Patent ID: 9319240
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A redundant ring node comprising: a first line card used to implement a ring node, the first line card comprising: a second line card used to implement the ring node, the second line card comprising: a backplane providing communication infrastructure between multiple line cards residing at the ring node; an inter-card communication link implemented over the backplane between a first virtual port at the first line card and a second virtual port at the second line card; a first update module of the first state machine operable to update the first state machine according to the ring protection protocol and in response to a state message arriving at the first ring port; a forwarding module residing on the first line card and operable to forward the state message through the first virtual port and over the inter-card communication link supported by the backplane to the second state machine residing on the second line card; and a second update module of the second state machine operable to respond to the state message received at the second virtual port according to the ring protection protocol as though the state message were received at the second ring port so that the second update module updates the second state machine to the updated state such that the first state machine and the second state machine share a common state for the ring node.