US 7,577,136 B1
	Ethernet switch fabric interface
Harish R. Devanagondi, Saratoga, Calif. (US); Harish P. Belur, Saratoga, Calif. (US); Simon Sabato, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US); Jasper Yeung, Daly City, Calif. (US); and You-Wen Yi, Milpitas, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, Calif. (US)
Filed on Jun. 17, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/155,287.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/581166, filed on Jun. 17, 2004.
Int. Cl. H04L 12/56 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 370—389

12 Claims

1. A method in a switching system using an Ethernet switch as a switch fabric, the method comprising: receiving flow control information relating to a congestion state of a plurality of ports of the switch fabric; receiving an external network packet from a first network device; creating an internal network packet by encapsulating the received external network packet inside a forwarding header and a layer 2 or Ethernet internal network header, a portion of the forwarding header being stored in the internal network header, wherein the portion includes a source address field used to carry forwarding header information; and directing the internal network packet to a selected port of the plurality of ports based on the flow control information to communicate packet processing information and ingress port information between elements of the switching system using the Ethernet switch as the switch fabric in said switching system.