Methods and apparatus for RBridge hop-by-hop compression and frame aggregation
OwnerDonald E. Eastlake, IIIinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Some embodiments relate to a network comprising two RBridges connected by a link where the two RBridges are not the ingress and egress RBridge for said frames, wherein said RBridges automatically exchange information as to their support of hop-by-hop reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression, and wherein if both RBridges support any or all of these features in the same fashion, one or more of said features are automatically applied to appropriate frames at the transmitting RBridge and removed at the receiving RBridge, increasing the throughput of the link.
Claims18
A method for transmitting information in a network comprising a plurality of RBridges, the plurality of RBridges including a first RBridge and a second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, the method comprising acts of:
- sending, from the first RBridge to the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, first capability information indicative of whether the first RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from a group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- receiving, at the first RBridge, from the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, second capability information indicative of whether the second RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- determining, at the first RBridge, based at least in part on the received second capability information, whether any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge;
- when it is determined that at least one hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, automatically applying the at least one capability to at least one data frame transmitted from the first RBridge to the second RBridge, wherein the first RBridge is not an ingress RBridge for the at least one data frame or wherein the second RBridge is not an egress RBridge for the at least one data frame.
At least one computer-readable device, encoded with instructions that, when executed by a hardware processor, perform a method for transmitting information in a network comprising a plurality of RBridges, the plurality of RBridges including a first RBridge and a second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, the method comprising acts of:
- sending, from the first RBridge to the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, first capability information indicative of whether the first RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- receiving, at the first RBridge, from the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, second capability information indicative of whether the second RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- determining, at the first RBridge, based at least in part on the received second capability information, whether any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge;
- when it is determined that at least one hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge that is one-hop separated from the first RBridge, automatically applying the at least one capability to at least one data frame transmitted from the first RBridge to the second RBridge, wherein the first RBridge is not an ingress RBridge for the at least one data frame or wherein the second RBridge is not an egress RBridge for the at least one data frame.
A first RBridge in a network comprising a plurality of RBridges, the first RBridge comprising;
- at least one computer-readable hardware memory;
- and
- at least one hardware processor, coupled to the at least one computer-readable memory, configured to:
- send, to a second RBridge in the plurality of RBridges, first capability information indicative of whether the first RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- receive second capability information from the second RBridge, the second capability information being indicative of whether the second RBridge supports any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression;
- determine, based at least in part on the received second capability information, whether any hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge;
- when it is determined that at least one hop-by-hop data handling capability from the group consisting of reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression is supported by both the first RBridge and the second RBridge, automatically apply the at least one capability to at least one data frame transmitted from the first RBridge to the second RBridge, wherein the first RBridge is not an ingress RBridge for the at least one data frame or wherein the second RBridge is not an egress RBridge for the at least one data frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.