US 8,797,897 B1Granted

Methods and apparatus with virtual identifiers for physical switches in a virtual chassis

AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.

InventorsMegh Bhatt, Harshad Nakil, Rajashekar Reddy, Saurabh Agarwal, Shankar Ramanathan

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Abstract

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first switch having an egress port configured to be coupled to a second switch to collectively to define a single logical entity having a set of virtual identifiers. A first set of virtual identifiers from the set of virtual identifiers is associated with the first switch, a second set of virtual identifiers from the set of virtual identifiers is associated with the second switch. The first switch is configured to receive a forwarding table associating a first set of destination addresses with a set of identifiers local to the first switch and associating a second set of destination addresses with a set of identifiers local to the second switch. Each identifier from the first set of identifiers is uniquely associated the first set of virtual identifiers. Each identifier from the set of identifiers is uniquely associated the second set of virtual identifiers.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus, comprising:

a first switch having an egress port, the egress port configured to be directly connected to a second switch to collectively define a single logical entity having a plurality of virtual identifiers, a first set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the first switch, a second set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the second switch,
the first switch configured to receive a forwarding state table associating a first plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the first switch and associating a second plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the second switch, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the first switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the first set of virtual identifiers, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the second switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the second set of virtual identifiers, at least one destination address from the first plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the first switch and not a switch, at least one destination address from the second plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the second switch and not a switch.

An apparatus, comprising:

a control module implemented in at least one of a memory or a processing device, the control module configured to be operatively coupled to a first switch and a second switch that collectively define a single logical entity having a plurality of virtual identifiers, a first set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the first switch, a second set of virtual identifiers from the plurality of virtual identifiers being associated with the second switch,
the control module configured to send to the first switch a forwarding state table associating a first plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the first switch, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the first switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the first set of virtual identifiers, the forwarding state table associating a second plurality of destination addresses with a plurality of identifiers local to the second switch, each identifier from the plurality of identifiers local to the second switch being uniquely associated with a virtual identifier from the second set of virtual identifiers, each virtual identifier from the first set of virtual identifiers and the second set of virtual identifiers being different from each destination address from the first plurality of destination addresses and the second plurality of destination addresses.

An apparatus, comprising:

a first switch having a plurality of ports including a first port and a second port, the first switch configured to be directly connected to a second switch via the second port to collectively define a single logical entity, the first switch configured to store a unique association between each destination address from a plurality of destination addresses and a local identifier from a plurality of local identifiers, at least one destination address from the plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the first switch and not a switch, at least one destination address from the plurality of destination addresses is an address of a device that is directly connected to the second switch and not a switch, the first switch not storing a local identifier for the second switch,
the first switch configured to receive at the first port a packet having a destination address, the first switch configured to identify a local identifier from the plurality of local identifiers based on the destination address, the first switch configured to forward the packet to the second port based on the local identifier when the destination address is not associated with a device coupled to a port of the first switch.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.