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. 30, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 01, 2001
Michael J. Seaman, Mountain View, CA (US);
Vipin Jain, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Onfiber Communications, Inc., Englewood, CO (US);
Abstract
A method for configuring a network, and a network configured according to such method, are provide in which a communication links laid out in a ring in a metropolitan area are partitioned into link segments, and managed according to a spanning tree protocol. The switches are configured to establish unique, mesh or tree type network configurations suitable for application to communication media arranged to support ring-based protocols. The method is used for connecting communication links arranged in a plurality of rings, which traverse a plurality of collocation sites in a metropolitan area. The method comprises configuring switches in the plurality of collocation sites to partition rings in the plurality of rings into a plurality of link segments providing point to point paths between switches at collocation sites in the plurality of collocation sites. The switches and link segments are managed according to a spanning tree protocol. In one embodiment of the invention, the configuring of switches includes allocating a first set of the link segments as a first ring and a second set of the link segments as a second ring, breaking the first and second rings by blocking transmission on a link segment in the first ring between the first pair of collocation sites, and by blocking transmission on a link segment in the second ring between a second pair of collocation sites. In addition, the method includes cross-connection the first and second rings by a communication link.