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:
Jan. 11, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Ariel Hendel, Cupertino, CA (US);
Shimon Muller, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Louise Yeung, San Carlos, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-layer distributed network element for relaying packets according to known routing protocols. A distributed architecture of multiple subsystems delivers routing at wire-speed performance across subnetworks. Each subsystem includes a forwarding memory and an associated memory and is configured to identify unicast and multicast packets for routing purposes, modify the packets in hardware, including replace VLAN information, and forward the packets to the next hop. The routing decisions are made in the inbound subsystem, and packets and associated control information are forwarded, if necessary given the network topology, through a separate outbound subsystem. When packets traverse the internal links from one subsystem to another, encapsulation operations are conducted such as appending an additional cyclic redundancy code (CRC) to the packet before going through the internal link.