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US 7,453,870 B2Granted
Backplane for switch fabric
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsKuriappan P. Alappat, Brian Peebles, Aniruddha Kundu, Gerald Lebizay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A backplane employed in a switch fabric, having the capability to allow signal communication between at least two modules. Two or more of the modules being adapted to employ different topologies from the following types of topologies: star, dual star, mesh, and cascaded mesh.
Claims18
An apparatus comprising:
- a backplane;
- said backplane capable of being coupled to modules, at least some of said modules comprising mesh modules and at least some of said modules comprising switch fabric modules;
- said backplane having a topology so that selected ones of said mesh modules are capable of being coupled in at least one self-contained mesh topology configuration;
- said backplane further having a topology so that selected others of said mesh modules are capable of being coupled with one or more selected switch fabric modules in at least one self-contained star topology configuration;
- said backplane further having a topology so that said at least one star topology configuration and said at least one mesh topology configuration are capable of interoperating.
2 more elements
An apparatus comprising:
- a passive, packet switched backplane;
- said passive, packet switched backplane, at least when employed in a switch fabric, having the capability to allow signal communication between at least two modules, two or more of the modules to include a mesh module being adapted to employ one of a mesh topology and a cascaded mesh topology and a switch fabric module being adapted to employ one of a star topology and a dual-star topology;
- wherein one mesh module is capable of being coupled with the switch fabric in at least one self-contained star topology configuration.
A switch fabric, comprising:
- a passive, packet switched backplane;
- a switch fabric module adapted to employ one of a star topology and dual star topology on said passive, packet switched backplane;
- and
- a mesh module being adapted to employ one of a mesh topology and a cascaded mesh topology, said passive, packet switched backplane having the capability to allow signal communication between said mesh module and said switch fabric module, the mesh module capable of being coupled with the switch fabric module in at least one self-contained mesh topology configuration.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.