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:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 09, 1999
Tomoyuki Sugihara, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Allied Telesyn International Corp., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A novel virtual port method and apparatus for use in the communication between multiple nodes in a network system is disclosed. Particularly, the virtual port concept is implemented in a switching unit having a plurality of physical ports. According to the present invention, at least one virtual port can be defined by the user to represent a corresponding number of group of physical ports. In this case, a single virtual port identification can be used by the network manager to identify all the physical ports belonging to a trunking group. By using one virtual port identification address instead of a group of physical port addresses, a tremendous reduction in processing overhead in the network manager can be achieved.