Facebook, Inc.

Micronas USA, Inc.

Wis Technologies, Inc.

Xu Wang

Che Kin Leung

Zhiping Yao

Hans-Juergen Schmidtke

Lingjun Wu

Shuhua Xiang

John Edward Fernandes

Li Sha

Olaf Moeller

Sha Li

Hans-Jergen Schmidtke

Rongchun Zhou

Disclosed embodiments include a network switch having a first group of switch elements and a second group of switch elements. The second group of switch elements is cross-connected to the first group of switch elements to passively route network traffic through the network switch in accordance with a predefined configuration.

Lite network switch architecture

A modular network switch is disclosed. In an embodiment, removable interface modules and a switch circuit board (SMB) are housed in a chassis. Each of the interface modules includes a circuit board that is positioned in parallel with other interface modules. The SMB is oriented in a plane perpendicular to orientation planes of the interface modules, and the circuit boards are connected to the switch circuit board. A switch chip is electrically connected to SMB, and configured to switch network traffic between network connections of the interface modules. The chassis may include airflow regions separated by a divider with respective air intake vents. A power supply is housed in one of the regions and the SMB/interface modules are housed in another region. Power supplies provide power to the interface modules via a bus bar and provide power to the switch circuit board via a connection separate from the bus bar.

Modular network switch

Low-cost network switches and other computing systems are described herein. A low-cost network switch can operate at a lower ambient temperature (e.g., 55&#xb0; C.) than conventional switches, thereby enabling the use of lower cost components (e.g., optical components that are not rated for operation at up to 70&#xb0; C.). The network switch can utilize a power bar pass-through card that provides power from an enclosure bus bar to components of the network switch in lieu of a power supply unit. Additionally, ports of the network switch can operate in a 2&#xd7;50G mode in which a network switch port capable of communicating at 100 Gbps interfaces with two external ports each capable of communicating at 50 Gbps. Communication in 2&#xd7;50G mode can be supported by a four-channel Y-cable, in which the four channels are utilized by the network switch port and fan-out to two channels to each of the two external ports.

Switching using a power bar pass-through card

In an embodiment, a system for accelerated monitoring of optical transceivers includes a monitoring unit included in a port interface module of a network switch. The monitoring unit is configured to receive a monitoring configuration, obtain status information from a plurality of optical transceivers connected to the port interface module at an instance based on the monitoring configuration, and store the obtained status information and at least one associated timestamp in a memory. The memory is included in the port interface module and configured to provide the stored status information to a requestor external to the port interface module.

Accelerated monitoring of optical transceivers

Disclosed embodiments include a network switch having a first number of switch elements and a second number of switch elements cross-connected to the first switch elements to passively route network traffic through the network switch in accordance with a predefined configuration.

Modular network switches and other computer systems are described herein. A modular network switch can include a latching device for installing and removing computer modules (e.g., line cards) from an associated cabinet or enclosure. The network switch can also include interconnected computer modules (e.g., line cards, fabric cards, control modules, etc.) that include circuit boards oriented parallel to the flow of cooling air through the cabinet in the absence of a backplane or midplane oriented perpendicular to the air flow. The absence of such backplanes and/or midplanes provides a more direct air flow path through the cabinet, thereby enabling a more efficient flow of cooling air and lower operating temperatures. Additionally, the network switch can include an orthogonal arrangement of data planes, control planes, and/or power planes that can be efficiently interconnected to increase operational speed and further facilitate the flow of cooling air through the computer cabinet.

Modular network switches, associated structures, and associated methods of manufacture and use

A method, apparatus, computer medium, and other embodiments for selectably enabling a plurality of data transfer modes along one or more channels are described. In one embodiment, data transfer between a first device and a second device is controlled based on selecting a combination of access and operation modes. In another embodiment, a video processing system capable of selectably enabling a plurality of data transfer modes along one or more channels is described.

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Xu Wang