Back to results
US 11,057,316 B2Granted
Lite network switch architecture
AssigneeFacebook, Inc.
InventorsChe Kin Leung, Xu Wang, Zhiping Yao, Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, Lingjun Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed embodiments include a network switch having a first group of switch elements and a second group of switch elements. The second group of switch elements is cross-connected to the first group of switch elements to passively route network traffic through the network switch in accordance with a predefined configuration.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a first plurality of switch elements of a network switch, wherein each switch element of the first plurality of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC);
- a second plurality of switch elements cross-connected to the first plurality of switch elements and configured to route network traffic through the network switch in accordance with a predefined configuration, wherein each switch element of the second plurality of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC);
- a fabric connect module including a cross-connect module including a plurality of line cards, wherein each line card of the plurality of line cards includes the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit of one corresponding switch element from the first plurality of switch elements and the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit of one corresponding switch element from the second plurality of switch elements, and wherein there exists at maximum one corresponding direct communication connection between each of the first plurality of switch elements and each of the second plurality of switch elements;
- and
- a fan control module configured to operate a forced convection unit.
2 more elements
A system, comprising:
- a first group of switch elements and a second group of switch elements, including:
- a pre-configured plurality of uplink ports, and
- a pre-configured plurality of downlink ports cross-connected to the uplink ports,
- wherein the system is configured to transport network traffic from one or more of the uplink ports to one or more of the downlink ports in accordance with pre-configured routes, wherein each switch element of the first group of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and wherein each switch element of the second group of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC);
- a fabric connect module including a cross-connect module including a plurality of line cards, wherein each line card of the plurality of line cards includes the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit of one corresponding switch element from the first group of switch elements and the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit of one corresponding switch element from the second group of switch elements, and wherein there exists at maximum one corresponding direct communication connection between each of the first group of switch elements and each of the second group of switch elements;
- and
- a fan control module configured to operate a forced convection unit.
4 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving network traffic by a plurality of uplink ports of at least a portion of a plurality of switch elements of a plurality of line cards;
- and
- routing the received network traffic to a plurality of downlink ports of at least a portion of the plurality of switch elements of a network switch;
- wherein each switch element of a first group of switch elements included in the plurality of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), each switch element of a second group of switch elements included in the plurality of switch elements includes a different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and the network switch includes a fabric connect module including a cross-connect module including the plurality of line cards, and each line card of the plurality of line cards includes the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of one corresponding switch element from the first group included in the plurality of switch elements and the corresponding different application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of one corresponding switch element from the second group included in the plurality of switch elements;
- wherein there exists at maximum one corresponding direct communication connection between each of the first group of switch elements and each of the second group of switch elements;
- and
- wherein the network switch includes a fan control module operating a forced convection unit.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.