Method and apparatus for packet forwarding in a switch controller
US7333491B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 30, 2003 |
| Grant date | Feb 19, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 28, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L12/462
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for packet forwarding within a switch controller. In addition to unicast and broadcast forwarding, the method and apparatus can also analyze and forward IP multicast packets without the need of a CPU and a separate multicast address table, thereby enabling IP multicasting for the switch controller. Wherein, specific packet parsing and updating rules are used to analyze IP multicast control packets, and a multicast router or an address table is updated based on the analyzing result. IP multicast packets is then forwarded according to the updated tables. Moreover, with an extra flag bit set in each address table entry, unicast and multicast forwarding can share the same address table.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.