US Patent No: 6,914,905

Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000

Method and system for VLAN aggregation

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Abstract

A method and system for an aggregated virtual local area network (VLAN) architecture in which several VLANs in a network share the same default router address and subnet mask, but remain isolated from one another's network traffic. Instead of the traditional method of assigning one subnet to a VLAN, each VLAN is assigned only a portion of a subnet's IP address space, and is further grouped into a super-VLAN uniquely associated with that subnet. Intra-VLAN traffic is forwarded only to host IP addresses assigned to that same VLAN according to a VLAN identifier carried in the data packet. Inter-VLAN traffic is processed by a virtual router interface which routes the data packet by applying the routing configuration for the subnet uniquely associated with the super-VLAN, according to a super-VLAN identifier carried in the data packet. The routing configuration used by the virtual router interface includes routing protocols, static routes, redundant router protocols and access-lists. Since each VLAN shares the same virtual router interlace, the traditional address overhead of a subnet is minimized, requiring only one default router and subnet mask, as well as only one pair of subnet broadcast addresses for all hosts on the subnet and the subnet itself. The aggregated VLAN architecture provides for the efficient use and management of a network's IP address space.

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First Claim

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Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddressTotal Patents
EXTREME NETWORKS, INC.SANTA CLARA, CA172

International Classification(s)

  • [Classification Symbol]
  • [Patents Count]

Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Merchant, Shehzad T Mountain View, CA 9 622
Yin, Kenneth T Rumson, NJ 2 38
Yip, Michael Mountain View, CA 40 1092

Cited Art

Patent Info (Count) # Cites Year
 
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Patent Citation Ranking

Forward Cites

Patent Info (Count) # Cites Year
 
EXTREME NETWORKS, INC. (25)
7,581,024 Method and system for increasing participation in a standby router protocol 1 2001
7,447,777 Switching system 5 2002
8,161,270 Packet data modification processor 0 2004
7,822,032 Data structures for supporting packet data modification operations 2 2004
7,613,209 System and method for egress packet marking 8 2004
7,463,628 Packet data modification processor command instruction set 8 2004
7,453,874 Method and system for incrementally updating a checksum in a network data packet 3 2004
7,385,984 Packet processing system architecture and method 6 2004
7,304,996 System and method for assembling a data packet 42 2004
7,292,591 Packet processing system architecture and method 21 2004
7,936,687 Systems for statistics gathering and sampling in a packet processing system 0 2004
7,649,879 Pipelined packet processor 5 2004
7,646,770 Systems for supporting packet processing operations 2 2004
7,606,263 Packet parser 3 2004
7,580,350 System for deriving packet quality of service indicator 6 2004
7,554,978 System for accessing content-addressable memory in packet processor 6 2004
7,522,516 Exception handling system for packet processing system 9 2004
7,502,374 System for deriving hash values for packets in a packet processing system 4 2004
7,894,451 Method of providing virtual router functionality 0 2005
7,889,750 Method of extending default fixed number of processing cycles in pipelined packet processor architecture 0 2005
7,822,033 MAC address detection device for virtual routers 0 2005
7,817,633 Method of providing virtual router functionality through abstracted virtual identifiers 0 2005
7,821,931 System and method for assembling a data packet 0 2007
7,675,915 Packet processing system architecture and method 4 2007
8,412,838 Method of and system for analyzing the content of resource requests 0 2007
 
BELLSOUTH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION (4)
7,640,359 Method, system and computer program product for facilitating the design and assignment of ethernet VLANs 0 2003
7,624,187 Method, system and computer program product for providing Ethernet VLAN capacity requirement estimation 1 2003
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8,219,696 Method, system and computer program product for providing Ethernet VLAN capacity requirement estimation 0 2009
 
ALCATEL LUCENT (2)
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CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC. (1)
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HATTERAS NETWORKS (1)
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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION (1)
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INTERNET ASSOCIATES, LLC (1)
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ROCKSTAR BIDCO, LP (1)
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SBC KNOWLEDGE VENTURES, L.P. (1)
7,958,208 System and method for designing a customized switched metro Ethernet data network 0 2004

Maintenance Fees

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7.5 Year Payment $3600.00 $1800.00 $900.00 Jan 5, 2013
11.5 Year Payment $7400.00 $3700.00 $1850.00 Jan 5, 2017
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