Distributed packet switch having a wireless control plane

摘要

A packet network device such as a network switch includes a number of functional cards or chassis modules at least some of which are connected to both an electrical backplane and a wireless backplane. The electrical backplane provides data plane signal paths and the wireless backplane provides control plane signal paths.

主权项

1. A hybrid backplane, comprising:
an electrical backplane board including: at least one line card connector located on the electrical backplane board; at least one switch fabric card connector located on the electrical backplane board; at least one route processing manager connector located on the electrical backplane board; and physical, high speed data connections located in the electrical backplane board and extending between the at least one line card connector and the at least one switch fabric card connector, wherein at least one of the at least one line card and at least one switch fabric card is configured to transmit high speed data plane communications, and wherein the physical, high speed data connections are configured to provide the high speed data plane communications between at least one line card and at least one switch fabric card when the at least one line card is coupled to the at least one line card connector and the at least one switch fabric card is coupled to the at least one switch fabric card connector; and a wireless backplane system that is located on the electrical backplane board and that is configured to: receive an antenna on each of the at least one line card, the at least one switch fabric card, and at least one route processing manager when the at least one line card is coupled to the at least one line card connector, the at least one switch fabric card is coupled to the at least one switch fabric card connector, and the at least one route processing manager is coupled to the at least one route processing manager connector, wherein at least one of the at least one line card, the at least one switch fabric card, and at least one route processing manager is configured to transmit network protocol traffic, scheduling traffic, and card management traffic, and wherein the wireless backplane system is configured to provide for wireless communication of the network protocol traffic, the scheduling traffic, and the card management traffic between the at least one line card, the at least one switch fabric card, and the at least one route processing manager when the at least one line card is coupled to the at least one line card connector, the at least one switch fabric card is coupled to the at least one switch fabric card connector, and the at least one route processing manager is coupled to the at least one route processing manager connector.