packet, and wherein the particular blade system is further configured to restore the original information in the packet prior to forwarding the packet by the particular blade subsystem if the packet is not to be dropped by the particular blade subsystem and configured to drop the packet if the packet is for one of predetermined internet protocol (IP) addresses.

2. The networking apparatus of claim 1, wherein the original information comprises a portion of a destination MAC address of the packet.

3. The networking apparatus of claim 2, wherein the portion of the destination MAC address is within an upper three bytes of the destination MAC address.

4. The networking apparatus of claim 1, wherein the original information is restored using data in another field of the packet.

5. The networking apparatus of claim 1, wherein the original information is restored using data obtained by the master system and sent from the master system to the particular blade subsystem.

6. The networking apparatus of claim 1, wherein the networking apparatus comprises a network switch, wherein the master subsystem comprises a motherboard having a master CPU thereon, and wherein the blade subsystems comprise network port blades each having a local CPU thereon.

7. A method of providing an additional feature to an existing networking apparatus having a master system coupled to multiple blade subsystems, the method comprising

replacing a blade subsystem with a feature blade subsystem configured to provide the additional feature in relation to processing a network packet forwarded to the feature blade subsystem and to retrieve non-packet information from the packet;

and

configuring the remaining blade subsystems to embed the non-packet information in the packet forwarded to the feature blade subsystem and to send the non-packet information to the particular blade subsystem by removing original information from the packet and replacing the original information with the non-packet information, the original information comprising a portion of a destination address of the packet, and wherein the feature blade system is further configured to restore the original information in the packet prior to forwarding the packet by the feature blade subsystem if the packet is not to be dropped by the feature blade subsystem and configured to drop the packet if the packet is for one of predetermined internet protocol (IP) addresses.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the non-packet information is embedded in the packet by replacing the original information in a MAC destination address of the packet.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the networking apparatus comprises a network switch, wherein the master subsystem comprises a motherboard having a master CPU thereon, and wherein the blade subsystems comprise network port blades each having a local CPU thereon.

10. A method of providing additional processing of packets in a networking apparatus having a master system coupled to multiple blade subsystems, the method comprising:

determining whether a packet received at a blade subsystem is to receive the additional processing;

if the packet is to receive the additional processing, then removing original information from the packet and replacing the original information with non-packet information, the original information comprising a portion of a destination address of the packet, and forwarding the modified packet to a particular blade subsystem for the additional processing;

restoring the original information in the packet prior to forwarding the packet by the particular blade subsystem if the packet is not to be dropped by the particular blade subsystem; and

dropping the packet if the packet is for one of predetermined internet protocol (IP) addresses.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the non-packet information is embedded in the packet by replacing the original information in a MAC destination address of the packet.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a specific field of the packet comprises a vendor-specific portion of the MAC destination address.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the original information is restored using data in another field of the packet.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the original information is restored using data obtained by the master system and sent from the master system to the particular blade subsystem.

15. A system configured to provide additional processing of packets, the system comprising:

a network switch comprising a backplane and a master CPU coupled to the backplane by way of a fabric chip; and

multiple network port blades, each comprising a local CPU and being coupled to the backplane by way of a fabric chip,

wherein the additional processing of packets received on any of the network port blades is provided by a particular network port blade, and wherein non-particular network port blades are configured to determine whether a packet received is to receive the additional processing by the particular network port blade and further configured to remove original information from the packet and replace the original information with non-packet information, the original information comprising a portion of a destination address of the packet, and wherein the particular network port blade is further configured to restore the original information in the packet prior to forwarding the packet by the particular network port blade if the packet is not to be dropped by the particular network port blade and configured to drop the packet if the packet is for one of predetermined internet protocol (IP) addresses.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein, if the determination finds that the packet is to receive the additional processing, then the packet is modified by replacing the original information in the packet with the non-packet information.

17. A method of indirect communication of non-packet data from a first blade subsystem to a second blade subsystem in an apparatus having a master system interconnected with multiple blade subsystems, the method comprising:

using the first blade subsystem for removing original information from a packet and replacing the original information with the non-packet data, the original information comprising a portion of a destination address of the packet, and forwarding the packet to the second blade subsystem; and

using the second blade subsystem for receiving the packet and retrieving the non-packet data from the packet, wherein the second blade subsystem is further configured to restore the original information in the packet prior to forwarding the packet by the second blade subsystem if the packet is not to be dropped by the second blade subsystem and configured to drop the packet if the packet is one of predetermined internet protocol (IP) addresses.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second blade subsystems do not have a path for direct communication of the non-packet data.