Residential ethernet switching apparatus capable of performing time-slot switching and time-slot switching method thereof

A Residential Ethernet switching apparatus for performing time slot switching, comprising:

• an input unit for receiving, as input, a frame of a bit stream;
• a parser for parsing the bit stream and for identifying the received frame as one of an asynchronous Ethernet frame (AsyncE frame) and a Residential Ethernet frame (ResE frame);
• a MAC hash unit for, in case said received frame is identified as an Async frame, performing a MAC hash operation with respect to the received AsyncE frame;
• a VMAC processor for, in case said received frame is identified as an ResE frame, performing a virtual MAC (VMAC) processing with respect to the received ResE frame, according to positions of time slots included in said received ResE frame;
• a coupler for combining an output of the MAC hash unit with an output of the VMAC processor;
• a lookup engine for receiving output of the coupler and for respectively using hashed MAC information and VMAC information in said output of the coupler to look up in a switching table of a filtering database (DB);
• said filtering DB for storing said switching table;
• a local sink for receiving a lookup result from the lookup engine;
• a switching unit for receiving the lookup result from the lookup engine and respectively performing a switching operation with respect to the AsyncE frame and the ResE frame;
• and
• an output unit for outputting frames switched by means of the switching unit.

A Residential Ethernet switching method for performing time slot switching, said method comprising the acts of:

• 1) receiving, as input, a frame of a bit stream;
• 2) parsing the bit stream, and identifying the received frame as one of an asynchronous Ethernet frame (AsyncE frame) and a Residential Ethernet frame (ResE frame);
• 3) in case said received frame is identified as an Async frame, performing a switching operation with respect to the received AsyncE frame;
• 4) in case said received frame is identified as a ResE frame, performing virtual MAC (VMAC) processing with respect to the received ResE frame, according to positions of time slots included in said received ResE frame, and performing a switching operation based on a result of the VMAC processing;
• and
• 5) outputting respectively the switched AsyncE frame, or the switched ResE frame, by means of a multiplexer having respective inputs for said switched AsyncE and ResE frames.

A Residential Ethernet switching method for performing time slot switching, the method comprising the steps of:

• 1) receiving, as input, a frame of a bit stream;
• 2) parsing the bit stream, and identifying the received frame as one of an asynchronous Ethernet frame (AsyncE frame) and a Residential Ethernet frame (ResE frame);
• 3) in case said received frame is identified as an Async frame, performing a MAC hash operation with respect to the received AsyncE frame;
• 4) in case said received frame is identified as a ResE frame, performing virtual MAC (VMAC) processing with respect to the received ResE frame, according to positions of time slots included in said received ResE frame;
• 5) using, respectively, the hashed MAC information, or the VMAC information, to look up in a switching table;
• and
• 6) receiving a lookup result obtained through the looking up;
• performing a switching operation with respect to said received AsyncE frame, or said received ResE frame, respectively;
• and outputting the switched frame.