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:
Jun. 30, 2015
Filed:
Apr. 23, 2012
Sushma Anantharam, Cupertino, CA (US);
Nirapada Ghosh, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Keshav Govind Kamble, Fremont, CA (US);
Dar-ren Leu, San Jose, CA (US);
Chandarani J. Mendon, San Jose, CA (US);
Vijoy A. Pandey, San Jose, CA (US);
Nandakumar Peethambaram, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Sushma Anantharam, Cupertino, CA (US);
Nirapada Ghosh, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Keshav Govind Kamble, Fremont, CA (US);
Dar-Ren Leu, San Jose, CA (US);
Chandarani J. Mendon, San Jose, CA (US);
Vijoy A. Pandey, San Jose, CA (US);
Nandakumar Peethambaram, Santa Clara, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A distributed fabric system comprises a plurality of independent network elements interconnected by inter-switch links and assigned to a same group. Each network element includes a switching chip, a processor, and memory storing program code that is executed by the processor. The program code of each network element includes a device configuration (DC) stacking module and a switch discovery protocol (SDP) module. The SDP module of each network element, when executed, discovers each other network element in the group and elects one of the network elements as a master network element. The SDP module of the master network element, when executed, sends messages to the DC-stacking module of the master network element. Each sent message identifies one of the network elements in the group. The DC stacking module of the master network element, when executed, maintains a record of all network elements that are currently members in the group.