Method and apparatus for providing quality of service across a switched backplane for multicast packets
Granted: October 23, 2007
Patent Number:
7286552
A method and system is provided to enable quality of service across a backplane switch for multicast packets. For multicast traffic, an egress queue manager manages congestion control in accordance with multicast scheduling flags. A multicast scheduling flag is associated with each egress queue capable of receiving a packet from a multicast ingress queue. When the multicast scheduling flag is set and the congested egress queue is an outer queue, the egress queue manager refrains from…
High speed bus with flow control and extended burst enhancements between sender and receiver wherein counter is maintained at sender for free buffer space available
Granted: September 18, 2007
Patent Number:
7272672
In a networked system in which high speed busses interconnect sources and destinations of data, systems for and methods of flow control and extended burst transfers are described.
Methods and systems for providing redundant connectivity across a network using a tunneling protocol
Granted: September 11, 2007
Patent Number:
7269135
Methods and systems for providing redundant network connectivity across a network using a tunneling protocol by dynamically moving a TLS tunnel between master and slave switches based on relative connectivity provided by the switches are disclosed. A standby routing protocol executes on the master and slave switches to monitor the relative connectivity. In response to detecting that the relative connectivity of the slave switch exceeds that of the master switch, the standby routing…
Method and apparatus for managing routes
Granted: July 17, 2007
Patent Number:
7245619
A method and apparatus for managing routes. A route manager receives a route to a destination, the route having been discovered by a routing protocol application. The route manager maintains the route in a route table and distributes the route to a second routing protocol application. In addition, the route manager maintains a subset of the routes in a second route table and distributes routes to a subsidiary application not having access to the routing protocol applications. The route…
Method and apparatus for a control communication channel in a packet-forwarding device
Granted: July 17, 2007
Patent Number:
7245629
A control backplane replaces the traditional shared bus with a dedicated communication channel using a high-speed protocol, such as Ethernet. The resulting system may conduct several concurrent control sessions with clients and devices associated with the network switch. Removing the shared bus from the control plane also improves the reliability of the new system, because it is no longer susceptible to a single point of failure.
System for synchronizing first and second sections of data to opposing polarity edges of a clock
Granted: February 27, 2007
Patent Number:
7185216
Systems of and methods for processing data for communication between a sender and a receiver are described. In one embodiment, the phase of a first clock is used to select between first and second portions of data from the sender. The selected data is then synchronized, for communication to the receiver, to a second clock having a frequency which is an integer multiple of that of the first clock, wherein the integer multiple is two or more. The first and second portions of the data may…
Method and system for a virtual local area network to span multiple loop free network topology domains
Granted: December 26, 2006
Patent Number:
7154861
A method and system is provided for a virtual local network to span multiple loop free network topology domains. According to one aspect of the invention, a network contains at least two loop free network topology domains and a virtual local area network spanning at least a portion of each of the two domains. According to one aspect of the invention, a network architecture comprises a plurality of nodes connected by paths, a first physical broadcast domain and a second physical broadcast…
Method and system for maintaining temporal consistency of resources and data in a multiple-processor packet switch
Granted: December 19, 2006
Patent Number:
7152124
A network switch architected using multiple processor engines includes a method and system for ensuring temporal consistency of data and resources as packet traffic flows through the switch. Upon receiving a connection request, the switch internally associates a semaphore with the connection. The semaphore is distributed and stored at the processing engines. Each of the processing engines performs specific operations relating to incoming packets associated with the connection. Internal…
Load-sharing technique for distributing multi-protocol label switching protocol encapsulated flows across multiple physical links
Granted: December 12, 2006
Patent Number:
7149217
When Internet Protocol (IP) packets or Layer-2 MAC Protocol packets are encapsulated in a MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) packet, one or more labels are assigned to identify the routers of the MPLS network through which the packet has passed. From this information, the underlying protocol (e.g., IP, MAC) can be inferred. In one embodiment, the value assigned to the one or more labels is selected to identify the underlying protocol. In one embodiment, IP packets have label values in…
Method and apparatus providing for delivery of streaming media
Granted: November 28, 2006
Patent Number:
7142509
A network switch receives a data packet, recognizes the data packet as belonging to a given stream, and directs the data packet to a stream processing module in the network switch in response to recognizing the stream to which the packet belongs. The stream processing module further recognizes the source of the stream from which the packet was transmitted, and stores the data packet in a buffer for later transmission, as controlled by the stream processing module, to a destination for…
Data path architecture for a LAN switch
Granted: October 31, 2006
Patent Number:
7130308
A packet switching device having a central shared memory and a number of medium access controllers each coupled to a communications medium to exchange data packets, and a controller coupled to each medium access controller via a data path to exchange data packets with the media access controller. The controller has a number of data path controllers each connected to each medium access controller to exchange a corresponding portion of the data packets with the medium access controller.…
Method and system for inter-domain loop protection using a hierarchy of loop resolving protocols
Granted: October 24, 2006
Patent Number:
7126923
A method and system is provided for inter-domain loop protection using a hierarchy of loop resolving protocols. The method includes receiving messages from inter-domain switches. The inter-domain switches belong to a plurality of loop-free network topology domains. A logical domain is abstracted that includes the inter-domain switches and logical links that connect the switches. Each logical link represents one of the physical loop free network topology domains that the inter-domain…
System and method for cable management on rack mounted installations
Granted: October 10, 2006
Patent Number:
7119280
A cable harness, cable clip, and bundle clip, which may be used individually or in combination, to perform cable management for a rack mounted installation.
