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AssigneexCelor LLC
InventorsRobert James Walker, Sergey Sardaryan
Estimating the term…
Presently disclosed are systems and methods for identifying interconnections among physical-layer cross-connect switches. One embodiment takes the form of a method of discovering external connections among a plurality of interconnected physical-layer cross connects (PLCCs). The method includes maintaining external-link mapping data for the plurality of PLCCs, which each include a plurality of ports. The method further includes determining that a first data sequence that was transmitted outbound via a first port of a first PLCC matches a second data sequence that was received inbound via a second port of the second PLCC, and responsively updating the external-link mapping data to indicate an external connection between the first port of the first PLCC and the second port of the second PLCC.
A method of discovering external connections among a plurality of interconnected physical-layer cross connects (PLCCs), the method comprising:
A communication-path-management controller comprising:
A physical-layer cross connect (PLCC) comprising:
A physical-layer cross connect (PLCC) comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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By checking availability: by checking connectivity
Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks: discovery or management…
Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks: testing arrangements
Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks: topology update or discovery
About 9 years 4 months of term left · ends 28 Feb 2036 (estimated)
This disclosure relates to digital networking, and more specifically to identifying interconnections among physical-layer cross-connect switches at, for example, a data center.
Stated generally, data centers are facilities that house computers, servers, data-storage systems, networking components, telecommunications equipment, other associated equipment, and the like. In some instances, data centers are operated by companies (e.g., service providers) such as Amazon®, Google®, Facebook®, and the like, which may, among other functions, provide one or more data feeds from a given data center. In some instances, data centers are operated as distribution centers for telecommunications services, data services, and the like for one or more buildings, campuses, communities, and the like. And certainly other example uses of data centers could be listed here.
Among the many operations that are carried out at typical data centers, one common example is what is known as physical-layer (i.e., layer-1) switching, which is carried out by one or more devices often known and referred to herein as physical-layer switches, which are devices that provide physical connections between various different instances of networking equipment. As examples, a given data center may receive data feeds from and/or have connections with one or more service providers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and the like, and use one or more physical-layer switches to connect those received data feeds and/or other data connections to some number of servers, computing devices, and the like. And certainly numerous other example data-center operations and arrangements could be listed here.
FIG. 1 depicts a first view of an example PLCC, in accordance with at least one embodiment.
FIG. 2 depicts a second view of the example PLCC of FIG. 1, in accordance with at least one embodiment.
FIG. 3 depicts a third view of the example PLCC of FIG. 1, in accordance with at least one embodiment.
Moreover, before proceeding with this disclosure, it is noted that the entities, connections, arrangements, and the like that are depicted in—and described in connection with—the various figures are presented by way of example and not by way of limitation. As such, any and all statements or other indications as to what a particular figure “depicts,” what a particular element or entity in a particular figure “is” or “has,” and any and all similar statements—that may in isolation and out of context be read as absolute and therefore limiting—can only properly be read as being constructively preceded by a clause such as “In at least one embodiment, . . . .” And it is for reasons akin to brevity and clarity of presentation that this implied leading clause is not repeated ad nauseum in the below detailed description of the drawings.
FIG. 1 depicts a first view of an example PLCC, in accordance with at least one embodiment. In particular, FIG. 1 depicts an example PLCC 100 that includes data jacks 101-108, transceivers 111-118, data ports 121-129, a PLCC controller 130, a switching circuit 132, a data bus 134, a signal bus 136, a PLCC-control port 140, and a routing bus 150. The PLCC 100 further includes bidirectional communication links 105, 109, 115, 119, 145, and 155. As indicated in the legend that appears in the lower-right-hand corner of FIG. 1, the data bus 134 is represented using a dotted-and-dashed line, while the signal bus 136 is represented using a dashed line. This convention for data-bus depiction and signal-bus depiction continues throughout the drawings, as does a routing-bus-depiction convention of using a parallel pair of double-ended arrows. As a general matter, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the depicted-and-described architecture of the PLCC 100 is presented here by way of example, and that other architectures could be implemented as deemed suitable by those of skill in the art.
It should also be understood that, while eight sets of data jacks and data transceivers, along with nine data ports, are depicted in the PLCC 100, this is purely by way of example and not limitation, as any number of such sets could be implemented as deemed suitable in a given context by those of skill in the relevant art. Indeed, in some embodiments, the PLCC 100 includes many more than nine data ports in total and includes among those many data ports more than one internal-only data port, of which the herein-described data port 129 is an example. As but one example of this scale of PLCC, some embodiments involve PLCCs that each have on the order of 1000 (e.g., 1024) data ports, among which are included on the order of 32 internal-only data ports. And certainly numerous other examples could be listed here as well.