Managing a switch fabric
AssigneeHewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
InventorsVincent E. Cavanna, Michael G. Frey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a method for managing a switch fabric comprising a plurality of fabric chips, each of said plurality of fabric chips comprising a plurality of port interfaces, a first configuration set and a second configuration set, each comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet, are generated. In addition, a determination as to which of the first configuration set and the second configuration set the plurality of fabric chips are to use is made an instruction is communicated to each of the fabric chips to use the determined one of the first configuration set and the second configuration set.
Claims15
A method for managing a switch fabric comprising a plurality of fabric chips, each of said plurality of fabric chips comprising a plurality of port interfaces, said method comprising:
- generating a first configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet;
- generating a second configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet, wherein the second configuration set differs from the first configuration set;
- while the plurality of fabric chips are using the first configuration set, determining that the plurality of fabric chips are to use the second configuration set;
- and
- communicating an instruction to each of the plurality of fabric chips to use the second configuration set, wherein the instruction includes a delay instruction that causes the plurality of fabric chips to begin to use the second configuration set at the same time.
An apparatus for managing use of a switch fabric composed of a plurality of interconnected fabric chips, each of said plurality of fabric chips comprising a respective plurality of port interfaces interconnected through a crossbar, said apparatus comprising:
- at least one module to receive status information from the port interfaces of the plurality of fabric chips, to generate a first configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet, to generate a second configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet, to determine, while the plurality of fabric chips are using the first configuration set, that the plurality of fabric chips are to use the second configuration set, and to communicate an instruction to each of the fabric chips to use the second configuration set, wherein the instruction includes a delay instruction that causes the plurality of fabric chips to begin to use the second configuration set at the same time;
- and
- a processor to implement the at least one module.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which is embedded a computer program, said computer program implementing a method for managing a switch fabric comprising a plurality of fabric chips, each of said plurality of fabric chips comprising a plurality of port interfaces, said computer program comprising a set of instructions to:
- generate a first configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet;
- generate a second configuration set comprising a plurality of configuration registers for the port interfaces to use in calculating a port resolution for an incoming packet, wherein the second configuration set differs from the first configuration set;
- determine, while the plurality of fabric chips are using the first configuration set, that the plurality of fabric chips are to use the second configuration set;
- and
- communicate an instruction to each of the fabric chips to use the second configuration set, wherein the instruction includes a delay instruction that causes the plurality of fabric chips to begin to use the second configuration set at the same time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.