Link aggregation for routed ports
AssigneeMarvell International Ltd.
InventorsYuval Cohen, Nafea Bishara, Michael Orr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wireless network apparatus and corresponding method and computer program comprises a plurality of ports to transmit and receive data flows comprising packets of data; a memory to store a routing table; a forwarding engine to transfer the packets of data between the ports according to the routing table; and a processor to define a routing interface comprising a selected group of the ports, map a selected media access control (MAC) address to the routing interface, disable link aggregation between the ports in the routing interface, disable bridging between the ports in the routing interface, and modify the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the ports in the routing interface.
Claims21
A network device comprising:
- a plurality of ports to transmit and receive data flows comprising packets of data;
- a memory to store a routing table;
- a forwarding engine to transfer the packets of data between the ports according to the routing table;
- and
- a processor to
- define a routing interface comprising a selected group of the ports,
- map a selected media access control (MAC) address to the routing interface,
- disable link aggregation between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface,
- disable bridging between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface without disabling the selected group of the ports, and
- modify the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the selected group of the ports of the routing interface.
A network device comprising:
- a plurality of port means for transmitting and receiving data flows comprising packets of data;
- memory means for storing a routing table;
- forwarding means for transferring the packets of data between the port means according to the routing table;
- and
- processing means for
- defining a routing interface comprising a selected group of the port means,
- mapping a selected media access control (MAC) address to the routing interface,
- disabling link aggregation between the selected group of the port means of the routing interface,
- disabling bridging between the selected group of the port means of the routing interface without disabling the selected group of the port means, and
- modifying the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the selected group of the port means of the routing interface.
A method for a network device having a plurality of ports for transmitting and receiving data flows comprising packets of data according to a routing table, the method comprising:
- defining a router interface comprising a selected group of the ports;
- mapping a Media Access Control (MAC) address to the router interface;
- disabling link aggregation between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface;
- disabling bridging between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface without disabling the selected group of the ports;
- and
- modifying the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the selected group of the ports of the routing interface.
A computer readable medium storing a computer program capable of being executed by a computer for a network device having a plurality of ports for transmitting and receiving data flows comprising packets of data according to a routing table, the computer program comprising:
- defining a router interface comprising a selected group of the ports;
- mapping a Media Access Control (MAC) address to the router interface;
- disabling link aggregation between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface;
- disabling bridging between the selected group of the ports of the routing interface without disabling the selected group of the ports;
- and
- modifying the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the selected group of the ports of the routing interface.
A first network device comprising:
- X ports within the first network device that transmit and receive data flows comprising packets of data with a second network device that has a media access control (MAC) address;
- memory that stores a routing table;
- a forwarding engine to transfer the packets of data between the X ports according to the routing table;
- and
- a processor to
- define a routing interface comprising Y of the X ports,
- map said MAC address to the routing interface,
- disable link aggregation between the Y of the X ports of the routing interface,
- disable bridging between the Y of the X ports without disabling the Y of the X ports, and
- modify the routing table to direct each of the data flows having the MAC address as a destination address to one of the Y of the X ports, where X is an integer greater than 1 and where Y is less than X.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.