PACKET TRANSPORT LAYER APPARATUS

• US 20100142537A1
• Filed: 11/03/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: KIM, Dae Ub, LEE, Sang Min, LEE, Bhum Cheol, LEE, Won Kyoung
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.530
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/56 Routing software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/30 Peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/354 for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN]

Abstract

There is provided a packet transport layer apparatus. The packet transport layer apparatus can receive frames having different formats via a single port by dividing a single physical port into a plurality of virtual ports according to each frame format, can increase the number of customer virtual local area networks (C-VLANs) and the number of service VLANs (S-VLANs) being usable at the same time by assigning a different component identifier (ID) to each frame format and using the component ID as a factor used in searching a filtering table, and can translate a frame format to be suited to a frame format allocated to a virtual output port.

Claims

1. A packet transport layer apparatus comprising:

an I-component ingress receiving frames having different formats via a single customer network port (CNP), assigning a component identifier (ID) to a received frame according to a format of the received frame, and then outputting an I-tag frame via a virtual output port by encapsulating the received frame with an I-tag;

a B-component ingress outputting a B-tag frame via provider network port (PNP) by encapsulating, with a B-tag, the I-tag frame received from the I-component ingress via a virtual input port;

a B-component egress translating a B-tag frame, received via a PNP, into an I-tag frame by removing a B-tag, and then outputting the I-tag frame via a virtual output port; and

an I-component egress removing an I-tag from the I-tag frame received from the B-component egress via a virtual input port, assigning a component ID to the I-tag removed frame according to a format of the I-tag removed frame, translating a format of the I-tag removed frame according to the component ID and a T-component ID, and outputting the format-translated frame via a CNP

2. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 1, wherein the I-component ingress comprises:

a frame classification part classifying a frame, received via the CNP, according to a format of the frame, and forwarding the frame to any one of a customer virtual local area network (C-VLAN) aware I-component search part, an un-aware I-component search part and a service virtual LAN (S-VLAN) aware I-component search part;

the C-VLAN aware I-component search part receiving a C-tag frame from the frame classification part and assigning a C-VLAN aware I-component to the C-tag frame as a component ID, receiving a C-tag frame tagged with a default VLAN ID from the un-aware I-component search part, and acquiring information about a virtual output port by searching a filtering table;

the un-aware I-component search part receiving an untagged frame from the frame classification part, assigning an un-aware I component to the untagged frame as a component ID, and allocating a default VLAN ID thereto as a C-VLAN ID (C-VID);

the S-VLAN aware I-component search part receiving an S-tag frame from the frame classification part, assigning an S-VLAN aware I-component to the S-tag frame as a component ID, and acquiring information about a virtual output port by searching the filtering table; and

an I-tag encapsulation part creating an I-tag, and tagging a frame with the I-tag, the frame being received from the C-VLAN aware I-component search part or the S-VLAN aware I-component search part.

3. The packet transport layer of claim 1, wherein the B-component ingress comprises:

a B-component search part acquiring information about a virtual output port for the I-tag frame by searching a filtering table;

a B-tag encapsulation part creating a B-tag, and outputting a B-tag frame via a virtual output port by tagging, with the B-tag, the I-tag frame received from the B-component search part; and

a frame tag translation/integration part acquiring information about a physical output port corresponding to the virtual output port by searching a port table, and then outputting the B-tag frame, received from the B-tag encapsulation part, via the physical output port.

4. The packet of claim 1, wherein the B-component egress comprises:

a B-component search part acquiring information about a virtual output port for the B-tag frame by searching a filtering table; and

a B-tag removal part removing a B-tag from the B-tag frame received from the B-component search part, and then outputting an I-tag frame via the virtual output port.

5. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 1, wherein the I-component egress comprises:

an I-tag removal part removing an I-tag from the received I-tag frame;

a frame classification part classifying the frame received from the I-tag removal part according to a format of the frame, and forwarding the frame to a customer virtual local aware network (C-VLAN) aware I-component search part or a service virtual LAN (S-VLAN) aware I-component search part;

the C-VLAN aware I-component search part receiving a C-tag frame from the frame classification part, assigning a C-VLAN aware I-component to the C-tag frame as a component ID, and acquiring information about a virtual output port by searching a filtering table;

the S-VLAN aware I-component search part receiving an S-tag frame from the frame classification part, assigning an S-VLAN aware I-component to the S-tag frame as a component ID, and acquiring information about a virtual output port by searching the filtering table; and

a frame tag translation/integration part receiving the C-tag frame or the S-tag frame from the C-VLAN aware I-component search part or the S-VLAN aware I-component search part, acquiring information about a T-component ID and a physical output port by searching a port table, translating a format of the C-tag frame or the S-tag frame according to the component ID and the T-component ID, and outputting the format-translated frame.

6. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 5, wherein the frame tag translation/integration part outputs the received frame without translating a format of the frame when the T-component ID is zero;

in the case that the component ID is an S-VLAN aware I-component, the frame tag translation/integration part translates the received frame into a C-tag frame and outputs the C-tag frame when the T-component ID is a C-VLAN aware I-component, and translates the received frame into an untagged frame and outputs the untagged frame when the T-component ID is not a C-VLAN aware I-component; and

in the case that the component ID is a C-VLAN aware I-component, the frame tag translation/integration part translates the received frame into an S-tag frame and outputs the S-tag frame when the T-component ID is an S-VLAN aware I-component, and translates the received frame into an untagged frame and outputs the untagged frame when the T-component ID is not an S-VLAN aware I-component.

7. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 2, wherein the filtering table includes a component ID field, and has information about a physical output port or a virtual output port in a port number field.

8. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 2, wherein the component ID serves as a search factor used in searching the filtering table.

9. The packet transport layer apparatus of claim 3, wherein the port table stores a mapping relation between the virtual output port and the physical output port, and includes a T-component ID field indicating information associated with a frame format to be translated.