Method and system for bridging traffic in a resilient packet ring network

A system for bridging traffic over a resilient packet ring (RPR) network, comprising:

• a plurality of RPR stations coupled to the network, the stations comprising at least a first station and a second station;
• one or more remote devices coupled to each of at least the first and second stations;
• the first station comprising:
• a learning module operable to determine the remote address of one or more remote devices that are coupled to the station;
• a network interface module configured to be coupled to the network and operable to communicate to each of the other stations forwarding information for the remote devices coupled to the first station in one or more RPR attribute discovery (ATD) control frames and to receive forwarding information from the second station each of the other stations for one or more of the remote devices coupled to each of the other stations in one or more RPR ATD control frames, the forwarding information associating a remote address of each remote device with an address of the station to which the remote device is coupled;
• a memory storing a forwarding database operable to store the forwarding information;
• a remote network interface module operable, once the learning module has determined the remote address of one or more remote devices that are coupled to the station, and once the network interface module has communicated to each of the other stations forwarding information for the remote devices coupled to the station, to receive traffic from a first remote device coupled to the first station, the traffic including a destination address that comprises a remote address of a second remote device coupled to the second station;
• a bridging module operable to identify the address of the second station associated with the remote address of the second remote device in the forwarding database;
• and
• the network interface module further operable to communicate the traffic directly to the second station using the identified address.

A station for bridging traffic over a resilient packet ring (RPR) network, the network comprising a plurality of RPR stations coupled to the network and one or more remote devices coupled to each of the stations, each station comprising:

• a learning module operable to determine the remote address of one or more remote devices that are coupled to the station;
• a network interface module configured to be coupled to the network and operable to communicate to each of the other stations forwarding information for the remote devices coupled to the station in one or more RPR attribute discovery (ATD) control frames and to receive forwarding information for other remote devices from each of the stations to which those remote devices are coupled in one or more RPR ATD control frames, the forwarding information associating a remote address of each remote device with an address of to which each remote device is coupled;
• memory storing a forwarding database operable to store the forwarding information;
• a remote network interface module configured to be coupled to the remote devices and operable, once the learning module has determined the remote address of one or more remote devices that are coupled to the station, and once the network interface module has communicated to each of the other stations forwarding information for the remote devices coupled to the station, to receive traffic from a first remote device coupled to the station, the traffic including a destination address that comprises a remote address of a second remote device coupled to another station;
• a bridging module operable to identify an address of the station associated with the remote address of the second remote device in the forwarding database;
• and
• the network interface module further operable to communicate the traffic directly to the station with which the second remote device is associated using the identified address.

A method for bridging traffic over a resilient packet ring (RPR) network, comprising:

• at each of a plurality of RPR stations coupled to the network, determining the remote address of one or more LAN devices that are coupled to each particular station;
• at each of the plurality of stations, communicating forwarding information to each of the other stations coupled to the ring in one or more RPR attribute discovery (ATD) control frames, the forwarding information associating the LAN address of each of the LAN devices coupled to the particular station with an address of the station;
• at each of the plurality of stations, receiving the forwarding information from the other stations coupled to the ring;
• at each station receiving the forwarding information, storing the forwarding information in a forwarding database of the station;
• after completing the previous steps, then at a first station of the plurality of stations, receiving traffic from a first LAN device coupled to the first station, the traffic including a destination address that comprises a LAN address of a second LAN device coupled to a second station of the plurality of stations;
• at the first station, identifying an address of the second station associated with the LAN address of the second LAN device in the forwarding database of the first station, wherein the remote address of the second remote device was stored in the forwarding database of the first station in the previous steps;
• encapsulating the received traffic into an RPR frame, wherein encapsulating the received traffic comprises adding a header to the traffic, the header including a destination address that comprises the identified address of the second station and a source address that comprises the address of the first station;
• communicating the traffic directly from the first station to the second station using the identified address of the second station;
• receiving the traffic at the second station;
• identifying a port of the second station with which the second LAN device is associated based on the LAN address of the second LAN device included in the traffic;
• and
• communicating the traffic to the identified port.