JP7565376B2 - Virtual network device, method of operating a virtual network device and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium - Google Patents

Description

This application relates to the field of computer networks, and in particular to virtual network devices.

A wide area network (WAN) is an interconnected web of network devices that typically interconnects local or metropolitan area networks over a large geographic area, such as across an entire state or country. WANs allow remotely located computers to communicate with each other through network devices.

Traditional network devices typically include one or more physical network ports that operate at a predetermined, fixed data rate, such as, for example, 10/100/1000 Mbps (megabits per second), 10 Gbps (gigabits per second), 40 Gbps, and 100 Gbps connections. As part of enabling communication between computer systems over a network, traditional network devices negotiate the transfer speed of the network port, and during that process, the transfer speed of the network port is fixed.

One of the disadvantages of conventional network devices is that there is often a need for more physical ports than are available, which results in reduced service or costly upgrades. As a result, there is a need for an approach to accommodate the increasing need for ports.

The present invention provides a virtual network device having virtual ports that substantially increase the number of available physical ports. The virtual network device includes a framing circuit that receives a plurality of input frames, examines the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame, and identifies a virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on the frame type. The framing circuit also encapsulates the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames. Each virtual exit device has a receiving virtual port. The plurality of first encapsulated frames has a plurality of headers. The plurality of headers identifies a plurality of virtual exit devices associated with the plurality of input frames. In addition, the virtual network device includes a plurality of transmitting virtual ports coupled to the framing circuit. The plurality of transmitting virtual ports identify a plurality of next hops in the virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual exit devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames. The plurality of transmitting virtual ports further encapsulates the plurality of first encapsulated frames to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames. Each second encapsulated frame has a header. The header of the second encapsulated frame identifies a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on the next hop of the first encapsulated frame and a receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of the input frame. The transmitting virtual port includes a first portion of memory. Additionally, the virtual network device includes an transmitting virtual switch coupled to the plurality of transmitting virtual ports. The transmitting virtual switch selectively couples the transmitting virtual ports to network physical ports.

The present invention also includes a method of operating a virtual network device. The method includes receiving a plurality of input frames, examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame, and identifying a virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on the frame type. Each virtual exit device has a receiving virtual port. The method also includes encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames. The plurality of first encapsulated frames have a plurality of headers. The plurality of headers identify a plurality of virtual exit devices associated with the plurality of input frames. In addition, the method includes identifying a plurality of next hops in the virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual exit devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames. Furthermore, the method includes encapsulating the plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmitting virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames. Each second encapsulated frame has a header. The header of the second encapsulated frame identifies a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on the next hop of the first encapsulated frame and a receiving virtual port of an associated virtual egress device of the input frame. The transmitting virtual port includes a first portion of the shared memory. The method further includes selectively coupling the transmitting virtual port to a network physical port.

The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embedded therein program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of operating a virtual network device. The method includes receiving a plurality of input frames, examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame, and identifying a virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on the frame type. Each virtual exit device has a receiving virtual port. The method also includes encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames. The plurality of first encapsulated frames have a plurality of headers. The plurality of headers identify a plurality of virtual exit devices associated with the plurality of input frames. In addition, the method includes identifying a plurality of next hops in the virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual exit devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames. Furthermore, the method includes encapsulating the plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmitting virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames. Each second encapsulated frame has a header. The header of the second encapsulated frame identifies a next hop for the second encapsulated frame based on the next hop for the first encapsulated frame and a receiving virtual port of an associated virtual egress device for the input frame. The method further includes selectively coupling the transmitting virtual port to a network physical port.

A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings that set forth illustrative embodiments in which the principles of the invention are utilized.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual network 100 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmitter circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 250 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 3A is a flow chart illustrating an example method 300 of operating the transmitter circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 3B is a flow chart illustrating an example method 350 of operating the transmit circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 500 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver circuit 600 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example method 700 of operating the receiver circuit 600 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 800 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 900 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments, in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and the accompanying drawings of which:

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THEINVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example virtual network device 100 in accordance with the present invention. As described in more detail below, the effective number of local physical ports in the virtual network device 100 is increased by converting one or more of those local physical ports into multiple virtual local physical ports, and the effective number of network physical ports is increased by converting one or more of those network physical ports into multiple virtual network physical ports.

The virtual network device 100 is a component in a virtual network that interconnects a local router/switch with a remote router/switch. The virtual network includes a virtual network device 100 that is coupled to a local router/switch and functions as a virtual ingress device to the virtual network, and a virtual network device 100 that is coupled to a remote router/switch and functions as a virtual egress device from the virtual network.

As shown in FIG. 1, the virtual network device 100 includes a transmit circuit 110 having a number of local physical ports 112 each of which receives frames of data, such as set-top boxes (STBs), personal computers (PCs), and video frames of data, from a local network device, such as a router/switch, and a number of network physical ports 114 each of which outputs frames of data to the virtual network.

