Patent ID: 9628384
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A network device in an industrial network, the network device comprising: circuitry configured as a first network port; circuitry configured as a second network port; circuitry configured as a port manager to dynamically select a first network port configuration for the first network port and a second network port configuration for the second network port based on an identifier included in received data packets, wherein the first network port configuration allocates the first network port for operation in a first tier of a network, and the second port configuration allocates the second network port for operation in a second tier of the network, the first network port configuration being common to a plurality of network ports allocated to the first tier, and the second network port configuration being common to a plurality of network ports allocated to the second tier, and the first network port configuration having different transmission parameters than the second network port configuration; the first network port configured to forward, over the network, first data packets for receipt by a first port of a next hop device allocated to the first network tier and utilizing the first network port configuration in response to the identifier included in the first data packets being representative of the first tier; and the second network port configured to forward, over the network, second data packets for receipt by a second port of the next hop device allocated to the second network tier and utilizing the second network port configuration in response to the identifier included in the second data packets being representative of the second tier.