The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 11, 1997
Christopher P Lawler, Wellesley, MA (US);
Shannon Q Hill, Westford, MA (US);
David Lipschutz, Lexington, MA (US);
Thomas A Radogna, Westborough, MA (US);
John A Flanders, Ashland, MA (US);
Robert M France, Littleton, MA (US);
Stephen L Van Seters, Stow, MA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and cache management for a bridge or bridge/router providing high-speed, flexible address cache management. The unit maintains a network address cache and an age table, searches the cache for layer 2 and layer 3 addresses from received frame headers, and returns address search results. The unit includes an interface permitting processor manipulation of the cache and age table, and supports a 4-way set associative cache to store the network addresses. A plurality of functions implemented in hardware enables software manipulation of the associated cache. Four cache operating modes are selectable. The unit can identify and select destination ports within a Load Balanced Port Group for frame forwarding. The unit utilizes Virtual LAN identification in conjunction with a MAC address for lookup in the cache. A cyclic redundancy code for each address to be looked up in the cache is used as an index into the cache. If a cache thrash rate exceeds a predetermined threshold, CRC table values can be rewritten. Four time-sliced cache lookup units are provided, each consisting of a cache lookup controller for comparing a received network address to an address retrieved from an identified cache set.