Heterogeneous media packet bridging

• US 9,185,050 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2013
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Desai, Sachin, Balay, Rajesh, Sargor, Chandramouli
• Primary Examiner(s): Oveissi, David
• Application Number:
  US13/959,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20130315232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]

Abstract

Methods and systems for bridging network packets transmitted over heterogeneous media channels are provided. According to one embodiment, a network device comprises network interfaces (netmods), including a first and second set operable to receive packets encapsulated within a first and second set of media transmissions, respectively, and each having a first and second framing media format, respectively. A single bridging domain is provided by a shared bridging application. A memory stores data structures for translating between the first and second framing media formats via an intermediate format. The netmods pass a received packet, through a switching fabric, to the bridging application, which determines a relay location for the packet and whether the relay location is among the other set of netmods. Responsive to an affirmative determination, the bridging application uses the translation data structures to translate the packet before relaying the packet to the relay location.

Claims

1. A network-computing device comprising:

a plurality of network interfaces (netmods), including a first set of netmods operable to receive network packets encapsulated within a first plurality of media transmissions each having a first framing media format of a plurality of framing media formats and a second set of netmods operable to transmit network packets encapsulated within a second plurality of media transmissions each having a second framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats;

a plurality of processing resources coupled to the plurality of netmods and shared by the plurality of netmods, including a first processing resource upon which a virtual bridging application executes, the virtual bridging application representing a single bridging domain for all network packets received by the network-computing device;

a non-transitory memory, accessible to the first processing resource, having stored therein one or more translation data structures defining translations between the first framing media format and an intermediate format and between the intermediate format and the second framing media format;

a switching fabric, coupled to the plurality of netmods, forwarding the network packets received from the first set of netmods to one or more of the plurality of processing resources;

wherein responsive to receiving a network packet, the first set of netmods pass the network packet to the virtual bridging application through the switching fabric;

the virtual bridging application determines a relay location to which the network packet is to be relayed and whether the relay location is among the second set of netmods, which are associated with a disparate framing media format and a disparate media channel than that of the first set of netmods; and

responsive to an affirmative determination that the relay location is among the second set of netmods, the virtual bridging application uses the one or more translation data structures to translate the network packet to the second framing media format before relaying the network packet to the relay location.

2. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein an intersection of the first set of netmods and the second set of netmods results in a non-null set.

3. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein an intersection of the first set of netmods and the second set of netmods results in a null set.

4. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the virtual bridging application is configurable to accommodate framing media translations desired to be performed by the network-computing device.

5. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the virtual bridging application relays at least the network packet to one or more other applications running on a second processing resource of the plurality of processing resources in order to assist in bridging between a first media channel associated with a first netmod of the first set of netmods and a second media channel associated with a second netmod in the second set of netmods.

6. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of framing media formats include one or more of a Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) format, a Frame Relay (FR) format, a Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) format, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) format and a wireless media format.

7. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the network-computing device comprises a network router.

8. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the network-computing device comprises a network switch.

9. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the network-computing device comprises a blade server.

10. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the virtual bridging application is dynamically instantiated, configured or modified using a graphical user interface application interfaced to the first processing resource.

11. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the virtual bridging application is provided as an Application Programming Interface (API) library.

12. The network-computing device of claim 11, wherein the API is provided as a Dynamic Linked Library (DLL).

13. The network-computing device of claim 11, wherein the API is provided as a shared library.

14. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the virtual bridging application is provided as an object oriented class object having public and private methods.

15. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the network packet comprises an Ethernet frame and the virtual bridging application permits media agnostic Ethernet bridging between the first set of netmods and the second set of netmods.

16. The network-computing device of claim 1, wherein the one or more translation data structures include metadata associated with network packets encapsulated within a first plurality of media transmissions.

17. The network-computing device of claim 16, wherein the metadata includes Ethernet header data that is transmitted on top of network packets encapsulated within a first plurality of media transmissions.