As further shown in FIG. 1, the virtual network device 100 also includes a receiver circuit 120 having a number of local physical ports 122, each of which outputs frames of data to a local network device, such as a router/switch, and a number of network physical ports 124, each of which receives frames of data from the virtual network. In one embodiment, one or more of the local physical ports 112 and 122 may be shared between the transmitter circuit 110 and the receiver circuit 120, and one or more of the network physical ports 114 and 124 may be shared between the transmitter circuit 110 and the receiver circuit 120.

In addition, the virtual network device 100 includes a shared memory 130 coupled to both the transmit circuitry 110 and the receive circuitry 120. The shared memory 130 includes a transmit queue that temporarily stores frames of data to be output to the virtual network, and a receive queue that temporarily stores frames of data received from the virtual network.

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 200 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2A, the transmit circuit 200 includes a local physical port 210, a framing circuit 212 coupled to the local physical port 210, and several transmit virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan coupled to the framing circuit 212.

Each of the transmit virtual ports vPORTa includes a transmit queue and a transmit frame formatting circuit. In addition, the transmit circuit 200 also includes a transmit virtual switch 214 coupled to each of the transmit virtual ports vPORTa, and a network physical port 216 coupled to the transmit virtual switch 214.

Figure 3A shows a flow chart illustrating an example of a method 300 of operation of the transmit circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in Figure 3A, the method 300 begins at 310 with the framing circuit 212 receiving a series of input frames from the local physical port 210. The method 300 then moves to 312 to examine the series of input frames and identify a frame type (e.g., STB, PC, video) for each input frame, and then moves to 314 to identify a virtual egress device associated with each input frame based on the frame type. Each virtual egress device then has a number of receiving virtual ports.

Following this, the method 300 moves to 316 where the framing circuit 212 encapsulates the series of input frames to form a number of first encapsulated (FE) frames. The FE frames have a header that identifies the virtual egress devices associated with the series of input frames.

After this, the method 300 moves to 318 where the sending virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan identify a next hop in the virtual network for the FE frame based on the virtual egress device in the header of the FE frame. The method 300 then moves to 320 where the sending virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan encapsulate the FE frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) frame. Each SE frame has a header that identifies the next hop of the SE frame based on the next hop of the FE frame. The header also identifies the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of the input frame. In addition, the sending virtual ports occupy a first portion of the shared memory.

Following this, method 300 moves to 322 where the transmit virtual switch 214 cycles through transmit virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan, sequentially forwarding SE frames from each transmit virtual port vPORTa in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of SE frames. For example, virtual switch 214 may output a sequence of SE frames where a first SE frame is from vPORT1, a second frame is from vPORT2, a third frame is from vPORT3, and a fourth frame is again from vPORT1.

If the outgoing virtual port vPORTa is empty or partially full, no frames are generated. For example, if the outgoing virtual port vPORT2 is empty, the network physical port 216 outputs a frame sequence that includes frame 1, no frame, and frame 3. The method 300 then moves to 324, where the network physical port 216 transmits the sequence of SE frames to the virtual network.

FIG. 3B shows a flow chart illustrating an example method 350 of operation of the transmit circuit 200 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Method 350 is similar to method 300, and as a result, the same reference numbers are utilized to indicate elements common to both methods.

As shown in FIG. 3B, method 350 first branches from method 300 at 352, where virtual switch 214 determines whether a full signal has been received from any of the outgoing virtual ports vPORTa. The full signal indicates that the SE frame at the outgoing virtual port vPORTa is ready to be transmitted. If virtual switch 214 detects a full signal from the outgoing virtual port vPORTa, method 350 moves to 354, where virtual switch 214 forwards the SE frame from the outgoing virtual port vPORTa that outputs the full signal to network physical port 216.

For example, virtual switch 214 may sequentially receive full signals from transmit virtual port vPORTa1, transmit virtual port vPORTa2, and transmit virtual port vPORTa3. In this case, virtual switch 214 outputs a sequence of SE frames, where the first SE frame is from transmit virtual port vPORTa1, the second frame is from transmit virtual port vPORTa2, and the third frame is from transmit virtual port vPORTa3.

Alternatively, one of the sources (e.g., STB, PC, video source) may have a much faster data rate than the other sources (e.g., STB, PC, video source), and this causes one transmitting virtual port vPORTa to output a full signal much more frequently than the other transmitting virtual port vPORTa.

For example, if network physical port 216 transmits frames at a frame rate of 5 frames/second, transmitting virtual port vPORTa2 outputs frames at a rate three times faster than each of transmitting virtual ports vPORTa1 and vPORTa3, transmitting virtual port vPORTa2 signals three full times before the other ports, transmitting virtual port vPORTa1 signals before vPORTa3 signals, and then virtual switch 214 forwards a sequence of frames including a first frame from transmitting virtual port vPORT2, a second frame from transmitting virtual port vPORT2, a third frame from transmitting virtual port vPORT2, a fourth frame from transmitting virtual port vPORT1, and a fifth frame from transmitting virtual port vPORT3.

