Methods and apparatus and data structures for providing access to an edge router of a network
US6771673B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 31, 2000 |
| Grant date | Aug 3, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 31, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L69/18
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Aggregating physical connections from customers for presentation to an access router and de-aggregating traffic from a shared link(s) from the access router. Ports of an aggregation unit may be configured such that each has a unique identifier in the place of information (e.g., the layer 2 address) originally in the layer 2 header. The layer 2 (e.g., MAC) address of the customer device connected with the port can be associated with, and therefore determined from, the IP address of the attached device. When a packet is received from a customer, information in the layer 2 header is changed to a unique identifier assigned to a logical port or interface associated with the physical port. When a packet is received from the access router, it is placed on the port assigned to the logical port associated with the destination layer 2 address (or associated with other bits of the unique bit string and at least some of those bits are replaced with the destination layer 2 address of the device associated with the port.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.