Logical Port Assignment for VLAN Scaling and RSSI Extraction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bridge architectures are limited in handling multiple service instances and fail to extract useful RSSI information from wireless data packets, restricting their utility in virtual networking and wireless local area network applications.
Innovation Solution
A network device with a processor implementing a logical port assignment mechanism to assign source logical port information based on packet characteristics, determining egress logical or physical ports for forwarding data packets, and mapping these to respective physical ports, thereby extending bridging functionality to support a larger number of VLANs and collect RSSI information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional bridge architecture is used, then device simplicity is maintained, but the number of service instances (VLANs) that can be handled is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the bridge architecture into multiple logical bridges, each handling a specific service instance or VLAN. This allows the system to support more service instances than a single conventional bridge could handle, while each individual logical bridge maintains relative simplicity. The segmentation is achieved through virtualization of bridge resources and creation of multiple independent forwarding contexts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a logical dimension to the traditional physical bridge architecture by creating logical ports and logical bridges that operate alongside physical ports. This dimensional extension allows multiple service instances to be supported without proportionally increasing physical hardware complexity, as the additional capacity exists in the logical/virtual domain.
2Loss of information
If conventional bridging hardware is used, then hardware simplicity is maintained, but RSSI information extraction from wireless packets is not performed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the functionality of bridging hardware to perform multiple tasks: traditional packet forwarding plus RSSI information extraction and processing. By making the hardware universal capable of both data plane forwarding and control plane measurements, the system can extract RSSI information without adding completely separate dedicated hardware for this function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces logical ports as intermediaries between physical wireless ports and the rest of the bridging system. These logical ports serve as the interface where RSSI information is extracted from wireless packets and made available to higher-level processing, while the physical hardware remains relatively simple. The intermediary layer handles the complexity of information extraction and processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A network device includes a plurality of physical ports configured to be coupled to one or more networks, and a processor device configured to process packets. The processor device includes a processor configured to implement a logical port assignment mechanism to assign source logical port information to a data packet received via a source physical port of the plurality of physical ports. The source logical port information is assigned based on one or more characteristics of the data packet, and the source logical port information corresponds to a logical entity that is different from any physical port. The processor device also includes a forwarding engine processor configured to determine one or more egress logical ports for forwarding the data packet, map the egress logical port(s) to respective egress physical port(s) of the plurality of physical ports, and forward the data packet to the egress physical port(s) based on the mapping.