Port extender

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016205019-A1
Application number	US-201615074998-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 18, 2016
Priority date	Mar 12, 2013
Publication date	Jul 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An extended bridge structure that includes a controlling bridge and port extenders is disclosed. A port extender according to some embodiments of the present invention includes a processor that processes receives packets in a way that executes at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge. A controlling bridge according to the present invention provides data to the port extender that enables it to execute the at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A port extender, comprising:
access ports configured to exchange packets with nodes; cascade ports configured to exchange packets with downstream port extenders; uplink ports configured to exchange packets with upstream devices; non-transitory memory storing instructions; and one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read the instructions from the memory to configure the port extender to perform operations comprising: performing a table lookup for a source media access control (MAC) address and a destination MAC address for a first packet received on one of the access ports; forwarding the first packet to the destination MAC address in response to both the source and destination MAC addresses being found in the lookup table; and forwarding the first packet to the uplink port in response to either the source or destination MAC address not being found in the lookup table.

2 . The port extender of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise executing an access control logic (ACL) and quality of services (QoS) function.

3 . The port extender of claim 2 , wherein the ACL and QoS policies for one or more extended ports associated with the access ports or the cascade ports are received from a controlling bridge and stored in a table in the memory during an instantiation procedure.

4 . The port extender of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise local switching.

5 . The port extender of claim 4 , wherein the operations further comprise adding a first port extender tag with a source identifier (SRC) field set to the extended port associated with the access port and a destination identifier (DST) field set to 0 to form a tagged packet and forwarding the tagged packet to the uplink port, in response to either the source or destination not being found in the lookup table.

6 . The port extender of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a tagged packet on a cascade port, the tagged packet including a second source MAC address and a second destination MAC address and a second port extender tag that includes a SRC and a DST field; performing a table lookup based on both the second source MAC address and the second destination MAC address; if the lookup table includes both the second source MAC address and the second destination MAC address, determining whether the second destination MAC address is associated with one of the access ports or one of the cascade ports, removing a tag from the tagged packet when the destination MAC address is one of the access ports, setting the DST field to a virtual port when the second destination MAC address is one of the cascade ports, and forwarding the tagged packet to the second destination MAC address; if either the second source MAC address or the second destination MAC address is not found during the table lookup, forwarding the tagged packet to the uplink port.

7 . A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon machine readable instructions executable to configure a machine to perform operations comprising:
performing a table lookup for a source media access control (MAC) address and a destination MAC address for a first packet received on an access port; forwarding the first packet to the destination MAC address in response to both the source and destination MAC addresses being found in a lookup table; and forwarding the first packet to an uplink port in response to either the source or destination MAC address not being found in the table lookup.

8 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise executing an access control logic (ACL) and quality of services (QoS) function.

9 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the ACL and QoS policies for one or more extended ports associated with the access ports or the cascade ports are received from a controlling bridge and stored in a table in the memory during an instantiation procedure.

10 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise local switching.

11 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise adding a first port extender tag with a source identifier (SRC) field set to the extended port associated with the access port and a destination identifier (DST) field set to 0 to form a tagged packet and forwarding the tagged packet to the uplink port, in response to either the source or destination not being found in the lookup table.

12 . The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a tagged packet on a cascade port, the tagged packet including a second source MAC address and a second destination MAC address and a second port extender tag that includes a SRC and a DST field; performing a table lookup based on both the second source MAC address and the second destination MAC address; if the lookup table includes both the second source MAC address and the second destination MAC address, determining whether the second destination MAC address is associated with one of the access ports or one of the cascade ports, removing a tag from the tagged packet when the destination MAC address is one of the access ports, setting the DST field to a virtual port when the second destination MAC address is one of the cascade ports, and forwarding the tagged packet to the second destination MAC address; forwarding the tagged packet to the uplink port if either the second source MAC address or the second destination MAC address is not found in the table lookup.

13 . A method of operating a port extender, comprising:
receiving, from a controlling bridge separate from the port extender, table entries; performing a table lookup on the table entries for a source media access control (MAC) address and a destination MAC address for a first packet received on an access port; forwarding the first packet to the destination MAC address in response to both the source and destination MAC addresses being found in the table entries; and forwarding the first packet to an uplink port in response to either the source or destination MAC address not being found in the table entries.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises executing an access control logic (ACL) and quality of services (QoS) function.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the ACL and QoS policies are received from the controlling bridge and stored in the table.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises performing local switching.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises adding a tag to the first packet with a source identifier (SRC) field set to the port extender and a destination identifier (DST) field set to 0 to form a tagged packet and forwarding the tagged packet to the uplink port, in response to either the source or destination not being found in the lookup table.

18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a tagged packet on a cascade port, the tagged packet including a second source MAC address and a second destination MAC address and a second port extender tag that includes a SRC and a DST field; performing a table lookup on the table entries based on both the second source MAC address and the second destination MAC address; determining that the table entries include both the second source MAC address and the second destination MA

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Sundaram Shivakumar
• Subramanian Krishnamurthy
• Ghanwani Anoop
• Janardhanan Pathangi Narasimhan
• Anumala Mohnish
• Jayakumar Raja

Classifications

• H04L45/02

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L45/745 Primary

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title

• H04L45/74

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L12/4625 Primary

  Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge · CPC title

• H04L61/6022

  Electricity · mapped topic