Data switching system
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsHaresh K. Shah, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Glenn Poole
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A data switching system is disclosed that allows for switching of packets through a plurality of top of rack switches utilizing a logical switching fabric that includes a local TOR switching fabric on a TOR switch and a Core switching fabric on a Core switch. A method of processing packets according to some embodiment can include receiving a packet from a source port into a top of rack switch, the source port being one of a plurality of ports on the top of rack switch, processing a packet header of the packet to determine a destination port; and switching the packet through a logical switching fabric that includes a local switch fabric on the top of rack switch and a Core switching fabric on a Core switch.
Claims15
A method of data switching, comprising:
- receiving a packet from a source port into a top of rack (TOR) switch, the source port being one of a plurality of ports on the top of rack switch, the plurality of ports capable of being coupled to a plurality of servers on one or more racks;
- processing a packet header of the packet to determine a destination port;
- determining whether the destination port is on the TOR switch;
- segmenting the packet to provide segmented packets to a logical switching fabric that includes a local switch fabric on the top of rack switch and a Core switching fabric on a Core switch;
- when the destination port is on the TOR switch, providing the segmented packets without a TOR header to the local switch fabric;
- when the destination port is on a different TOR switch, providing the segmented packets with the TOR header to the Core switch fabric, wherein the TOR header eliminates a need to processes the packet header to determine the destination port at the Core switch;
- and
- switching the segmented packets through the logical switching fabric.
A top of rack (TOR), comprising:
- a plurality of ports that can each be coupled to servers on one or more racks;
- and
- network processing units coupled to the plurality of ports, the network processing unit switching packets received from the plurality of ports with a logical switching fabric, the logical switching fabric including a TOR switching fabric and a Core switching fabric accessed by the network processing units through a transceiver communicating with the Core switching fabric on a Core switch,
- wherein the network processing units are configured to:
- receive a packet from a source port, the source port being one of the plurality of ports;
- process a packet header of the packet to determine a destination port;
- determine whether the destination port is one of the plurality of ports;
- segment the packets to provide segmented packets to the logical switching fabric;
- when the destination port is one of the plurality of ports, provide the segmented packets without a TOR header to the TOR switch fabric;
- and
- when the destination port is on a different TOR, provide the segmented packets with the TOR header to the transceiver for switching with the Core switch fabric, wherein the TOR header eliminates a need to processes the packet header to determine the destination port at the Core switch;
- and
- switch the segmented packets through the logical switching fabric.
A data center system, comprising:
- at least one core switch having a core switching fabric;
- and
- at least one top of rack (TOR) switch having a TOR switching fabric, each TOR switch including a plurality of ports capable of being coupled to servers on one or more racks, the TOR switch switching a packet through a logical switching fabric that includes the core switching fabric and the TOR switching fabric,
- wherein the TOR switch is configured to:
- receive the packet from a source port, the source port being one of the plurality of ports;
- process a packet header of the packet to determine a destination port;
- segment the packets to provide segmented packets to the logical switching fabric;
- when the destination port is one of the plurality of ports, provide the segmented packets without a TOR header to the TOR switch fabric;
- when the destination port is on a different TOR switch, provide the segmented packets to the Core switch fabric, wherein the TOR header eliminates a need to processes the packet header to determine the destination port at the Core switch;
- and
- switch the segmented packets through the logical switching fabric.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.