Trunking in a matrix
AssigneeMosaid Technologies Incorporated
InventorRichard M. Wyatt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multistage switch includes a matrix of coupled switch devices. A logical link comprising a plurality of physical links couples a destination through the plurality of physical links to a plurality of ports in the multistage switch. Each switch device performs trunk aware forwarding to reduce the forwarding of received frames through the matrix of coupled switch devices to the destination in order to reduce unnecessary traffic in the multistage switch.
Claims27
A multistage switch to which a logical link couples a destination, the logical link comprising a plurality of physical links, the multistage switch comprising:
- a plurality of external ports, each physical link coupled to one of the plurality of external ports;
- and
- a matrix of coupled switch devices, a frame received for the destination being forwarded through at least one of the switch devices to one of the physical links in the logical link, the switch device which receives the forwarded frame forwarding the frame based on the logical link toward less than all of the physical links of the logical link to reduce the number of subsequent switch devices through which the frame is forwarded.
A multistage switch, to which a logical link couples a destination, the logical link comprising a plurality of physical links, the multistage switch comprising:
- a plurality of external ports, each physical link coupled to one of the plurality of external ports;
- and
- a matrix of coupled switch devices, at least two of the physical links coupled to external ports on different switch devices;
- and
- means for forwarding a frame received for the destination through at least one of the switch devices to one of the physical links in the logical link based on the logical link toward less than all of the physical links of the logical link to reduce the number of subsequent switch devices through which the frame is forwarded.
A method for providing a multistage switch, to which a logical link couples a destination through a plurality of physical links comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of external ports, each of the physical links coupled to one of the external ports;
- providing a matrix of coupled switch devices, at least two of the physical links coupled to external ports on different switch devices;
- forwarding a frame received for the destination to one of the physical links in the logical link through at least one of the switch devices;
- and
- in the switch device receiving the forwarded frame, based on the logical link, toward less than all of the plural links of the logical link to reduce the number of subsequent switch devices through which to forward the forwarded frame.
A method for forwarding received data for a logical link implemented in a switch device in a multistage switch, the multistage switch comprising a matrix of switch devices, the logical link coupling a destination through a plurality of output ports connected to the multistage switch, comprising the steps of:
- upon determining that the received data is to be forwarded to a member of the logical link, selecting a trunk table associated with the logical link from a plurality of trunk tables, each trunk table including trunk table entries, each trunk table entry including a bit for each internal output port of the switch device;
- computing a forward vector for the received data dependent on a selected trunk table entry for the received data, the forward vector indicating the internal output port through which to forward the received data;
- and
- forwarding the received data to the selected internal output port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.