公开(公告)号：US5920705A

公开(公告)日：1999-07-06

申请号：US792183

申请日：1997-01-30

申请人： Thomas Lyon ,  Peter Newman ,  Greg Minshall ,  Robert Hinden ,  Fong Ching Liaw ,  Eric Hoffman ,  Lawrence B. Huston ,  William A. Roberson

发明人： Thomas Lyon ,  Peter Newman ,  Greg Minshall ,  Robert Hinden ,  Fong Ching Liaw ,  Eric Hoffman ,  Lawrence B. Huston ,  William A. Roberson

IPC分类号： G06F13/14 ,  H04L12/46 ,  H04L12/56 ,  H04L12/66 ,  H04L29/06 ,  H04Q11/04 ,  G06F15/16

CPC分类号： H04L12/5601 ,  H04L12/4608 ,  H04L29/06 ,  H04L49/602 ,  H04L69/16 ,  H04L69/161 ,  H04Q11/0478 ,  H04L49/201 ,  H04L49/205 ,  H04L49/351

摘要： A method and apparatus for dynamically shifting between switching and routing packets efficiently to provide high packet throughput. The present invention provides a method for transmitting packets between an upstream node and a downstream node in a network that utilizes flow classification and labelling to redirect flows. The method includes the steps of establishing default virtual channels between the upstream node and the downstream node, receiving a packet at the downstream node, performing a flow classification at the downstream node on the packet to determine whether the packet belongs to a specified flow that should be redirected in the upstream node, selecting a free label at the downstream node, and informing the upstream node that future packets belonging to the specified flow should be sent with the selected free label attached. Other embodiments of the present invention include a basic switching unit, a switch gateway unit, and a switching agent for use in a system for transmitting packets in a network. Another embodiment includes system software, fixed on tangible media, that performs flow classification of packets to enable flow labelling and redirection to dynamically shift between Layer 3 IP packet routing and Layer 2 switching to optimize packet traffic throughput. A further embodiment provides a method for switching a flow at a first node in a network.

摘要翻译： 一种用于有效地在交换和路由分组之间动态地转换以提供高分组吞吐量的方法和装置。 本发明提供了一种在网络中的上游节点和下游节点之间传输分组的方法，该方法利用流分类和标记来重定向流。 该方法包括在上游节点与下游节点之间建立默认虚拟通道，在下游节点接收分组，在分组下游节点执行流分类，确定分组是否属于指定流 在上游节点重定向，在下游节点选择一个自由标签，并通知上游节点，属于指定流的未来数据包应以附加的所选择的自由标签发送。 本发明的其他实施例包括基站交换单元，交换网关单元和用于在网络中传送分组的系统中使用的交换代理。 另一个实施例包括固定在有形介质上的系统软件，其执行分组的流分类，以使流标签和重定向在第3层IP分组路由和第2层交换之间动态地转换以优化分组业务吞吐量。 另一实施例提供了一种用于切换网络中的第一节点处的流的方法。