Alcatel-lucent USA Inc.

Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.p.

Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel IP Networks, Inc.

Nelson Willhite

Mike K Noll

Thomas Carleton Jones

Akhil Duggal

Robert Steven Martin

Craig Lindberg

Srinivas Komidi

Network data switching includes receiving a cell; associating the cell with a destination port; selecting, based at least in part on a mapping of a plurality of output ports and a plurality of egress links, a selected egress link that has been soft configured to be associated with the destination port, wherein each of the plurality of egress links is configured to send data from a switch fabric to a corresponding access node; and switching the cell to the selected egress link.

Data switching using soft configuration

Transferring data via a switch fabric comprises: for each unit of data to be transferred, selecting one of a plurality of links from a fabric access node to the switch fabric to transfer the unit of data, and in the event that one or more of the plurality of links become unavailable, such that one or more remaining links remain available for transferring data, transferring a subsequently received unit of data via one of the remaining links.

Network data re-routing

Bounding cell reorder depth is disclosed. It is determined whether a reorder buffer that is associated with a switch fabric exceeds a depth limit. In the event that the reorder buffer exceeds the depth limit, backpressure with respect to a source associated with the reorder buffer is sent. In such cases source based back pressure information is included in a reserved field in a cell that is being sent into the switch fabric. In the event that the reorder buffer does not exceed the depth limit, the cell is sent to the switch fabric. In such cases the reserved field is present in the cell but is unused.

Fabric access integrated circuit configured to bound cell reorder depth

Network data switching comprises receiving a cell, associating the cell with a destination port, selecting an egress link that has been soft configured to be associated with the destination port, and switching the cell to the selected egress link. A network switch comprises an ingress link configured to receive a cell and a switch circuit coupled to the ingress link, configured to associate the cell with a destination port, to select an egress link that has been soft configured to be associated with the destination port, and to switch the cell to the egress link.

A technique for providing access to a switch fabric is disclosed. In some embodiments, the method comprises determining scheduling information specific to a link to the switch fabric and using the scheduling information to determine a queue to be serviced by the link. In some embodiments, the system comprises a buffer configured to store a plurality of queues, and a queue scheduler associated with the buffer and configured to determine scheduling information specific to a link to the switch fabric and use the scheduling information to select one of the plurality of queues as the next queue to be serviced by the link.

Switch fabric access scheduler

A fabric access device having a plurality of system interfaces is disclosed. The fabric access device includes a fabric interface configured to receive data from and send data to a switch fabric and a routing circuit configured to send data received on one of the plurality of system interfaces to the switch fabric via the fabric interface. The inclusion of a plurality of system interfaces facilitates a variety of configurations that provide different levels of redundancy and optimize use of available bandwidth.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Nelson Willhite