Backplane Interface Adapter with Error Control and Redundant Fabric

• US 20120236722A1
• Filed: 06/04/2012
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Foundry Networks LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patel, Ronak, Wong, Ming G., Lin, Yu-Mei, Chang, Andrew, Wong, Yuen Fai
• Granted Patent: US 8,514,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6225 Fixed service order, e.g. Round Robin
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/153 ATM switching fabrics having parallel switch planes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/1538 Cell slicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/30 Peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3063 Pipelined operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/352 Gigabit ethernet switching [GBPS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/901 using storage descriptor, e.g. read or write pointers

Abstract

A backplane interface adapter with error control and redundant fabric for a high-performance network switch. The error control may be provided by an administrative module that includes a level monitor, a stripe synchronization error detector, a flow controller, and a control character presence tracker. The redundant fabric transceiver of the backplane interface adapter improves the adapter'"'"'s ability to properly and consistently receive narrow input cells carrying packets of data and output wide striped cells to a switching fabric.

Claims

1-2. -2. (canceled)

3. A method comprising:

detecting, by a receiver device, a stripe synchronization error with respect to a plurality of stripes received at the receiver device, the stripe synchronization error indicating that the plurality of stripes are out of sync; and

outputting, by the receiver device, a signal in response to the detecting.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of stripes are received from a transmitter device, and wherein the signal is transmitted to the transmitter device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the signal is operable for initiating a stripe synchronization recovery routine at the transmitter device.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein detecting the stripe synchronization error comprises:

monitoring data levels of a plurality of queues, each queue being configured to receive data for a stripe in the plurality of stripes; and

detecting an overflow or underflow condition with respect to one or more of the data levels.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising, subsequently to detecting the overflow or underflow condition, flushing the plurality of queues.

8. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving, in each stripe in the plurality of stripes, a sequence of first control characters; and

resynchronizing the plurality of stripes based on the sequence of first control characters.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the sequence of first control characters is received for a predetermined number of cycles.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein resynchronizing the plurality of stripes based on the sequence of first control characters comprises:

monitoring each stripe for receipt of a second control character after receiving the sequence of first control characters, the second control character indicating a start of a new data section in the stripe; and

synchronizing the plurality of stripes upon receipt of the second control character.

11. The method of claim 3 wherein each stripe in the plurality of stripes include blocks of data and control information interspersed between the blocks of data at a predetermined data interval.

12. The method of claim 3 wherein the stripe synchronization error is caused by failure of a link or device interconnecting the receiver device and a transmitter device.

13. A receiver device comprising:

control logic configured to;

detect a stripe synchronization error with respect to a plurality of stripes received at the receiver device, the stripe synchronization error indicating that the plurality of stripes are out of sync; and

output a signal in response to the detecting.

14. The receiver device of claim 13 wherein the receiver device is a network device.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, by a transmitter device, a signal indicating that a plurality of stripes sent by the transmitter device are out of sync;

temporarily suspending, by the transmitter device, transmission of data via the plurality of stripes; and

sending, by the transmitter device, a sequence of first control characters via the plurality of stripes.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the sequence of first control characters are sent for a predetermined number of cycles.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising, subsequently to sending the sequence of first control characters:

sending, in each stripe in the plurality of stripes, a second control character identifying a start of a new data section within the stripe.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of stripes are configured to carry data originating from one or more data streams received at the transmitter device.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the one or more data streams comprise more than 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data traffic.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the one or more data streams comprise a plurality of data packets.

21. A transmitter device comprising:

control logic configured to;

receive a signal indicating that a plurality of stripes sent by the transmitter device are out of sync;

temporarily suspend transmission of data via the plurality of stripes; and

send a sequence of first control characters via the plurality of stripes.

22. The transmitter device of claim 21 wherein the transmitter device is a network device.