In addition to the first-in, first-out approach in which the order of receiving full signals determines the order in which SE frames are output from the transmit virtual port vPORTa by the virtual switch 214, the transmit virtual ports vPORTa-vPORTan can alternatively include a priority scheme that allows frames to be forwarded from the transmit virtual port vPORTa to the network physical ports in any quantity and in any order.

Referring again to FIG. 3B, after the virtual switch 214 forwards the SE frame from the transmitting virtual port vPORTa that outputs the full signal to the network physical port 216, the method 350 moves to 356 where the network physical port 216 transmits the SE frame. In the method 300, the frames that are to be output are predictable, whereas in the method 350, the frames that are to be output are not predictable, although the priority scheme provides a level of predictability.

Referring again to the example of FIG. 2A, the framing circuit 212 includes a virtual switch 220 and a framer 222 coupled to the virtual switch 220. The virtual switch 220 detects the type of an input frame (e.g., STB, PC, video), identifies a route for the frame from the static forwarding table to a virtual port vPORTa corresponding to that type of frame, and outputs the frame toward that virtual port vPORTa.

In this example, the virtual switch 220 receives the STB frame sent by the local source router/switch and detects from the source and/or destination MAC addresses in the STB frame that the received frame is an STB frame. The switch 220 then outputs the STB frame on a first virtual port line P1 that is routed toward the virtual port vPORTa1 that was preselected to receive the STB frame.

Similarly, virtual switch 220 receives the PC frame sent by the local source router/switch and detects from the source and/or destination MAC addresses in the PC frame that the received frame is a PC frame. Switch 220 then outputs the PC frame on a second virtual port line P2 that is routed toward the preselected virtual port vPORTa2 to receive the PC frame.

The virtual switch 220 also receives video frames transmitted by the local router/switch, detects from the source and/or destination MAC addresses in the video frame that the received frame is a video frame, and then outputs the video frame on a third virtual port line P3 that is routed toward the preselected virtual port vPORTa3 to receive the video frame.

Framer 222 receives STB frames on virtual port line P1, encapsulates the STB frames to form a first encapsulated (FE) STB frame, and then forwards the FE STB frame to the transmit queue of virtual port vPORTa1. Similarly, framer 222 receives PC frames on virtual port line P2, encapsulates the PC frames to form a first encapsulated (FE) PC frame, and then forwards the FE PC frame to the transmit queue of virtual port vPORTa2. Framer 222 also receives video frames on virtual port line P3, encapsulates the video frames to form a first encapsulated (FE) video frame, and then forwards the FE video frame to the transmit queue of virtual port vPORTa3.

The framer 222 can generate encapsulated frames using conventional protocols such as the Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol or the Transport Multiprotocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) protocol. In addition, the FE STB frame, the FE PC frame, and the FE video frame each have a header with several fields, including the ID of the virtual egress device.

For example, the header of the FE frame may include an egress address field for the MAC address of the virtual egress device, an I-Tag field, or a similar field. The header may also include other fields, such as the MAC address of the virtual egress device. In this example, the MAC address of the virtual egress device is administratively provided to the virtual ingress device.

The frame formatting circuit in the virtual port vPORTa1 of the transmitting circuit 200 receives the FE STB frame, identifies a next hop in the virtual network for the FE STB frame from a static forwarding table based on the ID of the virtual egress device, such as the MAC address of the virtual egress device, in the header of the FE STB frame, and encapsulates the FE STB frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) STB frame.

Similarly, the frame formatting circuit in virtual port vPORTa2 of the transmitting circuit 200 receives the FE PC frame, identifies a next hop in the virtual network for the FE PC frame from the static forwarding table based on the ID of the virtual egress device, such as the MAC address of the virtual egress device, in the header of the FE PC frame, and encapsulates the FE PC frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) PC frame.

In addition, the frame formatting circuit in virtual port vPORTa3 of the transmitting circuit 200 receives the FE video frame, identifies a next hop in the virtual network for the FE video frame from the static forwarding table based on an ID of the virtual egress device, such as a MAC address of the virtual egress device, in the header of the FE video frame, and encapsulates the FE video frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) video frame.

The SE STB frame, SE PC frame, and SE video frame each include a header with a next hop field that identifies the MAC address of the next hop in the virtual network, a source field Src_vID that identifies the virtual port number of the virtual ingress device, and a destination field Dst_vID that identifies the virtual port number of the virtual egress device that corresponds to the virtual port number of the virtual ingress device. In this example, the source field Src_vID for the SE STB frame is virtual port vPORTa1. Other fields, such as a last hop field, may also be included.

