Flexible routing engine for a PCI express switch and method of use

摘要

A system and method are disclosed for a flexible routing engine in a PCIe switch. The system may include a switch manager that is enabled, through firmware, to configure one or more routing tables associated with a switch stack of a PCIe switch. The method may include receiving a configuration transaction layer packet at the switch manager of a PCIe switch, running firmware at the switch manager to identify a desired behavior of a switch stack of the switch and updating one or more routing tables associated with switch stack.

主权项

1. A method for flexible routing in a switch, the method comprising:
receiving a configuration request transaction layer packet at a switch stack of the switch, the configuration request transaction layer packet generated by a root complex coupled to the switch; forwarding the configuration request transaction layer packet received at the switch stack to a switch manager of the switch, the switch manager comprising firmware; running the firmware of the switch manager to interpret the configuration request transaction layer packet to determine a desired behavior of the switch stack; implementing the desired behavior of the switch stack by updating at least one table of the switch stack based upon the determined desired behavior of the switch stack, the at least one table of the switch stack selected from the group consisting of a routing table, an ingress transaction layer packet editing table and an egress transaction layer packet editing table; determining that a change to the desired behavior of the switch stack is required; updating the firmware of the switch manager to reflect the change to the desired behavior of the switch stack; running the updated firmware of the switch manager to interpret the configuration request transaction layer packet to determine a different desired behavior of the switch stack; and implementing the different desired behavior of the switch stack by updating at least one table of the switch stack based upon the different desired behavior of the switch stack, the at least one table of the switch stack selected from the group consisting of a routing table, an ingress transaction layer packet editing table and an egress transaction layer packet editing table.