Dynamic device management and deployment
Granted: September 19, 2006
Patent Number:
7111017
A network management application (NMA) obtains identification information identifying a network device. The NMA searches a storage area for a directory corresponding to the identification information. When the NMA locates the directory corresponding to the identification information, the NMA searches the directory for a file containing descriptions of the attributes of the network device. When the NMA locates the file containing the attribute descriptions, the NMA generates an image of…
Provisional IP-aware virtual paths over networks
Granted: May 16, 2006
Patent Number:
7046665
In accordance with the invention, a system and method for providing QoS to packets formatted in accordance with one protocol (e.g., IP or Ethernet) carried over networks that are originally designed to be used with another protocol (e.g., ATM, WDM, or TDM). In one embodiment of the invention, such a switch is modified in order to allow the switch to become “IP-aware.” Such a modified switch can identify IP packets, determine if any packets should be dropped, classify the packets with…
Method for selecting and placing bypass capacitors on multi-layer printed circuit boards
Granted: May 16, 2006
Patent Number:
7047515
A method places bypass capacitors for controlling the signal integrity of a signal routed between devices on a multi-layer printed circuit board by analysis of the routing of the signal and the signal characteristics. In general, when an interconnecting signal between devices is routed adjacent to an impedance control plane that does not serve as the circuit supply voltage plane or the reference voltage plane for all devices interconnected by the signal trace, the method selects…
Method and system for a process manager
Granted: March 21, 2006
Patent Number:
7017082
A method and system is provided for monitoring the health of processes running on a router. A behavior of a process is monitored and the process is killed if the behavior is abnormal. The behavior may be abnormal if the process is non-responsive, cannot start, or repeatedly crashes. The system may include a timer to measure a predetermined time interval for the process to perform a desired action, a counter to count a number of times the process fails to perform the desired action before…
Ethernet automatic protection switching
Granted: February 21, 2006
Patent Number:
7003705
A method and apparatus is provided for automatic protection switching in a ring network by creating a protection domain having a control vlan and protected data vlans and designating a master node and transit nodes connected by a primary port and a secondary port. The master node blocks the secondary port for data vlan traffic until it detects a fault either by notice from a transit node or by polling. When a fault is detected, the master node unblocks the secondary port for data vlan…
Method and apparatus for server load balancing
Granted: December 27, 2005
Patent Number:
6980550
A method for forwarding data packets to one of a plurality of servers comprising receiving a data packet from a source, at a data packet forwarding device having a plurality of ports, performing a hashing function using a unique component of the data packet as a seed value for the hash, generating a hash value using the hashing function, looking up a table for an address of one of the plurality of servers using the hashed value as an index to the table, and forwarding the data packet to…
Method and apparatus for a redundant port
Granted: December 27, 2005
Patent Number:
6981174
A method is provided for a redundant port system in which any port in a packet-forwarding device can be designated as a redundant port for any other port. The redundant port system detects when the primary port fails or is about to fail, and activates or begins to activate the redundant port as a backup. The redundant port system switches to the redundant port by causing the switch fabric in the packet-forwarding device to fail over to the redundant port by updating the port description…
