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:
Dec. 12, 2006
Filed:
Aug. 14, 2001
Cedell Alexander, Durham, NC (US);
Lance Richardson, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Olen Stokes, Morrisville, NC (US);
Cedell Alexander, Durham, NC (US);
Lance Richardson, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Olen Stokes, Morrisville, NC (US);
Extreme Networks, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
When Internet Protocol (IP) packets or Layer-2 MAC Protocol packets are encapsulated in a MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) packet, one or more labels are assigned to identify the routers of the MPLS network through which the packet has passed. From this information, the underlying protocol (e.g., IP, MAC) can be inferred. In one embodiment, the value assigned to the one or more labels is selected to identify the underlying protocol. In one embodiment, IP packets have label values in a first range and MAC packets have label values in a second range. When the MPLS-encapsulated packets are switched within a load sharing environment, the ranges of the label values indicate the underlying protocol of the packet being switched. Knowing the underlying protocol enables a hash function to be selected that will both preserve packet ordering and effectively load share traffic received from a higher-speed source link across multiple lower-speed links.