METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A HIERARCHIAL SWITCHED NETWORK SYSTEM

摘要

. hierarchical networking architecture comprising methods and an apparatus for the implementation of a hierarchical MAC address designation system is disclosed. In this invention, the physical addresses of all the nodes/Network Elements ( NEs) of a hierarchical multi-ring network are assigned in a hierarchical manner. The implementation of this hierarchical MAC addressing scheme significantly reduces the size of Content Addressable Memory (CAM) tables needed for the manipulation of data frames. Also, the hierarchical network structure allows the implementation of a simple decision-making mechanism for switching data frames toward their destinations. With the help of this mechanism, data frames can be routed through the described hierarchical network to the destined node quickly and easily by using only simple hardware circuitry that examines header information located at the beginning of the data frame. This hierarchical network structure inherently supports multicast and broadcast functions, and it can be extended for WAN purposes by incorporating area code information with the MAC address. Also, the field lengths within the MAC address can be flexibly adjusted to meet the actual demands during deployment of the network.