Patent ID: 9641611
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A network system comprising: a master network switch and a first network switch controlled by the master network switch: the master network switch comprising: a logical interface map stored in a first memory accessible to the master network switch control plane and the master network switch forwarding plane, the logical interface map comprising an interface type table comprising a plurality of hardware interface types and a plurality of logical interface tables, each logical interface table associated with a particular hardware interface type; a topology creation manager that manages a forwarding table within the master network switch control plane; a logical interface (LIF) manager that forms the logical interface map that maps hardware interfaces of the first network switch to a respective LIF, each LIF comprising an LIF identifier (LIF-ID), the LIF-ID comprising an interface type entry that identifies the hardware interface type of the respective hardware interface and points to the hardware interface type of the the respective hardware interface within the interface type table, a switch identifier entry that identifies the first network switch, and an interface index entry that points to an interface record within a particular logical interface table associated with the hardware interface type of the respective hardware interface, the interface record comprising common attribute information that is common to all hardware interfaces of the same type as the respective interface and respective interface specific information that is unique to only the respective interface; the first network switch comprising: a processor and second memory comprising first program instructions in the first network switch control plane, second program instructions in the first network switch forwarding plane, the forwarding table received from the master networking device, and the logical interface map received from master networking device, wherein the local logical interface map is stored in memory accessible to the first program instructions and second program instructions such that the first program instructions and the second program instructions both access respective interface records of respective LIF-IDs of the first network switch when evoked by the processor of the first network switch; and wherein the processor of the first network switch transmits network data received upon a first hardware interface to a second hardware interface of the first network switch based upon the forwarding table and based upon the second hardware interface specific information obtained from the access of the interface record of the second hardware interface.