Patent · US Expired

Load balancing in link aggregation and trunking

US7251217B2 · kind B2 · utility

32Cited by
17References
22Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 7, 2003
Grant dateJul 31, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 16, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L47/125
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A communications network switch includes a plurality of network ports for transmitting and receiving packets to and from network nodes via network links, each of the packets having a destination address and a source address, the switch being operative to communicate with at least one trunking network device via at least one trunk formed by a plurality of aggregated network links. The communications network switch provides a method and apparatus for balancing the loading of aggregated network links of the trunk, thereby increasing the data transmission rate through the trunk. The switch includes: a packet buffer for temporarily storing a packet received at a source port of the network ports, the packet having a source address value, and a destination address value indicating a destination node that is communicatively coupled with the switch via a data path including a trunk; a packet routing unit for determining a destination trunked port associated with the packet, the destination trunked port including a subset of the plurality of network ports, the destination trunked port being coupled to the destination node via the data path; and load balancing unit for selecting a destination…

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