Broadcom Corporation

John Jeffrey Dull

Eric Baden

Mohan V Kalkunte

Venkateshwar Buduma

Michael J Bowes

Anupam Anand

Curt McDowell

Bruce Hui Kwan

Sachin Prabhakarrao Kadu

Brandon Carl Smith

Vamsi M Tatapudi

A switch device that includes a switch pipeline stage to process packet data may selectively clock multiple pipeline sub-stages within the switch pipeline stage. The switch device may provide a first clock to processing logic of a first sub-stage independently of providing a second clock to a processing logic of second sub-stage within the switch pipeline stage. Clocking logic associated with a current switch pipeline stage may receive an event indication, such as an event indication from a previous pipeline stage responsive to processing of packet data by the previous pipeline stage. In response, the clocking logic associated with the current switch pipeline stage may determine a clocking time to issue a clock to a selected pipeline sub-stage in the current switch pipeline stage. The clocking logic may also issue the clock to the selected pipeline sub-stage at the clocking time.

Dynamic clock gating in a network device

A hash table supports extended entries. The extended entries permit a base entry to extend its associated data into one or more neighboring entries. Extended entries thereby provide a mechanism through which a hash table entry may store additional data compared to a base entry. Extended entries may coexist with base entries in the hash table. The hash table thereby provides the flexibility to adapt dynamically to meet system requirements and to balance the needs of additional data storage by blending the number of extended entries (that each store more data than a base entry) and the number of base entries (each storing less data than an extended entry).

Extended width entries for hash tables

A network device for processing packet. The network device includes an ingress module for performing switching functionality on an incoming packet, wherein the network device determines a destination port to which the incoming packet is to be transmitted. The network device also includes a CPU processing module for transmitting information between the network device and an external CPU. The external CPU transmits a formatted packet to the network device through the CPU processing module. The formatted packet includes module header and a data field. The ingress module uses information in a start field of the module header to determine that the incoming packet is a formatted packet and generates instructions for notifying other modules of the network device that the formatted packet is not to be modified by the network device and determines that the formatted packet is to be transmitted to a destination field in the formatted packet.

CPU transmission of unmodified packets

A network device for providing statistical sampling of packet at a port. The network device includes an ingress module for randomly selecting a packet at one of a plurality of ports for statistical sampling and an egress module for randomly selecting a packet at one of a plurality of ports for statistical sampling. The network device also includes a processing module for receiving a copy of a selected packet from at least one of the ingress module or egress module and for performing statistical flow processing on the packet.

S-flow in a network device

A network device for processing packets. The network device includes an ingress module for performing switching functions on an incoming packet. The network device also includes a memory management unit for storing packets and performing resource checks on each packet and an egress module for performing packet modification and transmitting the packet to an appropriate destination port. Each of the ingress module, memory management unit and egress module includes multiple cycles for processing instructions and each of the ingress module, memory management unit and egress module processes one packet every clock cycle.

Pipeline architecture of a network device

A network device for processing packets. The network devices includes a ingress module for performing lookups for layer 2 switching and performing operations for maintaining a layer 2 table. When the ingress module updates the layer 2 table, the ingress module records the operation performed on the layer 2 table in a modification buffer. Entries are added to the modification buffer when the layer 2 table is modified and in the order in which the layer 2 table was modified. The network device thus enables reconstruction of the layer 2 table by performing the operations in the modification buffer.

System and method for maintaining a layer 2 modification buffer

A method of handling a datagram in a network device is disclosed. The steps include receiving a datagram, with the datagram having multiple field values, at a port of a network device, parsing the received datagram to obtain the field values, applying the parsed field values to a Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM), determining matches between the parsed field values and predetermined criteria in the TCAM, indexing into a policy table based on the determined matches to obtain an action entry and taking an action based on the obtained action entry.

Field processor for a network device

A network device for selecting a port from a trunk group to transmit a unicast packet on the selected port. The network device includes at least one trunk group including a plurality of physical ports. The network device also includes a table with a plurality of entries. Each entry is associated with one trunk group and includes a plurality of fields that are associated with ports in the trunk group. Each entry also includes a hash field that is used to select bits from predefined fields of an incoming unicast packet to obtain an index bit for accessing one of the plurality of fields. The network device transmits the unicast packet to a port associated with an accessed one of the plurality of fields.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

John Jeffrey Dull