APPARATUS FOR FORWARDING MULTICASTING PACKET USED IN LARGE CAPACITY SWITCH AND METHOD THEREOF

摘要

PURPOSE: A high scalable multicasting packet forwarding apparatus for a bulk witch and method thereof are provided to offer the expandability of multicasting for supporting various multicasting patterns. CONSTITUTION: Input line cards(110-1~110-N) individually create multicast information. The multicast information includes a partition ID(identification) of a partition and a switch multicast ID. Each of the input line cards creates a second packet according to the number of the partitions. The second packet includes the multicast information. A switch fabric(120) transmits the second packet to one or more output ports which output a first packet based on the multicast information included in the second packet. A plurality of output ports is divided into a plurality of the partitions. [Reference numerals] (110-1) Input line card #1; (110-3) Input line card #3; (110-N) Input line card #N; (120) Switch fabric; (130-11) Output port #11; (130-1m) Output port #1m; (130-21) Output port #21; (130-2m) Output port #2m; (130-P1) Output port #P1; (130-Pm) Output port #Pm; (AA) Partition #1; (BB) Partition #2; (CC) Partition #P