International Business Machines Corporation

Loren Douglas Larsen

Cedell Adam Alexander, Jr

Jeffrey James Lynch

Arush Kumar

Jean Louis Calvignac

Michael Steven Siegel

Clark Debs Jeffries

Marco C Heddes

Brian Mitchell Bass

Mark Anthony Rinaldi

An apparatus and method to provide a portable networking interface for distributed switching systems. Two Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are defined for communication to a Forwarding Database Distribution Library (FDDL). The FDDL sits between network client applications and the switch device driver in order to provide a uniform interface to the switch device driver. Towers may be added to the FDDL to provide additional functionality specific to certain client applications.

Portable networking interface method and apparatus for distributed switching system

An interface method to provide a portable networking interface for distributed switching systems. Two Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are defined for communication to a Forwarding Database Distribution Library (FDDL). The FDDL sits between network client applications and the switch device driver in order to provide a uniform interface to the switch device driver. Towers may be added to the FDDL to provide additional functionality specific to certain client applications.

Portable networking interface method for distributed switching system

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for which associate physical links of a network device to aggregator ports of the network device where there are more physical links of the network device capable of aggregation than aggregator ports of the network device. Physical links are associated with the aggregator ports of the network device based on a session invariant characteristic of the physical links until either all of the aggregator ports of the network device have been associated with physical links or all of the physical links capable of aggregation have been associated with an aggregator port. The remaining physical links are then utilized as single links to the network device irrespective of the physical link's capability to aggregate.

Methods, systems and computer program products for selecting an aggregator interface

A method and system are disclosed for balanced transmitting of data across a link aggregation of k links in a network, where k is not a power of 2, where data is specified by frames each having a source address and a destination address. N bits of the source address and N bits of the destination address are determined to be XORed together where N is greater than 2. An index table with 2 entry positions is created where each of the entry positions is assigned an index number between 0 and 2 &minus;1. The entry positions of the index table are filled with one link of the k links in each entry position by repetitively entering each of the k links until all of the entry positions are filled. The frames of data with identical source address and destination addresses as other frames of data are grouped into a flow. N bits of the source address are XORed together with N bits of the destination address for each flow to obtain an N bit index number for each flow. The index table is accessed with the N bit index number to identify a particular link within the index table. The flow is transmitted across the particular link.

System for data transmission across a link aggregation

When multi-destination traffic is distributed through a host or switch, the decision to distribute each frame is performed by each egress port and not the ingress port. Within a link aggregation group, the multi-destination frame is sent to each of the egress ports within the link aggregation group. Each of such ports will then determine whether it should re-transmit the frame. If not, the frame is discarded.

System and method for data transmission across a link aggregation

A data processing system and method in a computer network are disclosed for improving performance of a link aggregation system included in the network. Parameters are established which are utilized to determine performance criteria of the link aggregation system. A performance of the link aggregation system is determined by determining the performance criteria. The performance of the link aggregation system changes in response to a flow traffic burden on the link aggregation system changing. The link aggregation system dynamically modifies the parameters in response to the changing performance of the link aggregation system. The link aggregation system is self-tuning and capable of automatically adjusting to a changing flow traffic burden on the link aggregation system.

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Durham, NC, United States of America

Loren Douglas Larsen