Efficient path based forwarding and multicast forwarding
US6484209B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 25, 2000 |
| Grant date | Nov 19, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 25, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/3072
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for efficiently switching cells through a switch fabric are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, logic for forwarding and filtering multicast data is distributed among various layers of a network device, such as a switch, router, bridge, or the like. Data is received at a first port of an input/output (I/O) card. A multicast group identifier corresponding to the data is determined. The data and the multicast group identifier are then transferred to a switching card which indexes into a first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to I/O cards having members of the multicast group. The switching card forwards the data to the I/O cards via the set of egress forwarding paths identified. For their part, the I/O cards identify a set of ports associated with the multicast group by indexing into a second set of correlation data and forwarding the data to each of the ports identified. According to another aspect of the present invention, a network device comprises a backplane, multiple I/O cards, and a switch core. Correlation data, e.g., in the form of tables indexed b…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.