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.

Date of Patent:
Aug. 30, 2016

Filed:

May. 08, 2008
Applicants:

Paul Unbehagen, Apex, NC (US);

David Allan, Ottawa, CA;

Nigel Bragg, Weston Colville, GB;

Inventors:

Paul Unbehagen, Apex, NC (US);

David Allan, Ottawa, CA;

Nigel Bragg, Weston Colville, GB;

Assignee:

RPX Clearinghouse LLC, San Francisco, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 12/46 (2006.01); H04L 12/751 (2013.01); H04L 12/721 (2013.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 12/4625 (2013.01); H04L 45/02 (2013.01); H04L 45/66 (2013.01);
Abstract

Nodes on an Ethernet network run a link state protocol on the control plane and install shortest path forwarding state into their FIBs to allow packets to follow shortest paths through the network without requiring MAC header replacement at each hop through the network. When a node learns an IP address, it will insert the IP address into its link state advertisement to advertise reachability of the IP address to the other nodes on the network. Each node will add this IP address to its link state database. If a packet arrives at an ingress node, the ingress node will read the IP address, determine which node on the link state protocol controlled Ethernet network is aware of the IP address, and construct a MAC header to forward the packet to the correct node. The DA/VID of the MAC header is the nodal MAC of the node that advertised the IP address. Unicast and multicast IP forwarding may be implemented.


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