Hierarchical hardware linked list approach for multicast replication engine in a network ASIC
AssigneeMarvell Asia Pte Ltd
InventorsGerald Schmidt, Harish Krishnamoorthy, Tsahi Daniel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multicast rule is represented in a hierarchical linked list with N tiers. Each tier or level in the hierarchical linked list corresponds to a network layer of a network stack that requires replication. Redundant groups in each tier are eliminated such that the groups in each tier are stored exactly once in a replication table. A multicast replication engine traverses the hierarchical linked list and replicates a packet according to each node in the hierarchical linked list.
Claims14
A method of implementing a network switch, the method comprising:
- for each node of a hierarchical linked list,
- replicating a packet according to instructions associated with a current node in a tier of the hierarchical linked list;
- when a pointer to a node in the next tier of the hierarchical linked list is valid and a pointer to the next node in the same tier as the current node is valid, storing the pointer to the next node in the same tier as the current node in a stack and following the pointer to the node in the next tier of the hierarchical linked list;
- when the pointer to the node in the next tier of the hierarchical linked list invalid and the pointer to the next node in the same tier as the current node is valid, following the pointer to the next node in the same tier as the current node;
- and
- when the pointer to the node in the next tier of the hierarchical linked list invalid and the pointer to the next node in the same tier as the current node is invalid, removing data from the stack and returning to a node identified by the data that is removed from the stack.
A method of implementing a network switch, the method comprising:
- inputting a packet;
- and
- for each node of a hierarchical linked list, replicating the packet according to instructions associated with a current node in a tier of the hierarchical linked list, wherein each node in the hierarchical linked list is stored as an entry in the replication table and at least one of the entries includes a control field having a value that indicates how to modify a copy of a packet relative to an original.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.