Further, the virtual switch 214 cycles through the virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan, sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated (SE) frame from each virtual port vPORTa to output a series of SE frames to the physical port 216. In this example, the switch 214 forwards an SE STB frame from the virtual port vPORTa1 to the physical port 216, then forwards an SE PC frame from the virtual port vPORTa2 to the physical port 216, then forwards an SE video frame from the virtual port vPORTa3 to the physical port 216, then forwards an SE STB frame from the virtual port vPORTa1 to the physical port 216, and continues in the same manner until the physical port 216 outputs the frames. Although FIG. 2 illustrates the transmit circuit 200 as receiving and operating with input from a single local router/switch, the transmit circuit 200 can alternatively receive and operate with input from multiple routers/switches.

FIG. 2B shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 250 in accordance with the present invention. Transmit circuit 250 is similar to transmit circuit 200, and as a result, the same reference numbers are used to indicate elements common to both transmit circuit 200 and transmit circuit 250.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the transmit circuit 250 differs from the transmit circuit 200 in that the transmit circuit 250 includes a first network physical port 216A and a second network physical port 216B, both of which are coupled to the virtual switch 214. In addition, the virtual switch 214 provides a continuous connection between the transmit virtual port vPORTa1 and the network physical port 216A. Additionally, an additional transmit virtual port vPORTa4 is shown.

Transmit circuitry 250 operates substantially the same as transmit circuitry 200, except that one or more of the sources (e.g., STB, PC, or video source) output frames of data at a frame rate that is greater than the maximum frame rate of network physical ports 216A and 216B. For example, each of network physical ports 216A and 216B may have a maximum frame rate of 5 frames/second.

In the example of FIG. 2B, the set-top box outputs seven STB frames per second, the personal computer outputs two PC frames per second, and the video device outputs one video frame per second. (The numbers listed are for illustrative purposes only.) As shown in FIG. 2B, five of the seven STB frames are transmitted from network physical port 216A, while the remaining two STB frames, two PC frames, and one video frame are transmitted from network physical port 216B in the manner shown by methods 300 and 350. One of the advantages of the transmit circuit 250 is that it is capable of handling an incoming frame rate that is greater than the maximum frame rate of the network physical port.

Figure 4 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Transmit circuit 400 is similar to transmit circuit 200, and as a result, the same reference numbers are utilized to indicate structures common to both circuits.

As shown in FIG. 4, the transmit circuit 400 differs from the transmit circuit 200 in that the framing circuit 212 of the transmit circuit 400 utilizes a serial-to-serial framer 410 followed by a serial-to-parallel virtual switch 412 that is coupled to the virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan, instead of a virtual switch 220 followed by a framer 222.

In a further alternative embodiment, the framer 410 and virtual switch 412 of the transmit circuit 400 may be physically separated, with the framer 410 being incorporated into a local router/switch.

Figure 5 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 500 according to the present invention. The transmit circuit 500 is similar to the transmit circuit 400 and as a result the same reference numbers are utilized to indicate structures common to both the circuit 400 and the circuit 500. As shown in the example shown in Figure 5, a local framer router/switch 510 is utilized with the transmit circuit 500 instead of a STB, a PC, and a local router/switch to receive and output video frames.

Figure 6 shows a block diagram of an example of a receiving circuit 600 according to the present invention. As shown in Figure 6, the receiving circuit 600 includes a network physical port 610 and a receiving virtual switch 612 coupled to the network physical port 610. The receiving circuit 600 also includes several receiving virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn coupled to the switch 612. Each receiving virtual port vPORTb includes a receiving queue and a receiving frame formatting circuit. The receiving circuit 600 further includes a deframing circuit 614 coupled to each of the receiving virtual ports vPORTb, and a local physical port 616 coupled to the deframing circuit 614.

Figure 7 illustrates a flow chart of an example method 700 of operation of the receiving circuit 600 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in Figure 7, the method 700 begins at 710 with the network physical port 610 receiving a sequence of third encapsulated (TE) frames from a virtual network. The TE frames have a header that includes a next hop address and a receiving virtual port identifier.

The method 700 then moves to 712, where the network physical port 610 examines the SE frame to determine the next hop address and compares the next hop address to the stored address. After this, the method 700 moves to 714, where the network physical port 610 forwards the TE frame with a matching next hop address as a matching encapsulated (ME) frame. Additionally, the port 610 drops the received TE frame if the identity of the next hop address does not match the stored address.

The method 700 then moves to 716 where the receiving virtual switch 612 switchably passes the ME frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the ME frame. The method 700 then moves to 718 where the receiving virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn unpack the switchably passed ME frame to extract the first encapsulated frame from the switchably passed ME frame, whereby each receiving virtual port vPORTb unpacks the ME frame to extract the fourth encapsulated frame. The receiving virtual ports occupy a second portion of the shared memory.

Following this, the method 700 moves to 720 where the deframing circuit 614 unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the original STB, PC, and video input frames from the fourth encapsulated frame. The original STB, PC, and video input frames are from a remote router/switch and have several frame types. Additionally, each input frame has a header that identifies the destination router/switch. The method 700 then moves to 722 where the deframing circuit 614 forwards the STB, PC, and video frames to the local physical port 616, which outputs the original STB, PC, and video frames to the local router/switch.

