Methods and apparatus for handling management packets in an audio video bridging (AVB) network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9565118-B1
Application number	US-201113115682-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 25, 2011
Priority date	May 26, 2010
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

It is determined whether a packet is a management-type packet. When it is determined that the packet is a management-type packet, a queue is selected from a plurality of queues corresponding to different priorities, wherein the selected queue corresponds to a defined throughput and/or a defined latency. The packet is enqueued in the selected queue. The packet is transmitted via a port of the network device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, implemented in a network device that supports an audio video bridge (AVB) protocol, the method comprising:
receiving a packet at an ingress port of a plurality of ports of the network device, each of the plurality of ports having a respective ingress port processor;
performing, at an ingress port processor of the ingress port, a lookup in a database using header information of the packet to obtain queue priority override information that indicates how the packet is to be enqueued at an egress port of the plurality of ports;
setting, at the ingress port processor and based on the queue priority override information obtained from the lookup, a first queue priority indicator to a first value and a second queue priority indicator to a second value, for a packet descriptor corresponding to the packet;
sending, by the ingress port processor, the packet descriptor with the first queue priority indicator and the second queue priority indicator to a queue controller having a plurality of demultiplexers, each demultiplexer corresponding to a respective port of the plurality of ports, the plurality of demultiplexers having a demultiplexer that corresponds to the egress port of the plurality of ports for the packet, wherein the demultiplexer is coupled with each of a plurality of packet descriptor queues for the egress port;
determining, by the queue controller, whether the egress port is coupled to an AVB device or a non-AVB device;
selecting, by the queue controller, the first queue priority indicator in response to determining that the egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device;
selecting, by the queue controller, the second queue priority indicator in response to determining that the egress port is coupled to the AVB device;
enqueueing, by the demultiplexer, the packet descriptor corresponding to the packet in a descriptor queue of the plurality of packet descriptor queues for the egress port that corresponds to the selected queue priority indicator; and
transmitting the packet via the egress port according to the descriptor queue.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein setting the first queue priority indicator to the first value and the second queue priority indicator to the second value comprises:
determining whether the queue priority override information indicates that the queue priority override information is to be used to enqueue the packet;
setting the first queue priority indicator to the first value, where the first value is based on the queue priority override information, and the second queue priority indicator to the second value, where the second value is based on the queue priority override information, in response to determining that the queue priority override information indicates that the queue priority override information is to be used to enqueue the packet; and
setting the first queue priority indicator to the first value, where the first value is based on frame priority information of the header information of the packet, and the second queue priority indicator to the second value, where the second value is based on the frame priority information, in response to determining that the queue priority override information indicates that the queue priority override information is not to be used to enqueue the packet.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the frame priority information is an Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.1p priority code point (PCP) field of the packet and the first value corresponds to the PCP field.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the queue priority override information includes the first value and the second value.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database is a forwarding database.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the egress port is a first egress port and the method further comprises determining a plurality of egress ports for the packet that includes the first egress port and a second egress port;
wherein selecting the first queue priority indicator comprises:
selecting the first queue priority indicator for the first egress port in response to determining that the first egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device, and
selecting the first queue priority indicator for the second egress port in response to determining that the second egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device;

wherein selecting the second queue priority indicator comprises:
selecting the second queue priority indicator for the first egress port in response to determining that the first egress port is coupled to the AVB device, and
selecting the second queue priority indicator for the second egress port in response to determining that the second egress port is coupled to the AVB device;

wherein enqueueing the packet descriptor comprises:
enqueueing a first packet descriptor corresponding to the packet according to the selected queue priority indicator for the first egress port, and
enqueuing a second packet descriptor corresponding to the packet according to the selected queue priority indicator for the second egress port.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the first queue priority indicator in response to determining that the egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device comprises:
determining configuration information for the egress port that indicates whether the second queue priority indicator is to be utilized even though the egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device;
selecting the second queue priority indicator in response to determining that the configuration information indicates that the second queue priority indicator is to be utilized even though the egress port is coupled to the non-AVB device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the lookup in the database comprises:
performing the lookup in the database using the header information to obtain information that indicates whether the packet is a management-type packet; and
setting frame priority information of the header information of the packet to a value corresponding to a desired priority for management-type packets in response to determining that the packet is the management-type packet.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the frame priority information is an Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.1p priority code point (PCP) field of the packet.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining whether the packet is a management-type packet comprises determining that the packet is a management-type packet in response to determining that a destination address of the packet is a multicast address reserved for management-type packets.

11. A network device, comprising:
a plurality of ports including at least an ingress port and an egress port;
a plurality of ingress processors, each ingress processor of the plurality of ingress processors corresponding to a respective port of the plurality of ports;
a queue controller that supports an Audio Video Bridging (AVB) protocol, the queue controller having a plurality of demultiplexers, each demultiplexer of the plurality of demultiplexers corresponding to a respective port of the plurality of ports, each demultiplexer of the plurality of demultiplexers coupled with a respective plurality of packet descriptor queues for the corresponding port of the plurality of ports, wherein
a first demultiplexer of the queue controller corresponds to the egress port and a first plurality of packet descriptor queues, each packet descriptor queue of the first plurality of packet descriptor queues corresponding to a different priority value;

wherein an ingress processor of the plurality of ingress processors that corresponds to the ingress port is configured to
perform a lookup i

Assignees

• Pannell Donald
• Marvell Int Ltd

Inventors

• Pannell Donald

Classifications

• H04L2012/5638

  Services, e.g. multimedia, GOS, QOS · CPC title

• H04L47/6215

  Individual queue per QOS, rate or priority · CPC title

• H04L45/7453

  using hashing · CPC title

• H04L12/462

  LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone · CPC title

• H04L47/24

  Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS · CPC title