Virtual Network Ports for Physical Port Expansion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional network devices often face a shortage of physical ports, leading to reduced service or costly upgrades, as they operate at fixed data rates and require negotiation of transfer speeds.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a virtual network with virtual ports, which includes a virtual entry device and a virtual exit device coupled to a remote router/switch. This setup determines the virtual exit device from a frame header, encapsulates frames, and combines them with other frames to form a stream, effectively increasing the number of available physical ports.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If conventional network devices use fixed physical ports, then the device structure is simple and reliable, but the number of available ports is limited leading to reduced service or costly upgrades
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of physical ports through virtual port entities. Each virtual port appears as a separate interface to upper-layer protocols and applications, but multiple virtual ports share the same physical hardware resource. This copying approach increases the effective number of available ports without adding physical components.
Solution Approach 2:
The physical network interface is designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously by supporting both direct physical connections and virtual port emulations. The same physical port can handle traditional framed traffic while also supporting encapsulated traffic from virtual ports, making the hardware universally applicable to different traffic types.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional network devices negotiate fixed transfer speeds, then the negotiation process is simple, but the data rate is inflexible and cannot adapt to varying network demands
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic data rate adjustment by allowing the network interface to operate at different speeds depending on the traffic type. Encapsulated traffic from virtual ports can be transmitted at optimized rates independent of the physical link negotiation, enabling flexible adaptation to varying network demands without re-negotiating the physical connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data transmission into two independent layers: the physical layer handles fixed-rate negotiated traffic, while the virtual port layer handles encapsulated traffic with flexible rate requirements. This segmentation allows each layer to operate independently with its own rate characteristics, providing overall system flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual network includes a virtual entry device, a virtual exit device, and a communication channel that couples the virtual entry device to the virtual exit device in a web that lies between and interconnects a local router/switch with a remote router/switch device, where the virtual entry device and the virtual exit device have static forwarding tables which provide substantially improved performance.