Enhanced Flow-Zone Switching

Abstract

Flow-zone switching provides for the switching of frames through a network, basing forwarding decisions on location and flow information encoded in the frames, such as in the source and destination addresses. Various address formats are disclosed, supporting transfer of packet data among data switches as well as among servers at endpoints.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of forwarding data, by a network element within a network, to one or more processes within the network element, comprising:
 a. receiving, via a port, an ingress frame including the data, a destination address, and a source address;   b. determining that a destination of the data, as indicated by a destination zone identifier within the destination address, is within the network element;   c. determining a flow parameter set, found within one or more of the destination address and source address;   d. in accordance with the flow parameter set, selecting one or more processes in a memory of the network element; and   e. forwarding the data to the selected process or processes.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network element is a switch. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network element is a server. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein forwarded data is accompanied by suppressed or compressed frame header data restored in accordance with the flow parameter set. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein content of the flow parameter set is partially or entirely within the source address. 
     
     
         6 . A network element configured to:
 a. receive, via a port, an ingress frame including data, a destination address, and a source address;   b. determine that a destination of the data, as indicated by a destination zone identifier within the destination address, is within the network element;   c. determine a flow parameter set, found within one or more of the destination address and source address;   d. in accordance with the flow parameter set, select one or more processes in a memory of the network element; and   e. forward the data to the selected process or processes.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the network element is a switch. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the network element is a server. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein data sent to the selected process is accompanied by suppressed or compressed frame header data restored in accordance with the flow parameter set. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein content of the flow parameter set is partially or entirely within the source address. 
     
     
         11 . A computer program product, comprising at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium and including instructions, for execution by a processing unit of a network element, to respond to receipt of a frame by the network element, the response comprising:
 a. identifying data, a destination address, and a source address of the received frame;   b. determining the location of a destination of the data in a frame, as indicated by a destination zone identifier within the destination address;   c. determining a flow parameter set, found within one or more of the destination address and source address;   d. in accordance with the flow parameter set, selecting an egress port from among a plurality of egress ports leading toward the indicated location of the destination of the data; and   e. forwarding the data to the selected egress port.   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 11  wherein the network element is a switch. 
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 11  wherein the network element is a server. 
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to place the data in a queue selected in accordance with the flow parameter set or to schedule the forwarding of the data in accordance with the flow parameter set. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 14  wherein the network element is a switch. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to determine the flow parameter set using information partially or entirely within the source address. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to accompany data sent to the selected egress port by suppressed or compressed frame header data restored in accordance with the flow parameter set. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to, when the indicated location of the destination of the data is within the network element, select as the egress port a logical port identifying a process in the memory. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 18 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to select the logical port, from among a plurality of logical ports, based on the contents of the flow parameter set. 
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , further comprising instructions instructing the network element to select the egress port from calculation using information found explicitly within the ingress packet, without use of forwarding tables.