Tunnel provisioning with link aggregation
AssigneeOrckit IP, LLC
InventorRonen Solomon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.
Claims32
A method for use by an Ethernet switch device for switching Ethernet frames in a stand-alone unit, the Ethernet switch device comprises multiple physical ports cooperating as an Ethernet Link Aggregation Group (LAG), each port operative for receiving and transmitting Ethernet frames, the method comprising:
- assigning, in the Ethernet switch, a distinct number to each port of the multiple physical ports,
- receiving, by a first Ethernet port of the Ethernet device, multiple Ethernet frames where each of the frames comprises a source address field, a destination address field, and a value carried in a first field other than the source or destination address fields;
- selecting, by the Ethernet device, for each frame of the multiple frames, a port from the multiple physical ports based on the value;
- and
- sending, by the Ethernet device, each of the received multiple frames via the respective selected port,
- wherein the Ethernet switch further comprises a Label-Switching Router (LSR) according to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) protocol, and wherein the first field further comprises an MPLS label field, and
- wherein the LAG is according to, based on, or compatible with, Clause 43 of IEEE Standard 802.3ad, 2002 Edition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.