Multi-point link aggregation spoofing

Details Multi-point link aggregation spoofing Multi-point link aggregation spoofing

2003-12-18

2004-10-12

Follansbee, John (Department: 2154)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer-to-computer protocol implementing

C709S231000, C370S401000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06804721

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present venture relates to computer network communication, and in particular to combining a plurality of cluster devices to operate as a single device and increase bandwidth in a point-to-point protocol such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.3ad for multiple Ethernet links.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The 802.3ad standard issued by the IEEE specifies how to use multiple Ethernet links to make a logical point-to-point connection. This standard is published by the IEEE and is available from their headquarters, 345 East 47
th
New York, N.Y. 10017. The IEEE is a well known organization to those skilled in the art of computer network communication. The standards of the IEEE are readily available and understandable to those skilled in the art of computer network communication. The IEEE standard 802.3ad is hereby incorporated by reference, as well as any portions of the entire 802 standard that may be relevant to 802.3ad. It is expected that those skilled in the art will be able to build a device that can adhere to the IEEE 802.3ad standard and meet the PICS performance in section 43B.6 of the standard. The present invention also relates to other point-to-point protocols and is not limited to the IEEE 802.3ad standard.
The IEEE 802.3ad standard assumes that the points of the connection are single devices and defines an optional Link Aggregation sublayer for use with CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access/collision detection) MACs (Media Access Control). Link Aggregation allows one or more links to be aggregated together to form a Link Aggregation Group, such that a MAC Client can treat the Link Aggregation Group as if it were a single link. To this end, it specifies the establishment of DTE to DTE logical links, which consist of N parallel instances of an 802.3 link, all of which are full duplex point-to-point links operating at the same data rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,351 filed Jan. 28, 1998 discloses a Logical Switch Set (LSS) comprising two or more switches that act as a single packet forwarding device with specific connection rules. The single packet forwarding device is a single logical unit. The LSS may be used as either a redundant switch set (RSS) or as a Load Sharing Switch Set (LSSS). The maximum throughput of the LSSS increases with each additional switch. A LSSS can only interconnect with the other devices via trunked links that contain at least one physical connection to each switch. The RSS may include a trunk link connection and a resilient link connection. U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,351 is hereby incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,349 filed Jan. 28, 1998 discloses a packet based high speed mesh forming a trunk cluster. The trunk cluster is constructed with a set of loosely coupled switches, a configuration protocol, trunked network interfaces, and optionally a reachablilty protocol. The trunk cluster provides a Logical LAN service. Each switch in the trunk cluster provides a single “shared LAN” by interconnecting two or more links. The edge devices attached to the links run a trunk configuration protocol. These attached edge devices view the trunked ports as if trunked ports are connected to a shared LAN with multiple other attached devices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,349 is hereby incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,073 filed Apr. 29, 1998 discloses a plurality of independent control lines used by I/O modules to determine which switch of a redundant switch set is the active or primary switch. Each line is driven by a different source. Each of these control lines are driven by one of a plurality of judges and each judge can read the other control lines which they are not driving. All the I/O modules can only read the control lines. Each judge makes a decision as to which switch should be the primary switch. Each decision is conveyed using the control lines. The I/O modules use these control lines to direct a multiplexer of the respective outside node to connect to the primary switch. A majority rules algorithm is used to always obtain the correct result in the face of a single error. U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,073 filed Apr. 29, 1998 is hereby incorporated by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,116 filed Apr. 15, 1998 discloses an arrangement of trunk clusters and a method for interconnecting trunk clusters wherein the interconnection method has no single point of failure, the bandwidth between trunk clusters is not limited by the throughput of a single switch, and faults are contained within each trunk cluster. A trunked interconnection structure is provided between trunk clusters. Each switch of a trunk cluster has a logical port connected to a trunked port. The trunked port or trunk port provides a physical connection to each trunk switch of another trunk cluster. Each trunk switch of the another trunk cluster has a logical port connected to a trunked port which in turn has physical connections to each switch of the first trunk cluster. Trunked interconnections isolate faults to a single trunk cluster, there is no single point of failure and the total throughput is not limited to any single switches capacity. This always provides a single loop free path from one trunk cluster to the other or others. Multiple trunk clusters may be interconnected using point-to-point connections. A high throughput campus interconnect trunk cluster can be used to connect each building data center trunk cluster. U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,116 filed Apr. 15, 1998 is hereby incorporated by reference.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a plurality of network devices as representing a single point device of the point-to-point protocol, such as the IEEE 802.3ad standard. The present invention makes it possible to have one or both of the points of the IEEE 802.3ad standard be multiple devices. The multiple devices of the present invention are configured to behave as a single point in such a way that the multiple devices still adhere to the 802.3ad standard. Thus the multi device point can be seamlessly connected to a conventional single device that supports the 802.3ad specification.
The present invention accomplishes this by providing a system with at least one, and preferably at least two, end devices that operate according to the point-to-point protocol. The two end devices communicate with each other through a trunk cluster formed from a plurality of cluster devices. More than one of the cluster devices are in communication with more than one of the end stations, and the cluster devices identify connected end stations. The cluster devices share the identity of the connected end stations and commonly connected end stations. Each of the cluster devices has a synchronization means for configuring each the cluster device in communication with the commonly connected end stations to use a same logical identity for the point-to-point protocol.
The synchronization means of each cluster device exchanges individual synchronization state data with the synchronization means of the other cluster devices. Each synchronization means then configures the respective cluster device dependent on the exchanged synchronization state data and its own synchronization state data. If there are only two substantially similar cluster devices, both synchronization means can use the same algorithms to determine respective configurations. Since both synchronization means will apply the algorithms to the same data, the configurations will be identical and compatible.
For a trunk cluster with a large number of cluster devices, and/or significantly different cluster devices, each of the synchronization means can include algorithms and communicate with each other to operate one of the synchronization means as a master synchronization means (MSM). The master synchronization means determines cluster synchronization data needed for configuring and operating the individual cluster devices in order for the individual cluster devices to communicate with the end device according to the IEEE standard 802.3ad.

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