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:
Apr. 07, 2009
Filed:
Aug. 27, 2004
Utz Bacher, Tuebingen, DE;
Angelo Macchiano, Apalachin, NY (US);
Dennis R. Musselwhite, Hallstead, PA (US);
Bruce H. Ratcliff, Red Hook, NY (US);
Stephen R. Valley, Valatie, NY (US);
Utz Bacher, Tuebingen, DE;
Angelo Macchiano, Apalachin, NY (US);
Dennis R. Musselwhite, Hallstead, PA (US);
Bruce H. Ratcliff, Red Hook, NY (US);
Stephen R. Valley, Valatie, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A network virtualization layer for an information handling system in which a physical machine coupled to a network is divided into a plurality of logical partitions, each of which has a host system residing thereon. In response to receiving a set command from one of the host systems specifying a data link layer (layer 2) address, the virtualization layer associates the data link layer address with the host system and forwards to the host system data packets specifying the data link layer address as a destination address. Unicast packets are forwarded to the single host system specifying the destination address as an individual MAC address, while multicast packets are forwarded to each host system specifying the destination address as a group MAC address. A host system may also specify a virtual LAN (VLAN) ID, which is used to scope the forwarding of packets to host systems sharing that VLAN ID.