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US 5,959,990 AGranted
VLAN frame format
AssigneeBay Networks, Inc.
InventorsPaul James Frantz, Geoffrey O. Thompson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeBay Networks, Inc.
InventorsPaul James Frantz, Geoffrey O. Thompson
Estimating the term…
In a network device such as a network switch having a port coupled to a communications medium dedicated to a single virtual local area network and another port coupled to a communications medium shared among multiple virtual local area networks for transmitting data frames between the dedicated communications medium and the shared communications medium, a method of identifying the virtual network associated with each data frame received by the network switch when transmitting the data frames over the shared communications medium. The method comprises receiving data frames from the dedicated communications medium coupled to one port, and, with respect to each data frame so received, inserting a type or length field and a virtual network identifier field either between or before the Ethernet type field (of an Ethernet data frame) or the length field (of an IEEE 802-based data frame) and the data field, placing the contents of the Ethernet type or length field in the inserted type or length field, changing the contents of the Ethernet type or length field to indicate the data frame comprises a new type field and a virtual network identifier field, placing a value in said virtual network identifier field identifying the virtual network associated with the data frame, and, transmitting the data frame over the shared communications medium. Upon receipt of the data frames from over the shared communications medium, another network device can discern from the virtual network identifier field in each data frame the virtual network from which the data frames were received and determine whether to forward the data frames accordingly.
In a network device, a method of transmitting, on a shared communications medium coupled to said network device, a data frame associated with a virtual network, comprising the steps of:
In a network device, a method of transmitting a virtual network identifier in a data frame transmitted on a shared communications medium, coupled to said network device, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a local area network (hereafter LAN) segment and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium, a method of associating a virtual network with a data frame received from said LAN segment and transmitted to said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a local area network (hereafter LAN) segment and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium, a method of associating a virtual network with a data frame received from said LAN segment and transmitted to said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a communications medium and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium for transmitting data frames between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, a method of identifying a virtual network associated with said data frame when transmitting said data frame between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a communications medium and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium for transmitting data frames between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, a method of identifying a virtual network associated with said data frame when transmitting said data frame between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device, a method of transmitting a virtual network identifier in a data frame transmitted on a shared communications medium, coupled to said network device, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a local area network (hereafter LAN) segment and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium, a method of associating a virtual network with a data frame received from said LAN segment and transmitted to said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a communications medium and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium for transmitting data frames between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, a method of identifying a virtual network associated with said data frame when transmitting said data frame between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
In a network device having a first port coupled to a communications medium and a second port coupled to a shared communications medium for transmitting data frames between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, a method of identifying a virtual network associated with said data frame when transmitting said data frame between said communications medium and said shared communications medium, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.