One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a port that couples to a server hosting a number of virtual machines. The switch also includes a set of virtual port grouping information and a virtual port grouping mechanism. During operation, the virtual port grouping mechanism determines whether a frame is traveling from a virtual port group to the same virtual port group. If the frame is not traveling to the same virtual port group, the virtual port grouping mechanism prevents the frame from being forwarded.

Virtual port grouping for virtual cluster switching

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a first port configured to receive Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) traffic; a second port configured to receive Fiber Channel (FC) traffic; and a third port configured to transmit received TRILL or FC traffic based on a Fiber Channel over IP (FCIP) protocol.

Converged network extension

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a tunnel management module, a packet processor, and a forwarding module. The tunnel management module operates the switch as a tunnel gateway capable of terminating an overlay tunnel. During operation, the packet processor, which is coupled to the tunnel management module, identifies in a data packet a virtual Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with a virtual tunnel gateway. This virtual tunnel gateway is associated with the switch and the data packet is associated with the overlay tunnel. The forwarding module determines an output port for an inner packet in the data packet based on a destination address of the inner packet.

Overlay tunnel in a fabric switch

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a management mechanism and a configuration mechanism. During operation, the management mechanism is configured to operate the switch in conjunction with the partner switch as a single logical switch. The configuration mechanism is configured to assign a virtual switch identifier to the logical switch.

Redundant host connection in a routed network

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes a port profile which specifies a set of port configuration information. During operation, a control mechanism within the switch detects a source MAC address of an incoming frame and determines that the MAC address is associated with the port profile. The control mechanism then applies the port profile to a switch port on which the frame is received.

Port profile management for virtual cluster switching

Some embodiments relate to a network comprising two RBridges connected by a link where the two RBridges are not the ingress and egress RBridge for said frames, wherein said RBridges automatically exchange information as to their support of hop-by-hop reversible frame aggregation, reversible header compression, and reversible data compression, and wherein if both RBridges support any or all of these features in the same fashion, one or more of said features are automatically applied to appropriate frames at the transmitting RBridge and removed at the receiving RBridge, increasing the throughput of the link.

Donald E. Eastlake

Papers

Methods and apparatus for RBridge hop-by-hop compression and frame aggregation