In this example, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME STB frame from the network physical port 610 and identifies the destination virtual port as virtual port vPORTb1 from the destination virtual port number Dst_vID in the header of the ME STB frame. In addition, the switch 612 identifies a route to virtual port vPORTb1 from the static forwarding table, and then outputs the ME STB frame on the first virtual port line that is routed toward virtual port vPORTb1.

Similarly, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME PC frame from the network physical port 610 and identifies the destination virtual port as virtual port vPORTb2 from the destination virtual port number Dst_vID in the header of the ME PC frame. Furthermore, the switch 612 identifies a route to virtual port vPORTb2 from the static forwarding table, and then outputs the ME PC frame on a second virtual port line that is routed toward virtual port vPORTb2.

In addition, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME video frame from the network physical port 610 and identifies the destination virtual port as virtual port vPORTb3 from the destination virtual port number Dst_vID in the header of the ME video frame. The switch 612 identifies a route to virtual port vPORTb3 from the static forwarding table, and then outputs the ME video frame on a third virtual port line that is routed toward virtual port vPORTb3.

The virtual ports vPORTb1 to vPORTbn receive the ME frame, unpack the ME frame, and extract a fourth encapsulated frame, such as a fourth encapsulated STB frame, a fourth encapsulated PC frame, and a fourth encapsulated video frame, from the ME frame. In the example of FIG. 6, the receive queue of the first virtual port vPORTb1 receives the ME STB frame, while the frame formatting circuit of the virtual port vPORTb1 unpacks the ME STB frame and extracts the FE STB frame, and the fourth encapsulated STB frame has a header that includes the identity of the virtual egress device.

Similarly, the receive queue of the second virtual port vPORTb2 receives the ME PC frame, while the frame formatting circuit of the virtual port vPORTb2 unpacks the ME PC frame to extract a fourth encapsulated PC frame, the fourth encapsulated PC frame having a header that includes the identity of the virtual egress device. In addition, the receive queue of the third virtual port vPORTb3 receives the ME video frame, while the frame formatting circuit of the virtual port vPORTb3 unpacks the ME video frame to extract a fourth encapsulated video frame, the fourth encapsulated video frame having a header that includes the identity of the virtual egress device.

The deframing circuit 614 receives a number of fourth encapsulated frames and extracts the original STB, PC, and video input frames from the fourth encapsulated frames. The input frames have several frame types, e.g., STB, PC, video. Each input frame has a header that includes the identity of the destination router/switch. For each received fourth encapsulated frame, the deframing circuit 614 unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the input frame, identifies the identity of the destination router/switch from the input frame's header, and outputs the input frame to the local physical port 616, which outputs the input frame to the destination router/switch.

As shown in FIG. 6, the deframing circuit 614 includes a deframer 620 and a virtual switch 622 coupled to the deframer 620. During operation, the deframer 620 receives a fourth encapsulated frame from a plurality of receiving virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn, unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the original input frames, e.g., STB frames, PC frames, and video frames, and forwards the STB frames, PC frames, and video frames to the virtual switch 622.

In the example of FIG. 6, the deframer 620 receives a fourth encapsulated STB frame from the receiving virtual port vPORTb1, unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the STB frame, and forwards the STB frame to the virtual switch 622. Similarly, the deframer 620 receives a fourth encapsulated PC frame from the receiving virtual port vPORTb2, unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the PC frame, and forwards the PC frame to the virtual switch 622. In addition, the deframer 620 receives a fourth encapsulated video frame from the receiving virtual port vPORTb3, unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the video frame, and forwards the video frame to the virtual switch 622. The deframer 620 can use the same or a different protocol as the framer 222.

The virtual switch 622 cycles through the output of the deframer 620, sequentially receiving output frames and forwarding them to the local physical port 616. In this example, the virtual switch 622 receives STB frames from the deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the destination router/switch, and outputs the STB frames to the local physical port 616. Similarly, the virtual switch 622 receives PC frames from the deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the destination router/switch, and outputs the PC frames to the local physical port 616. In addition, the virtual switch 622 receives video frames from the deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the destination router/switch, and outputs the video frames to the local physical port 616. The local physical port 616 then outputs the frames to the local router/switch.

The example of FIG. 6 shows a deframing circuit 614 having a parallel-to-parallel deframer 620 followed by a parallel-to-serial virtual switch 622. The deframing circuit 614 can alternatively be realized using other circuit configurations. For example, the deframing circuit 614 can be implemented using a serial-to-parallel virtual switch coupled to the virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn followed by a serial-to-serial framer.

Figure 8 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver circuit 800 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Receiver circuit 800 is similar to receiver circuit 600, and as a result, the same reference numbers are used to indicate structures common to both circuits.

8, the receiver circuit 800 differs from the receiver circuit 600 in that the framing circuit 614 of the receiver circuit 800 includes a parallel-to-serial virtual switch 810 coupled to the virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn followed by a serial-to-serial deframer 812. The implementations of the framing circuit 212 and the deframing circuit 614 can be swapped. For example, the virtual network device 100 can utilize the framing circuit 212 implemented with the virtual switch 220 and the framer 222, while the deframing circuit 614 can be implemented with the virtual switch 810 and the deframer 812.

