Method for in-band communication of management information in a backplane architecture of a stackable ethernet repeater

摘要

In a backplane architecture for a logical stackable Ethernet repeater for an Ethernet network having a plurality of stackable repeater modules, each one of the stackable repeater modules being connectable via bus-type signal lines to one another for communicating packets via bus-type signal lines, and each one of said stackable repeater modules including a plurality of ports for connection to stations, a method is provided for communicating management information wherein a management module collects information about packets on the backplane from repeater modules, and the repeater modules transmit packet information only via bus-type signal lines. In a specific embodiment, transmitting comprises appending after each packet at each source port of each repeater module an information footer having a select number of information units, and conveying each packet with the information footer on the bus-type signal lines. The management module reads the information footer from the bus-type signal lines to collect information about the source of each packet and compiles statistical information from direct interpretation of each packet.