Directed route load/store packets for distributed switch initialization

• US 9,369,298 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Flynn, William T., Kirscht, Joseph A., Walk, Bruce M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elliott, IV, Benjamin H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nowlin, Eric
• Application Number:
  US14/572,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20150103834A1
• Time in Patent Office: 546 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/28 characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] wireless communication networks H04W ; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/34 Source routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/44 Distributed routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/566 Routing instructions carried by the data packet, e.g. active networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/252 Store and forward routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

Techniques for transmitting a packet from a source switch module to a destination switch module. Embodiments receive, at a first port of a first switch module, a packet that includes (i) path information specifying a route to the destination switch module and (ii) a set of load/store operations to be executed by the destination switch module. An indication of the first port is inserted into a return path information portion of the received packet. Upon determining that the first switch module is not the destination switch module, embodiments transmit the packet to a second switch module using a second port, the second port specified in the path information of the received packet, wherein the destination switch module is configured, upon receiving the packet, to copy the set of load/store operations into an execution buffer to be automatically executed.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a packet from a source switch module to a destination switch module, comprising:

receiving, at a first port of a first switch module of a distributed switch, a first packet that conforms to a first communications protocol and that includes (i) path information specifying a route to the destination switch module and (ii) a set of load/store register operations to be executed by the destination switch module in order to initialize communication links on the destination switch module, thereby enabling communications within the distributed switch according to a second communications protocol different from the first communications protocol;

inserting an indication of the first port into a return path information portion of the first packet; and

upon determining that the first switch module is not the destination switch module, transmitting the first packet to a second switch module using a second port, the second port specified in the path information of the first packet, wherein the destination switch module is configured, upon receiving the first packet, to copy the set of load/store register operations into an execution buffer to be automatically executed; and

subsequent to communication links on the destination module being initialized, transmitting, from the first switch module and to the second switch module, a second packet that conforms to the second communications protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the path information comprises an ordered listing of switch-to-switch link identifiers, and wherein each of the switch-to-switch link identifiers within the ordered listing of switch-to-switch link identifiers corresponds to a respective hop along the path from the source switch module to the destination switch module.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first packet further includes a hop counter value, configured to be incremented at each hop along the path from the source switch module to the destination switch module.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining the first port by selecting one of the switch-to-switch link identifiers from the ordered listing of link identifiers, using the hop counter value as an index.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

incrementing the hop counter value within the packet, before transmitting the packet to the second switch module.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserted indication comprises an switch-to-switch link identifier corresponding to the first port of the first switch module.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

upon inserting the indication of the first port into the return path information portion of the first packet, incrementing a return hop counter value within the packet.