In a further alternative embodiment, the virtual switch 810 and the deframer 812 may be physically separated, with the deframer 812 being integrated into a local router/switch.

Figure 9 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver circuit 900 in accordance with the present invention. Receiver circuit 900 is similar to receiver circuit 800, and as a result, the same reference numbers are utilized to indicate structures common to both circuit 800 and circuit 900. As shown in the example illustrated in Figure 9, a local deframer router/switch 910 is utilized in receiver circuit 900 instead of a local router switch.

One of the advantages of the present invention is that it combines multiple streams of STB, PC and video frames into a single virtual frame stream via several virtual ports, which effectively increases the number of available physical ports.

Reference has been made herein in detail to various embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While description has been made with reference to various embodiments, it will be understood that these are not intended to limit the disclosure. On the contrary, the disclosure is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents that may be included within the scope of the disclosure when interpreted according to the claims.

Furthermore, in the foregoing detailed description of the various embodiments of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details or with their equivalents. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Note that although methods may be depicted herein as a sequence of numbered operations for clarity, the numbering does not necessarily indicate an order for the operations. It should be understood that some of the operations may be skipped, performed in parallel, or performed without the requirement of maintaining a strict order of sequence.

The drawings showing various embodiments according to the present disclosure are semi-schematic and not to scale, in particular some of the dimensions are shown exaggerated in the depicted figures for clarity of presentation. Similarly, the views in the drawings generally show similar orientations for ease of illustration, although this depiction in the figures is for the most part arbitrary. In general, various embodiments according to the present disclosure can be operated in any orientation.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the data processing arts to effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

In this disclosure, a procedure, logic block, process, etc., is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations or instructions leading to a desired result. These operations employ physical manipulation of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computing system. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as transactions, bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, samples, pixels, or the like.

It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities. Unless otherwise indicated, and as will be apparent from the discussion that follows, throughout this disclosure, discussions using terms such as "generate," "identify," "allocate," "aggregate," "utilize," "virtualize," "process," "access," "execute," "store," and the like, will be understood to refer to the actions and processes of a computer system or similar electronic computing device or processor.

A computing system, or similar electronic computing device or processor, manipulates data represented as physical (electronic) quantities in the computer system's memory, registers, or other such information storage and/or other computer-readable media, converting it into other data that is also represented as physical quantities in the computer system's memory, or registers, or other such information storage, transmission, or display device.

In the previous section, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are clearly and completely described with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present application. Please note that the terms "first", "second", etc. in the description and claims of the present invention and in the above drawings are used to distinguish between similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific sequence or order. It should be understood that these numbers can be interchanged where appropriate, whereby the embodiments of the present invention described herein can be implemented in an order other than that shown or described herein.

The functions described in the method of this embodiment can be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and stored in a computing device readable storage medium when sold or used as an independent product. Based on such an understanding, a part of the embodiments of the present application that contribute to the prior art, or a part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including a plurality of instructions for causing a computing device (which can be a personal computer, a server, a mobile computing device, a network device, etc.) to execute all or a part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes a USB drive, a portable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., which can store program code.

