Bridge routing module

• US 8,718,054 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yousefi, Nariman, Kim, Yongbum, Walley, John, Chen, Sherman (Xuemin), Diab, Wael W., Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Brenda H
• Application Number:
  US13/171,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20120106350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/349, 370/235, 370/374, 370/378, 370/381, 370/396, 370/397, 370/395.3, 370/395.43, 370/395.71, 370/352, 370/353
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/00 Electric propulsion with power supplied within the vehicle with power supply from force of nature, e.g. sun or wind, B60L8/00; for monorail vehicles, suspension vehicles or rack railways B60L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/023 for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0315 using multiplexing techniques multiplexing for transmission of signals G08C15/00; multiplexing for electrical communication in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 19/03 characterised by material, e.g. composite B60R19/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/76 Arrangements for rearranging, permuting or selecting data according to predetermined rules, independently of the content of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 : based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 : using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/821 : Prioritising resource allocation or reservation requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 : Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 : Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 : characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/08 : Load balancing or load distribution transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 : for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 : based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A bridge routing module can be incorporated into a closed network fabric, such as a vehicular network. The bridge routing module includes an interface circuit to be coupled to other elements of the closed network fabric, for example other bridge routing modules or switch modules. The bridge routing module includes memory to store information associating packet content types with packet routing parameters, among other things. A processing module included in the bridge routing module analyzes packets to identify the type of content carried by the packets, and determines packet routing parameters based on the packet'"'"'s content type. Ingress and egress of the packet are controlled in accordance with the packet routing parameters determined by the processing module.

Claims

1. A bridge-routing module to be incorporated into a closed network fabric, the bridge-routing module comprising:

a plurality of interface circuits configured to be coupled to at least one of a switch module and another bridge-routing module via the closed network fabric;

an ingress circuit coupled to receive packets from the closed network fabric via at least one of the plurality of interface circuits;

an egress circuit coupled to transmit packets to the closed network fabric via at least one of the plurality of interface circuits; and

memory configured to store information associating packet content types with packet routing parameters; and

processing circuitry configured to;

analyze a packet to identify a packet content type and to determine if the packet is a mission critical packet;

when the packet is a mission critical packet and the packet is received from a packet source, add an indication to a header of the packet to identify the packet as a mission critical packet;

determine a packet routing parameter of the packet routing parameters based, at least in part, on the packet content type; and

control ingress or egress of the packet in accordance with the packet routing parameter.

2. The bridge-routing module of claim 1, the interface circuit further comprising:

a plurality of ports to establish a plurality of communication links via the closed network fabric;

a switching circuit coupled to the plurality of ports; and

a link management circuit coupled to the processing circuitry and the switching circuit, the link management circuit to control the switching circuit to select an active port.

3. The bridge-routing module of claim 2, the link management circuit further to:

deselect an active port failing to meet performance criteria; and

control the switching circuit to select a different port as the active port.

4. The bridge-routing module of claim 1, further comprising:

an ingress circuit comprising an ingress buffer to store packets received from the interface circuit; and

the processing circuitry is further to control placement of packets in the ingress buffer based, at least in part, on a priority of the packets.

5. The bridge-routing module of claim 1, further comprising:

an egress circuit comprising a plurality of egress queues to store respective packet content types; and

the processing circuitry further to;

control placement of packets in the plurality of egress queues based, at least in part, on a priority of the packets; and

select an egress queue from which a next packet is to be transmitted by the egress circuit.

6. The bridge-routing module of claim 5, further comprising:

bypass circuitry coupled to bypass the plurality of egress queues when delivering priority packets.

7. The bridge-routing module of claim 6, further comprising:

the processing circuitry further configured to store a state of the egress queues prior to the bypass circuitry delivering the priority packets.

8. The bridge-routing module of claim 1, wherein the closed network fabric is a vehicular closed network fabric.

9. A bridge-routing module to be incorporated into a closed network fabric, the bridge-routing module comprising:

a plurality of interface circuits to be coupled to at least one of a switch module and another bridge-routing module of the closed network fabric;

memory to store information associating packet content types with packet routing parameters; and

processing circuitry operable to;

analyze a packet to identify a packet content type and to determine if the packet is a mission critical packet;

when the packet is a mission critical packet and the packet is received from a packet source, add an indication to a header of the packet to identify the packet as a mission critical packet;

determine a packet routing parameter of the packet routing parameters based, at least in part, on the packet content type;

determine whether to use at least one of a wired link and a wireless link to communicate the packet to at least one of the other elements via the interface circuit; and

control ingress or egress of the packet in accordance with the packet routing parameter via at least one of the wired link and the wireless link.

10. The bridge-routing module of claim 9, further comprising:

the plurality of interface circuits comprising a wired interface circuit and a wireless interface circuit; and

ingress switching circuitry coupled to synchronize packets received contemporaneously via the wired interface circuit and the wireless interface circuit.

11. The bridge-routing module of claim 9, further comprising:

the plurality of interface circuits comprising a wired interface circuit and a wireless interface circuit; and

ingress switching circuitry coupled to select, under control of the processing circuitry, one of a first packet and a second packet received contemporaneously, wherein the first packet is received via the wireless interface circuit and the second packet is received via the wired interface circuit.

12. The bridge-routing module of claim 9, further comprising:

the plurality of interface circuits comprising a wired interface circuit and a wireless interface circuit; and

egress switching circuitry coupled to selectively transmit packets via one of the wireless interface circuit and the wired interface circuit.

13. The bridge-routing module of claim 12, further comprising:

the egress switching circuitry to synchronize packets to be transmitted in parallel via both the wired interface circuit and the wireless interface circuit.

14. The bridge-routing module of claim 9, further comprising:

each of the plurality of interface circuits including a plurality of ports, the plurality of ports to be coupled to ports of other interface modules; and

at least one link manager to;

deselect a malfunctioning port; and

activate a replacement port.

15. The bridge-routing module of claim 9, wherein the closed network fabric is a vehicular closed network fabric.

16. Processing circuitry to be incorporated within a network fabric forming a closed network, the processing circuitry comprising:

a plurality of interface circuits configured to be coupled to at least one of a switch module and another bridge-routing module via the closed network fabric;

an input circuit coupled to the plurality of interface circuits, the input circuit to receive packets from the closed network fabric;

an output circuit coupled to the plurality of interface circuits, the output circuit to transmit packets to the closed network fabric;

memory to store network information, the network information including information related to network packet types, network packet priorities, and packet routing within the closed network;

control circuitry to;

determine a packet type of a received packet, in accordance with the network information to determine if the packet type is a mission critical packet type;

when the packet type is a mission critical packet type and the packet is received from a packet source, add an indication to a header of the packet to identify the packet as a mission critical packet;

determine a packet route based, at least in part, on the packet type and the network information; and

generate a control signal instructing the output circuit to transmit the received packet in accordance with the packet route.

17. The processing circuitry of claim 16, further comprising:

the output circuit comprising an output queue; and

the control circuitry to place packets in the output queue based, at least in part, on the network information.

18. The processing circuitry of claim 16, the plurality of interface circuits comprising:

a wireless transceiver coupled to the input circuit and the output circuit, the wireless transceiver to communicate with wireless elements of the closed network fabric.

19. The processing circuitry of claim 18, further comprising:

switching circuitry to select, in accordance with a control signal received from the control circuitry, between transmitting and receiving packets via the wireless transceiver and a wired interface circuit.

20. The processing circuitry of claim 16, further comprising:

the control circuitry to retrieve packets received by the input circuitry based on a priority of the packets.