Virtual router and switch

摘要

An input/output (I/O) switch fabric includes input physical ports that convey packets associated with at least a first network flow. Moreover, virtual routers in the I/O switch fabric, which have associated routing tables, provide types of service and/or routes for different source-destination pairs based on link-layer information and network-layer information in the packets. Note that different virtual routers can provide different types of service and/or different routes. For example, a type of service associated with a first virtual router may include changing packet headers when crossing service domains in a global network, and a type of service associated with a second virtual router may avoid changing packet headers when providing connectivity in the network. Furthermore, the I/O switch fabric includes output physical ports that convey packets associated with at least a second network flow. The virtual routers may facilitate InfiniBand inter-subnet crossing.

主权项

1. An input/output (I/O) switch fabric, comprising:
input physical ports, wherein a given input physical port is configured to convey packets associated with at least a first network flow; virtual routers, coupled to the input physical ports, having associated routing tables, wherein a given virtual router is a resource that can be enabled on any given physical port, wherein the given virtual router provides a type of service for a given source-destination pair based on network-layer information in the packets, wherein different virtual routers can provide one of: different types of service and different routes, wherein a type of service associated with a first virtual router includes changing packet headers when crossing service domains in a global network, and wherein a type of service associated with a second virtual router avoids changing packet headers when providing connectivity in the network; and output physical ports, wherein a given output physical port is configured to convey packets associated with at least a second network flow.