Various embodiments in the specification of this application are described in a progressive manner, with each embodiment focusing on its differences from other embodiments, and the same or similar parts among the various embodiments can be referred to in different cases. The described embodiments are only some of the embodiments, rather than all of the embodiments of this application. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of this application without departing from the skill of the present invention are within the scope of this application.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments enables any person skilled in the art to make or use the present application. Various modifications to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present application. Thus, the present application is not limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
[Items of the invention]
[Item 1]
a framing circuit for receiving a plurality of input frames, examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame, identifying a virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, and encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, each virtual exit device having a receive virtual port, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual exit devices associated with the plurality of input frames;
a plurality of transmit virtual ports coupled to the framing circuit for identifying a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual exit device in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames and for encapsulating the plurality of first encapsulated frames to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop for the second encapsulated frame based on the next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual exit device of an input frame;
an outgoing virtual switch coupled to the plurality of outgoing virtual ports for selectively coupling the outgoing virtual ports to network physical ports;
1. A virtual network device comprising:
[Item 2]
2. The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the transmitting virtual switch cycles through the plurality of transmitting virtual ports and sequentially forwards the second encapsulated frames from each transmitting virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames.
[Item 3]
2. The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the transmitting virtual switch receives a full signal from a transmitting virtual port and forwards frames from the transmitting virtual port that outputs the full signal to the network physical port.
[Item 4]
The framing circuit,
a virtual switch that identifies a route for the frame to a sending virtual port based on the frame type and outputs the frame toward the sending virtual port;
a framer coupled to the virtual switch for encapsulating the input frame;
2. The virtual network device of item 1, comprising:
[Item 5]
5. The virtual network device of claim 4, wherein the framer implements a protocol from a group of protocols including a Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transfer Multi-Protocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol.
[Item 6]
2. The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the outgoing virtual port includes a first portion of a shared memory.
[Item 7]
a receiving physical port that receives a plurality of third encapsulated frames, examines the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations, compares the plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations, and forwards the third encapsulated frames with the matching destinations as matching encapsulated frames, wherein the plurality of third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames have a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
a receive virtual switch coupled to the receive physical port for switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receive virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
a plurality of receive virtual ports coupled to the receive virtual switch for unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receive virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frames to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receive virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
a deframing circuit coupled to the plurality of receiving virtual ports for unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header that identifies a destination router/switch;
7. The virtual network device of claim 6, further comprising:
[Item 8]
8. The virtual network device of claim 7, wherein the deframing circuitry includes a deframer that receives the fourth encapsulated frame from the plurality of receiving virtual ports and unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the input frame.
[Item 9]
9. The virtual network device of claim 8, wherein the framing circuit outputs the input frame to a local router/switch.
[Item 10]
1. A method of operating a virtual network device, comprising:
receiving a plurality of input frames;
examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame;
identifying a virtual egress device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, each virtual egress device having a receiving virtual port;
encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual egress devices associated with the plurality of input frames;
determining a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual egress devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames;
encapsulating a plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmit virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on a next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of an input frame;
selectively binding the transmit virtual port to a network physical port;
The method includes:
[Item 11]
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of cycling through the plurality of transmit virtual ports and sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated frames from each transmit virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames.
[Item 12]
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of receiving a full signal from a sending virtual port and forwarding frames from the sending virtual port that outputs the full signal to the network physical port.
[Item 13]
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying a route for the frame to an egress virtual port based on the frame type, and outputting the frame toward the egress virtual port.
[Item 14]
Item 11. The method of item 10, wherein the plurality of input frames are encapsulated using a protocol from a group of protocols including a Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transfer Multi-Protocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol.
[Item 15]
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the sending virtual port includes a first portion of a shared memory.
[Item 16]
receiving a plurality of third encapsulated frames;
examining the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations;
comparing said plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations;
forwarding the third encapsulated frame as a matching encapsulated frame with a matching destination, the third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames at a plurality of receiving virtual ports to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receiving virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frame to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receiving virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header identifying a destination router/switch;
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
[Item 17]
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embedded therein, the program instructions, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to perform a method of operating a virtual network device, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of input frames;
examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame;
identifying a virtual egress device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, each virtual egress device having a receiving virtual port;
encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual egress devices associated with the plurality of input frames;
determining a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual egress devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames;
encapsulating a plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmit virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on a next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of an input frame;
selectively binding the transmit virtual port to a network physical port;
Including, media.
[Item 18]
20. The medium of claim 17, wherein the operating method further comprises cycling through the plurality of transmit virtual ports and sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated frames from each transmit virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames.
[Item 19]
20. The medium of claim 17, wherein the operating method further comprises the steps of receiving a full signal from a transmitting virtual port and forwarding frames from the transmitting virtual port that outputs the full signal to the network physical port.
[Item 20]
The method of operation comprises:
receiving a plurality of third encapsulated frames;
examining the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations;
comparing said plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations;
forwarding each third encapsulated frame as a matching encapsulated frame with a matching destination to forward a plurality of matching encapsulated frames, the plurality of third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames at a plurality of receiving virtual ports to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receiving virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frame to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receiving virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header identifying a destination router/switch;
20. The medium according to item 19, further comprising:

Claims (21)

