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Network device architecture for centralized packet processing

  • US 8,929,207 B1
  • Filed: 10/25/2010
  • Issued: 01/06/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:

  • a lower-layer network device comprising a plurality of ports, wherein,the lower-layer network device is configured to prevent a packet received via a first port of the plurality of ports from being transferred from the first port to a second port of the plurality of ports without first being sent from the lower-layer network device to an upper-layer network device via an uplink transmit unit and subsequently received at the lower-layer network device from the upper-layer network device via an uplink receive unit,the lower-layer network device comprises the first port and the second port,the lower-layer network device comprises an upstream drop decision unit and an upstream queue controller coupled to the upstream drop decision unit,the lower-layer network device comprise a lower-layer controller configured to transfer configuration information to the upper-layer network device, whereinthe lower-layer controller is further configured to receive new configuration information from the upper-layer network device,the lower-layer network device comprises a packet processing unit, whereinthe lower-layer network device is configured to perform a first subset of a plurality of local processing tasks,the packet processing unit comprises a queue management module,the queue management module is coupled to a downstream queue controller, andthe downstream queue controller is configured to control buffering of the packet prior to the packet being provided to the second port of the plurality of ports, andthe lower-layer network device comprises an interface controller, whereinthe interface controller comprises local targeting logic, andthe local targeting logic is configured to identify the second port of the plurality of ports based on a logical port index.

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