Digital Equipment Corporation

Cabletron Systems, Inc.

Floyd J Backes

Radia Joy Perlman

Charles W Kaufman

William R Hawe

Alan Joseph Kirby

G Paul Koning

David J Mitton

George Varghese

A method for connecting a first communication system with a third communications system, by passing through a second communications system, is disclosed. A first frame is received from the first communications system, where the first frame has a multicast address as a destination address. The multicast address requires the frame to be transmitted onto the second multicast address is translated into a functional address. The functional address is written into a second frame, and the second frame is transmitted onto the second communications system. A station receiving the second frame translates the functional address into a multicast address and writes the multicast address into the destination address field of a third frame, and transmits the third frame onto the third communications system.

Many to few group address translation through a network bridge

An apparatus for forwarding a data packet from a first link to a second link is disclosed. The apparatus is coupled with a plurality of computer networks through ports on the apparatus. The apparatus maintains a spanning tree list indicating which of the apparatus ports are active. The apparatus receives a packet, and determines if the packet was received from a port that is active. If the packet was received from a port that is not active, the packet is discarded. If the packet is not discarded, the data link source address of the packet is stored in a database within the apparatus for the computer network coupled with the port from which the packet was received. The apparatus then decides, responsive to a contents of a data link destination address field in the packet, whether to forward the packet as a bridge or to forward the packet as a router. If the apparatus forwards the packet as a router, the apparatus sends a redirect message to update the data link layer destination address used by the originating station to contain the data link layer address of the destination station where the destination station is on a link remote from the link of the originating station. For the subsequent packets the apparatus then behaves as a bridge by forwarding the subsequent packets based upon parsing of only the Data Link Header. For forwarding of subsequent packets, the apparatus is advantageously fast, in accordance with bridge operation.

Router using multiple hop redirect messages to enable bridge like data

A connection apparatus for connecting a first communication system with a second communication system and a third communication system. A first frame is received from the first communication system, where the first frame has a multicast address as a destination address, and where the destination address requires the first frame to be transmitted onto the second communication system. The multicast address is translated into a functional address, and the functional address is written into a second frame transmitted onto the second communication system. The second frame is received and is transmitted onto a third communication system, and the functional address is translated into a multicast address for the third communication system, and the multicast address is written into a destination field of the frame as it is transmitted onto the third communication system. The second communication system may be a token ring system based upon an IEEE 802.5 standard, and the functional address may be written into a DSAP field and into a PROTOCOL TYPE field of an 802.5 Standard frame.

A method for improving communications in a bridge network between end nodes involving sensing trunking configurations and executing binding schemes to make certain daughter bridges involved in the trunking conditions behave as a plurality of bridges and forward messages in the correct time sequence. This can be done by creating 'forwarding groups' associating different groups of networks connected to those daughter bridges.

Growing community of inventors

Temple, NH, United States of America

Floyd J Backes