Patent ID: 9137176
Filing Date: 2015-09-15
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A scaled-out fabric coupler (SFC) chassis comprising: a plurality of root fabric cards installed on one side of the SFC chassis, each root fabric card having a plurality of electrical connectors, all root fabric cards having a same first orientation within the SFC chassis; a plurality of slots on a side of the SFC chassis opposite the one side in which the root fabric cards are installed, all slots of the plurality of slots having a same second orientation within the SFC chassis, the second orientation being crosswise the first orientation of the root fabric cards; and a plurality of line cards installed in the plurality of slots on the opposite side of the SFC chassis allowing for scalability, each line card being one of two types of line cards allowing flexibility of configuration, one of the two types of line cards being a switch-based network line card having network ports for connecting to, and communicating with servers and switches in a packet-based format, the other of the two types of line cards being a leaf fabric card having fabric ports for connecting to and communicating with a fabric port of a switching network element in a cell-based format, both types of line cards having a same modular form factor adapted for installation in any slot of the plurality of slots, each of the two types of the line cards having electrical connectors that mate with one electrical connector of each root fabric card installed in the SFC chassis such that each line card of either type of line card, when installed in one slot of the plurality of slots, physically connects to all root fabric cards installed in the SFC chassis.