a framing circuit for receiving a plurality of input frames, examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame, identifying a virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, and encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, each virtual exit device having a receive virtual port, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual exit devices respectively associated with the plurality of input frames;
a plurality of transmit virtual ports coupled to the framing circuit for identifying a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual exit device in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames and for encapsulating the plurality of first encapsulated frames to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop for the second encapsulated frame based on the next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual exit device of an input frame;
an outgoing virtual switch coupled to the plurality of outgoing virtual ports for selectively coupling the outgoing virtual ports to any of a plurality of network physical ports;
1. A virtual network device comprising: The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the egress virtual switch cycles through the plurality of egress virtual ports, sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated frames from each egress virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames. 2. The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the transmitting virtual switch receives a full signal from any one of the plurality of transmitting virtual ports , the full signal indicating that the second encapsulated frame at the any one of the transmitting virtual ports is ready to be transmitted, and forwards the frame from the any one of the transmitting virtual ports that outputs the full signal to the network physical port. The framing circuit,
a virtual switch that identifies a route for the frame to a sending virtual port based on the frame type and outputs the frame toward the sending virtual port;
a framer coupled to the virtual switch for encapsulating the input frame;
The virtual network device of claim 1 . 5. The virtual network device of claim 4, wherein the framer executes a protocol from a group of protocols including a Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transport Multiprotocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) protocol. The virtual network device of claim 1, wherein the outgoing virtual port includes a first portion of the shared memory. a receiving physical port that receives a plurality of third encapsulated frames, examines the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations, compares the plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations, and forwards the third encapsulated frames with the matching destinations as matching encapsulated frames, wherein the plurality of third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames have a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
a receive virtual switch coupled to the receive physical port for switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receive virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
a plurality of receive virtual ports coupled to the receive virtual switch for unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receive virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frames to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receive virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
a deframing circuit coupled to the plurality of receiving virtual ports for unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header that identifies a destination router/switch;
The virtual network device of claim 6 , further comprising: The virtual network device of claim 7, wherein the deframing circuit includes a deframer that receives the fourth encapsulated frame from the plurality of receiving virtual ports and unpacks the fourth encapsulated frame to extract the input frame. The virtual network device of claim 8, wherein the framing circuit outputs the input frame to a local router/switch. 1. A method of operating a virtual network device, comprising:
receiving a plurality of input frames;
examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame;
identifying a virtual egress device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, each virtual egress device having a receiving virtual port;
encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual egress devices respectively associated with the plurality of input frames;
determining a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual egress devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames;
encapsulating a plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmit virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on a next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of an input frame;
selectively binding the transmit virtual port to one of a plurality of network physical ports;
The method includes: The method of claim 10, further comprising: cycling through the plurality of transmit virtual ports and sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated frames from each transmit virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving a full signal from any one of the plurality of transmitting virtual ports , the full signal indicating that the second encapsulated frame at the any one of the transmitting virtual ports is ready to be transmitted; and forwarding the frame from the any one of the transmitting virtual ports outputting the full signal to the network physical port. The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining a route for the frame to an egress virtual port based on the frame type; and outputting the frame toward the egress virtual port. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of input frames are encapsulated using a protocol from a group of protocols including a Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transport Multiprotocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) protocol. The method of claim 10, wherein the sending virtual port includes a first portion of a shared memory. receiving a plurality of third encapsulated frames;
examining the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations;
comparing said plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations;
forwarding the third encapsulated frame as a matching encapsulated frame with a matching destination, the third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames at a plurality of receiving virtual ports to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receiving virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frame to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receiving virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header identifying a destination router/switch;
The method of claim 15 further comprising: A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embedded therein, the program instructions, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to perform a method of operating a virtual network device, the method comprising:
receiving a plurality of input frames;
examining the plurality of input frames to identify a frame type for each input frame;
identifying a virtual egress device associated with each input frame based on the frame type, each virtual egress device having a receiving virtual port;
encapsulating the plurality of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated frames, the plurality of first encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers identifying a plurality of virtual egress devices respectively associated with the plurality of input frames;
determining a plurality of next hops in a virtual network for the plurality of first encapsulated frames based on the virtual egress devices in the headers of the plurality of first encapsulated frames;
encapsulating a plurality of first encapsulated frames at a plurality of transmit virtual ports to form a plurality of second encapsulated frames, each second encapsulated frame having a header, the header of the second encapsulated frame identifying a next hop of the second encapsulated frame based on a next hop of the first encapsulated frame and the receiving virtual port of the associated virtual egress device of an input frame;
selectively binding the transmit virtual port to one of a plurality of network physical ports;
Including, media. The medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises cycling through the plurality of transmit virtual ports and sequentially forwarding the second encapsulated frames from each transmit virtual port in a fixed repeating order to output a sequence of second encapsulated frames. 20. The medium of claim 17, wherein the operating method further comprises receiving a full signal from any one of the plurality of transmitting virtual ports , the full signal indicating that the second encapsulated frame at the any one of the transmitting virtual ports is ready to be transmitted, and forwarding the frame from the any one of the transmitting virtual ports outputting the full signal to the network physical port. 20. The medium of claim 17, wherein the sending virtual port comprises a first portion of a shared memory. The method of operation comprises:
receiving a plurality of third encapsulated frames;
examining the plurality of third encapsulated frames to identify a plurality of frame destinations;
comparing said plurality of frame destinations to stored destinations;
forwarding each third encapsulated frame as a matching encapsulated frame with a matching destination to forward a plurality of matching encapsulated frames, the plurality of third encapsulated frames and the matching encapsulated frames having a plurality of headers, the plurality of headers having a plurality of receiving virtual port identifiers;
switchably passing the matching encapsulated frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the matching encapsulated frame;
unpacking the switchably passed matching encapsulated frames at a plurality of receiving virtual ports to extract a plurality of fourth encapsulated frames from the plurality of matching encapsulated frames, whereby each receiving virtual port unpacks the matching encapsulated frame to extract a fourth encapsulated frame, the receiving virtual port including a second portion of the shared memory;
unpacking the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames to extract a plurality of output frames from the plurality of fourth encapsulated frames, the plurality of output frames having a plurality of frame types, each output frame having a header identifying a destination router/switch;
The medium of claim 20 further comprising:

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