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. 11, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 21, 1999
Thomas J. Edsall, Cupertino, CA (US);
Herman Levenson, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Claudette Lucille Surma, Fremont, CA (US);
Ajit Sanzgiri, Cupertino, CA (US);
Saravanakumar Rajendran, San Jose, CA (US);
Rong-Lung Lue, Saratoga, CA (US);
Tuan Thanh Nguyen, Milpitas, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A mechanism and technique updates and synchronizes forwarding tables contained on line cards that are interconnected by a switch fabric of a distributed network switch. The network switch is preferably a L3 or L4 switch comprising a plurality of forwarding engines distributed among the line cards. Each forwarding engine has an associated forwarding table, which preferably includes a L2 portion and L3/L4 portions. The L2 portion of the table is used to execute forwarding decision operations for frames forwarded among ports of the line cards, whereas the L3/L4 portions of the table are used to execute shortcut and forwarding operations for frames routed among the ports. The mechanism comprises a media access control (MAC) notification (MN) frame for updating and synchronizing the location of a destination port stored in the L2 portions of the forwarding tables.