Patent ID: 9426067
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A network element, comprising: an ingress switch, configured to provide bi-directional routing of a packet, wherein the packet contains a special purpose table having entries that are configured such that incoming packet traffic, arriving at the ingress switch through an externally facing ingress switch port, is provided with directional information to associate an ingress switch server-facing port with at least one of a plurality of servers and the ingress switch; an egress switch, configured to provide bi-directional routing of the packet, wherein the packet contains the special purpose table having entries that are configured such that incoming packet traffic, arriving at the egress switch through an externally facing egress switch port, is provided with directional information to associate an egress switch server-facing port with at least one of a plurality of servers and the ingress switch; a plurality of servers in communication with the ingress and egress switches; a first switching engine, in the ingress switch, wherein the special-purpose table is within the first switching engine and is configured to provide data packets at the master switch with directional information to associate a server-facing port on the master switch with one of the plurality of servers, wherein the first switching engine further includes a packet forwarding table configured to map a unique value to one of a plurality of server-facing ports of the master switch, plurality of server-facing ports being connected to a server port; and a second switching engine in the egress switch, wherein the first and second switching engines are configured to modify policy header information in the special purpose table of said packet to direct packet traffic received from client systems, or from other network elements, along with the modified policy header information, to one or more of the servers, and wherein the plurality of servers are configured to further modify policy header information in the special purpose table of said packet to: