Patent ID: 6104696
Filing Date: 2000-08-15
Classification: H04L,Y02D,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of sending packets between ports on trunked network switches, said method comprising:providing a first switch having a plurality of communication ports thereupon;providing a second switch having a plurality of communication ports thereupon;providing a trunk connection between said first switch and said second switch comprising at least two of said plurality of ports from said first switch being connected at least two of said plurality of ports of said second switch;sending a packet from a first port on said first switch to a second port on said second switch;receiving said packet at an ingress submodule of said first switch, and performing a lookup on one of a source address and destination address of the packet based upon a lookup table provided in said ingress submodule;identifying that the first switch and the second switch are connected with the trunk connection by a trunk bit in a lookup entry of the lookup table matched by the destination address;identifying a rules tag in the lookup entry;identifying a trunk group identification in the lookup entry;determining a trunk port index based upon the rules tag;applying the trunk group identification and the trunk port index to a trunk group table, thereby identifying a trunk port for communication;storing the packet in memory; andretrieving the packet from memory with an egress unit, and forwarding the packet to the identified trunk port.