Claims
- 1. A networking device comprising:a backplane; a plurality of input/output (I/O) cards coupled to the backplane, each of the plurality of I/O cards comprising: a plurality of ports, and a first logic circuit to forward multicast data to selected ports of said plurality of ports that are associated with a multicast data identifier, wherein said first logic circuit comprises a first set of correlation data that is associated with said multicast group identifier that identifies a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said selected ports; and a switch core coupled to the backplane, the switch core comprising a second logic circuit to forward said multicast data to selected I/O cards of said plurality of I/O cards associated with said multicast data identifier, wherein said second logic circuit comprises a second set of correlation data that is associated with said multicast group identifier that identifies a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said selected I/O cards.
- 2. The networking device of claim 1, wherein said backplane comprises a plurality of buses.
- 3. The networking device of claim 1, wherein said first logic circuit comprises a first set of correlation data that is associated with said multicast group identifier that identifies a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said selected ports.
- 4. The networking device of claim 1, wherein said first logic circuit comprises a table to map multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths to corresponding ports.
- 5. The networking device of claim 1, wherein said second logic circuit comprises a first set of correlation data that is associated with said multicast group identifier that identifies a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said selected I/O cards.
- 6. The networking device of claim 1, wherein said second logic circuit comprises a table to map multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the switching core to corresponding I/O cards.
- 7. The network device of claim 1, wherein said first logic circuit comprises a first table to map multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths to corresponding ports, and wherein said second logic circuit comprises a second table to map multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the switching core to corresponding I/O cards.
- 8. A method of routing a multicast cell received at an input port to a plurality of second hierarchical level switching elements, comprising:determining a multicast group identifier for said multicast cell; using said multicast group identifier to identify a plurality of first hierarchical level switching elements by indexing a first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a first set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements; forwarding said multicast cell and said multicast group identifier to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements; utilizing said multicast group identifier to identify said plurality of second hierarchical level switching elements by indexing a second set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a second set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements; and forwarding said multicast cell to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of said first hierarchical level switching elements comprises an input/output card.
- 10. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of said second hierarchical level switching elements comprises an input/output interface having a plurality of ports.
- 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first set of correlation data is stored locally on a switching core, wherein the first set of correlation data comprises a table correlating multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the switching core to the first hierarchical level switching elements, and wherein indexing the first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify said set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements further includes accessing a vector corresponding to the multicast group identifier, the vector containing information indicative of the multicast group membership status of each egress forwarding path.
- 12. The method of claim 8, wherein said utilizing said multicast group identifier comprises indexing a first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first set of correlation data is stored locally on each of said first hierarchical level switching elements, wherein the first set of correlation data comprises a table correlating multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the first hierarchical level switching elements to corresponding second hierarchical level switching elements, and wherein indexing the first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify said set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements further includes accessing a vector corresponding to the multicast group identifier, the vector containing information indicative of the multicast group membership status of each egress forwarding paths.
- 14. A method of routing a multicast cell received at an input port to a plurality of second hierarchical level switching elements, comprising the steps of:determining a multicast group identifier for said multicast cell; using said multicast group identifier to identify a plurality of first hierarchical level switching elements by indexing a first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a first set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements; forwarding said multicast cell to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements; utilizing said multicast group identifier to identify said plurality of second hierarchical level switching elements by indexing a second set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a second set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements; and forwarding said multicast cell to said identified second level switching elements.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of said first hierarchical level switching elements comprises an input/output card.
- 16. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of said second hierarchical level switching elements comprises an input/output interface having a plurality of ports.
- 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first set of correlation data is stored locally on a switching core, wherein the first set of correlation data comprises a table correlating multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the switching core to the first hierarchical level switching elements, and wherein indexing the first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify said set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified first hierarchical level switching elements further includes accessing a vector corresponding to the multicast group identifier, the vector containing information indicative of the multicast group membership status of each egress forwarding paths.
- 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of utilizing said multicast group identifier comprises indexing a first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify a set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements.
- 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first set of correlation data is stored locally on each of said first hierarchical level switching elements, wherein the first set of correlation data comprises a table correlating multicast group identifiers with egress forwarding paths from the first hierarchical level switching elements to corresponding second hierarchical level switching elements, and wherein the step of indexing the first set of correlation data with the multicast group identifier to identify said set of egress forwarding paths that lead to said identified second hierarchical level switching elements further includes a step of accessing a vector corresponding to the multicast group identifier, the vector containing information indicative of the multicast group membership status of each egress forwarding paths.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/106,797, filed on Jun. 29, 1998, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/063,785, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/063,814, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/063,813, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/063,947 all filed Oct. 31, 1997.
US Referenced Citations (21)
Provisional Applications (4)
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Number |
Date |
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60/063785 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
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60/063814 |
Oct 1997 |
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60/063813 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
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60/063947 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
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09/106797 |
Jun 1998 |
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09/625255 |
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