Patent ID: 7394825
Filing Date: 2008-07-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A 10-gigabit Ethernet line interface apparatus, the line interface apparatus being connected to a 10-gigabit Ethernet line of a 10-gigabit Ethernet edge switch, the 10-gigabit Ethernet edge switch having 1-gigabit Ethernet line interface units connected to a plurality of 1-gigabit lines, a switch fabric unit, and a main processor unit, comprising: a plurality of network processors for receiving and transmitting 1 gigabit Ethernet frame to the switch fabric unit and performing packet forwarding and traffic management for layer 2 switching and layer 3 routing operation; a frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block for providing 1-gigabit Ethernet standard interfaces GMII (1-gigabit Media Independent Interface) and a 10-gigabit Ethernet standard interface XGMII (10-gigabit Media Independent Interface) between the plurality of network processors and the 10-gigabit extender sublayer processing block to multiplex a plurality of 1-gigabit Ethernet frames to a 10-gigabit Ethernet frame and demultiplex a 10-gigabit Ethernet frame to a plurality of 1-gigabit Ethernet frames according to destination address; a 10-gigabit extender sublayer processing block connected to the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block for supporting XGMII and XAUI (10-gigabit Attachment Unit Interface) and extending transmission distance of 10-gigabit data; a 10-gigabit Ethernet physical layer processing block implemented by a standard package optical module to support 10-gigabit optical interfaces; a 10-gigabit physical layer control logic for controlling the 10-gigabit extender sublayer processing logic and the 10-gigabit Ethernet physical layer processing block; a line interface control logic for controlling the 10-gigabit Ethernet line interface apparatus; and a line processor for performing an IPC (Inter-Processor Communication) function together with the main processor unit to exchange control and status information with the main processor unit, drive the plurality of network processors, and perform forwarding table management required for Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing, wherein the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block divides an internal memory into a plurality of section buffers; and the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block is operated such that, at a time of multiplexing, it sequentially multiplexes frames received from the plurality of network processors and stored in the plurality of section buffers according to corresponding GMII ports, converts the frames to data for the XGMII standard interface, and transfers the data to the 10-gigabit Ethernet physical layer processing block, wherein the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block is operated such that: at a time of demultiplexing, the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block recognizes a layer 2 (L2)/layer 3 (L3) set status of a 10-gigabit port; and if the 10-gigabit port is set to an L2 port, the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block compares a destination address DA (t) and a source address SA (t) of a frame currently received from the 10-gigabit port with a destination address DA (t- the frame multiplexing and demultiplexing block calculates a frame size of every frame received by the reference section buffer from the 10-gigabit port and sequentially stores even frames, which are to be stored in the same reference section buffer, in the next section buffer so as to prevent loss of frames, if the frame size exceeds a size of an allocated section buffer.