Blade switch
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsSaravanakumar Rajendran, Michael Smith, Dileep Kumar Devireddy, Pradeep K. Kathail, Chandrashekhar Appanna, Jeffrey Ym Wang, Prashant P. Gandhi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A blade switch for increased interface scalability is provided. The blade switch may address interface scalability by having each of the switch linecards manage its interfaces locally and may use the concept of virtual and local interfaces for intelligent forwarding. The blade switch may appear as a single network switch having a single bridge ID from the network perspective during operation and from the customer perspective during configuration.
Claims20
A network switch system, comprising:
- a chassis;
- a plurality of switch linecards disposed in the chassis and functioning as independent Layer 2 (L2) switches, wherein each of the switch linecards maintains control, forwarding, and interface management functions locally;
- and
- a controller, wherein the controller is adapted to configure the plurality of switch linecards as a single network device having a single bridge identifier (bridge ID).
A method comprising:
- receiving a packet in a first switch linecard of a plurality of switch linecards disposed in a chassis, wherein the plurality of switch linecards is configured as a single network switch having a single bridge identifier (bridge ID);
- and
- forwarding the packet from the first switch linecard to a second switch linecard via a virtual interface.
A method comprising:
- configuring a forwarding information base (FIB) of a first switch linecard of a plurality of switch linecards disposed in a chassis to forward a packet to a local interface of the first switch linecard if the packet is to be forwarded within the first switch linecard;
- and
- configuring the FIB of the first switch linecard to forward the packet from the first switch linecard to a virtual interface for bridging between two or more of the plurality of switch linecards if the packet is to be forwarded to a second switch linecard in the plurality.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.