US 8,804,710 B2Granted

System architecture for a scalable and distributed multi-stage switch fabric

AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.

InventorsGunes Aybay, Jaya Bandyopadhyay, Jean-Marc Frailong, Pradeep Sindhu, Philip A. Thomas, Anjan Venkatramani

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Abstract

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first housing, a second housing and at least one cable. The first housing includes a first interface card of a switch fabric. The second housing includes a second interface card of the switch fabric and a third interface card of the switch fabric. The second interface card of the switch fabric is operatively and physically coupled to the third interface card of the switch fabric via a midplane. The second interface card defines a plane that is nonparallel to the a plane defined by the third interface card and a plane defined by the midplane. The plane defined by the third interface card is nonparallel to the plane defined by the second interface card and the plane defined by the midplane. The cable is configured to operatively couple the first interface card to the second interface card.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a multi-stage switch having a first configuration at a first time and a second configuration at a second time after the first time,
the multi-stage switch having a first interface card, a second interface card and a first chassis when the multi-stage switch is in the first configuration, the first interface card and the second interface card being within the first chassis when the multi-stage switch is in the first configuration, the first interface card is configured to include a first stage of the multi-stage switch when the system is in the first configuration, the second interface card is configured to include a second stage of the multi-stage switch when the system is in the first configuration,
the multi-stage switch having a third interface card, a fourth interface card and a second chassis when the multi-stage switch is in the second configuration, the first interface card and the third interface card being within the first chassis when the multi-stage switch is in the second configuration, the second interface card and the fourth interface card being within the second chassis when the multi-stage switch is in the second configuration, the second interface card is configured to include a third stage of the multi-stage switch when the multi-stage is in the second configuration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.