Converged service for interconnected local area networks

Abstract

A converged service frame format is defined to support any-to-any connections between Ethernet and Token Ring LANs. The converged service frame format is a superset of standard Ethernet frame formats defined in IEEE 802.3 specifications. Where the frame source is an Ethernet LAN, an 802.1Q tag is added. Where the frame source is a Token Ring LAN, other operations are performed, including mapping of Token Ring priority bits into an appropriate field in the converged service frame. The operations required to map either an Ethernet or a Token Ring frame into the converged service frame are performed at an edge device at a point of ingress into an intervening network. The inverse operations required to restore the Ethernet or Token Ring frame are similarly performed in an edge device at a point of egress from the network.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.