Patent · US Active

Packet forwarding apparatus and method

US9203735B2 · kind B2 · utility

2Cited by
14References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 24, 2014
Grant dateDec 1, 2015
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 24, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L49/351
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A network device includes a plurality of physical ports configured to be coupled to one or more networks, and a processor device configured to process packets. The processor device includes a processor configured to implement a logical port assignment mechanism to assign source logical port information to a data packet received via a source physical port of the plurality of physical ports. The source logical port information is assigned based on one or more characteristics of the data packet, and the source logical port information corresponds to a logical entity that is different from any physical port. The processor device also includes a forwarding engine processor configured to determine one or more egress logical ports for forwarding the data packet, map the egress logical port(s) to respective egress physical port(s) of the plurality of physical ports, and forward the data packet to the egress physical port(s) based on the mapping.

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