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. 27, 2012
Filed:
Oct. 13, 2009
Qi Bao, Westborough, MA (US);
George A. Harvey, Marlborough, MA (US);
Gerald R. Johnson, Cataumet, MA (US);
Whay C. Lee, Cambridge, MA (US);
Ted R. Michaud, Medford, NJ (US);
Qi Bao, Westborough, MA (US);
George A. Harvey, Marlborough, MA (US);
Gerald R. Johnson, Cataumet, MA (US);
Whay C. Lee, Cambridge, MA (US);
Ted R. Michaud, Medford, NJ (US);
Motorola Mobility LLC, Libertyville, IL (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a method for aggregating parallel data links connecting two end-point devices into a logical link. If one of the parallel data links is a multi-point link, then an end-point device can still access that link to route traffic to an end station on the link (that is, to a device other than the other end-point device of the logical data link). In the terminology of this disclosure, the logical aggregated link is accessed through an 'aggregated port' on an end-point device, while the constituent multi-point link is accessed directly through a 'singleton port.' By assigning a smaller cost to the aggregated port than to the singleton port, embodiments avoid creating routing loops. In some embodiments, the aggregation is performed at Layer 2 of the Open System Interconnection seven-layer protocol model. Then, the methods of the present invention work well with existing IEEE 802.1 bridging architectures and protocols.