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Heterogeneous media packet bridging

  • US 9,509,638 B2
  • Filed: 03/16/2016
  • Issued: 11/29/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2003
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A network routing/switching blade server comprising:

  • a plurality of network modules, including;

    a first set of network modules implemented within a first server blade and operable to receive, via a first set of line interface ports, network packets having a first framing media format of a plurality of framing media formats; and

    a second set of network modules implemented within a second server blade and operable to transmit, via a second set of line interface ports, network packets having a second framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats;

    a plurality of processing resources implemented within one or more server blades coupled to the plurality of network modules and shared by the plurality of network modules, 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 routing/switching blade server;

    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 server blade, coupled to the plurality of network modules, forwarding the network packets received from the first set of network modules to one or more of the plurality of processing resources;

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

    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 network modules, which are associated with a disparate framing media format and a disparate media channel than that of the first set of network modules; and

    responsive to an affirmative determination that the relay location is among the second set of network modules, 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.

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