Label switching type of packet forwarding apparatus
AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorsKazuho Miki, Kenichi Sakamoto, Koji Wakayama
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A label switching type packet forwarding apparatus having a routing information table in which a forwarding type of a reception packet, output port identification information, and output routing information of a specific layer in the OSI reference model determined by the forwarding type are defined in correspondence with routing information which is found upon reception of a packet, for converting a header of a reception packet in accordance with the packet forwarding type and the output routing information obtained by a table search.
Claims9
A Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) system for interconnecting Internet Protocol (IP) network regions, the MPLS system comprising edge nodes for connecting said IP network regions to the MPLS system and core nodes for interconnecting said edge nodes, said edge nodes including a label switching type packet forwarding apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving packets in plural communication protocols and comprising:
- a plurality of input ports for receiving packets in said plurality of communication protocols;
- a plurality of output ports for transmitting packets in said plurality of communication protocols;
- and
- a processing unit for performing a header converting process of each input packet received by one of said input ports in accordance with an output routing information of a specific layer in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model determined upon receiving the packet, and for outputting the input packet as one of output packets to one of said output ports specified by output port identification information determined upon receiving the packet,
- wherein said label switching type packet forwarding apparatus is provided with a routing information table including a plurality of table entries each defining a combination of routing information of a plurality of layers in the OSI reference model,
- wherein said input ports include a first group of ports to be coupled to communication lines for said Internet Protocol (IP) network regions and a second group of ports to be coupled to communication lines for said core nodes, and said output ports include a third group of ports to be coupled to communication lines for said IP network regions and a fourth group of ports to be coupled to communication lines for said core nodes, and
- wherein said processing unit is configured so as to determine each of said output routing information of the specific layer in the OSI reference model and said output port identification information by referring to said routing information table, in correspondence with the combination of routing information of said plurality of layers in the OSI reference model.
A Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) domain system for interconnecting Internet Protocol (IP) network regions, the MPLS system comprising edge nodes for connecting said IP network regions to the MPLS system and core nodes for interconnecting said edge nodes, said core nodes including a label switching type packet forwarding apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving packets in plural communication protocols and comprising:
- a plurality of input ports for receiving input packets from the MPLS system in which the input packets were communicated according to Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS);
- a plurality of output ports for transmitting output packets to the MPLS system;
- a routing information table including a plurality of table entries, each of which defines a combination of routing information of a plurality of layers in an Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model;
- and
- a processing unit which determines output routing information in correspondence with a combination of first information indicative of the input port of one of said input packets, second information indicative of either said MPLS of the input packet or routing information of layer 2 in the OSI reference model and third information indicative of a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of the input packet, which converts the input packet in accordance with the output routing information of a specific layer in the OSI reference model determined upon receiving the input I packet, and which outputs the input packet as one of said output packets to one of said output ports specified by output port identification information determined upon receiving the input packet, and
- wherein each of the output routing information of the specific layer in the OSI reference model and the output port identification information is determined in correspondence with the combination of said first information indicative of the input port of the input packet, said second information indicative of either the MPLS label of the input packet or the routing information of the layer 2 in the OSI reference model and said third information indicative of the destination IP address of the inputted packet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.