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:
Sep. 08, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 23, 2003
Atri Indiresan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Giovanni Meo, San Francisco, CA (US);
Michael T. Wu, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Roberto M. Kobo, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Shakeel Ahmed, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Tawei Liao, San Jose, CA (US);
Atri Indiresan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Giovanni Meo, San Francisco, CA (US);
Michael T. Wu, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Roberto M. Kobo, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Shakeel Ahmed, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Tawei Liao, San Jose, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A technique transfers data between geographically dispersed entities belonging to a virtual-local-area network (VLAN). According to the technique, geographically dispersed entities communicate via software-defined virtual ports that 'appear' as physical ports to the entities. Each virtual port, in turn, is associated with one or more connections wherein each connection may be associated with one or more VLANs. Data generated on a particular VLAN that is destined for a remote entity is forwarded to a virtual port which, in turn, transfers the data to the remote entity over the connection associated with the VLAN. Moreover, state is maintained at each virtual port for each connection, thereby enabling the virtual ports to support various protocols that operate with physical ports.