Patent ID: 6807172
Filing Date: 2004-10-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for learning and switching frames between line cards that are interconnected by a switch fabric of a distributed network switch, the cards including an ingress card having an incoming port for receiving a frame at the switch, an egress card having an outgoing port for transmitting the frame from the switch and a switch management card (SMC) containing a router, the method comprising the steps of:executing a routing decision operation on the frame at the router, the frame comprising a header having a port-of-exit (POE) mask field, a source index field and a destination index field, the POE mask field including a plurality of bits, one for each port interface of the switch fabric; and modifying the header of a frame during execution of the routing decision operation to ensure that copies of the routed frame are provided to the ingress card and egress cards.