Patent · US Expired

Network device for supporting multiple redundancy schemes

US6332198A · kind A · utility

89Cited by
30References
45Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 9, 2000
Grant dateDec 18, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 9, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L41/0863
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for supporting multiple redundancy schemes in a single network device. In one network device, various redundancy schemes are supported including 1:1, 1+1, 1:N, no redundancy or a combination of redundancy schemes. In addition, the redundancy scheme or schemes for physical network device cards (i.e., universal port cards) or ports may be different from the redundancy scheme or schemes for forwarding network device cards. For example, a network manager may want to provide 1:1 or 1+1 redundancy for all universal port cards and/or ports but only 1:N redundancy for each N group of forwarding cards. As another example, the network manager may provide certain customers with 1:1 redundancy on both universal port cards (or ports) and forwarding cards to ensure that customer's network availability while providing other customers, with lower availability requirements, with various other redundancy scheme combinations, for example, 1:1, 1+1, 1:N or no redundancy for port cards or ports and 1:N or no redundancy for forwarding cards. The present invention allows customers having different availability/redundancy needs to be serviced by same n…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.