US 8,804,711 B2Granted

Methods and apparatus related to a modular switch architecture

AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.

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

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

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.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

activating a first plurality of interface cards in a first housing within a first time period, the first plurality of interface cards being associated with multiple stages of a switch fabric, the switch fabric being in a first configuration after the first time period and before a second time period;
activating a second plurality of interface cards in a second housing within the second time period while the switch fabric operates in the first configuration, the second plurality of interface cards being associated with multiple stages of the switch fabric, at least one interface card from the second plurality of interface cards within the second time period having been an interface card from the first plurality of interface cards during the first time period;
and
operatively coupling the first housing with the second housing within the second time period to define a second configuration of the switch fabric after the second time period, the number of stages associated with the second configuration being greater than the number of stages associated with the first configuration.

1 more element

A method, comprising:

installing an interface card having a first module system of a switch fabric in a first housing within a first time period;
installing an interface card having a second module system of the switch fabric in the first housing within the first time period, the switch fabric being in a first configuration after the first dine period and before a second time period;
installing an interface card having a third module system of the switch fabric in a second housing within the second time period, the switch fabric in operation during the second time period;
removing the interface card having the second module system of the switch fabric from the first housing within the second time period;
installing the interface card having the second module system of the switch fabric in the second housing within the second time period;
installing an interface card having a fourth module system of the switch fabric in the first housing within the second time period;
and
operatively coupling the first housing with the second housing within the second time period to define a second configuration of the switch fabric after the second time period.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.