JAMES DAVID CARLSON
Pilots at Essex St, North Andover, MA

6421342, Jul 16, 2002

Nov 24, 1998

09/198647

Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L 1256

370392

An apparatus and method for forwarding packets of data across a switching node on a network are disclosed. A packet of data to be forwarded includes a destination address, which can be partitioned into a plurality of subaddress fields. To improve speed of packet forwarding, destination addresses are processed in a pipelined fashion. To that end, the system includes a plurality of pipelined subaddress processors which process a respective plurality of subaddress fields of the destination addresses. Addresses are received during addressing intervals. During a first interval, a first subaddress of a first packet is processed by a first subaddress processor. During a next interval, a second subaddress processor processes a second subaddress field of the first packet destination address while the first subaddress processor processes the first subaddress field of a destination address of a next packet. Each destination address is stored in a table which associates destination addresses with output paths out of the switching node. The table is partitioned into portions associated with the subaddress fields.

6434115, Aug 13, 2002

Jul 2, 1998

09/108771

Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA
Yuval Peduel - Winchester MA
Michael Hathaway - Burlington MA

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L 1226

370235, 370414

A switching node for transferring packets, each including a destination address, in a network includes a plurality of input port modules, a plurality of output port modules and a switching fabric, including a packet meta-data processor and a packet switch. Each input port module is connected to a communication link for receiving packets thereover, and each output port module is connected to a communication link for transmitting packets thereover. Each input port module, upon receiving a packet, buffers the packet and generates a meta-data packet therefor identifying the output port module that is to transmit the packet and packet identifier information, and provides it to the packet meta-data processor. The packet meta-data processor receives the meta-data packets generated by all of the input port modules and operational status information from all of the output port modules and for each output port module, processes the meta-data packets received from all of the input port modules in connection with the operational status information to determine whether the packet should be passed or dropped. If the packet meta-data processor determines that a packet associated with a meta-data packet is to be dropped, it will notify the input port module in which the packet is buffered, which, in turn, will discard the packet.

6529478, Mar 4, 2003

Nov 24, 1998

09/198935

Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA

Fluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L 1256

370236, 370414

A switching node for transferring packets, each including a destination address, in a network includes a plurality of input port modules, a plurality of output port modules and a switching fabric, including a packet meta-data processor and a packet switch. Each input port module is connected to a communication link for receiving packets thereover, and each output port module is connected to a communication link for transmitting packets thereover. Each input port module, upon receiving a packet, buffers the packet and generates a meta-data packet therefor identifying the output port module that is to transmit the packet and packet identifier information, and provides it to the packet meta-data processor. The packet meta-data processor receives the meta-data packets generated by all of the input port modules and operational status information from all of the output port modules and for each output port module, processes the meta-data packets received from all of the input port modules in connection with the operational status information to determine whether the packet should be passed or dropped. If the packet meta-data processor determines that a packet associated with a meta-data packet is to be dropped, it will notify the input port module in which the packet is buffered, which, in turn, will discard the packet.

6804241, Oct 12, 2004

Jun 27, 2002

10/186367

Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L 1256

370392, 370401

A switching node for transferring addressed packets in a network includes a plurality of input port modules, a plurality of output port modules and a switching fabric, including a packet meta-data processor and a packet switch. Each input port module, upon receiving a packet, buffers the packet and generates a meta-data packet identifying an output port module that is to transmit the packet and packet identifier information, and provides it to the packet meta-data processor. The packet meta-data processor processes the meta-data packets received from all of the input port modules in connection with operational status information to determine whether the packet should be passed or dropped. If to be dropped, the packet is dropped at the input, otherwise enqueued for the proper output port.

6381649, Apr 30, 2002

Feb 5, 1999

09/234082

James D. Carlson - North Andover MA

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

G06F 1516

709235, 709224, 709232, 709223, 370230, 370232, 370233, 370235

An apparatus and method for monitoring data flow at a node on a network are disclosed. A memory location or “bucket” is allocated to each of a plurality of links and classes of service at the node. A free-running counter is incremented at a rate determined by the maximum allowable data rates on the various links and classes of service. When a data packet is received at a particular link and class of service, the corresponding memory location or bucket is adjusted or “leaked” by subtracting the present counter value from the present bucket contents. That difference is then added to the number of units of data, i. e. , bytes or groups of bytes of data, contained in the incoming packet. That sum is then compared with a predetermined threshold determined by the allowable data rate associated with the link and class of service. If the threshold is exceeded, then the incoming data packet is marked accordingly.

6973079, Dec 6, 2005

Sep 22, 1999

09/400927

James D. Carlson - North Andover MA, US
Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA, US
Eric J. Spada - Lexington MA, US
Eric J. Pelletier - Lexington MA, US
Jeffrey A. Koehler - Westborough MA, US

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L012/50, H04L012/28

370367, 37039571

A method and apparatus for reallocating switching circuitry in a switching fabric are disclosed. The switching fabric is used to permit data transfer among a plurality of interface units each having a plurality of data ports. The switching fabric is partitionable into a plurality of switch planes such that each switch plane can be assigned to transfer data associated with like data ports of the interface units. Each switch plane includes multiple switching channels each assignable to transfer data associated with one data port of one of the interface units, in a full implementation. The number of interface units is less than the number of switching channels in a switch plane, then the reallocation is performed such that multiple channels of at least one switch plane can be assigned to transfer data of multiple ports of at least one of the interface units. This results in switch plane channels that would otherwise be unused being utilized to transfer data. This reallocation of switch plane channels can result in the elimination of one or more switch planes from the switch fabric resulting in substantially reduced hardware complexity and cost.

2007020, Sep 6, 2007

Mar 2, 2006

11/367875

Jarrett Lu - San Jose CA, US
James Carlson - North Andover MA, US
Glenn Faden - San Rafael CA, US

G06F 15/173

709238000

A mechanism is disclosed for enabling a network address to be shared by multiple containers. By allowing multiple containers to share a network address, a limit on network addresses does not limit the number of containers that can be implemented. Despite the fact that the network address is shared by multiple containers, the uniqueness and isolation of each container is still maintained. In one implementation, this is achieved by associating a unique label with each container. With this unique label, it is possible to forward a packet destined for the shared network address to a specific container despite the fact that multiple containers share the same network address. Thus, with this mechanism, it is possible to achieve container isolation and uniqueness without limiting container scalability.

7480242, Jan 20, 2009

Feb 28, 2003

10/377868

Steven J. Schwartz - Sudbury MA, US
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA, US

Pluris, Inc. - Cupertino CA

H04L 12/26

370235, 370230, 370389

A switching node for transferring packets, each including a destination address, in a network includes a plurality of input port modules, a plurality of output port modules and a switching fabric, including a packet meta-data processor and a packet switch. Each input port module is connected to a communication link for receiving packets thereover, and each output port module is connected to a communication link for transmitting packets thereover. Each input port module, upon receiving a packet, buffers the packet and generates a meta-data packet therefor identifying the output port module that is to transmit the packet and packet identifier information, and provides it to the packet meta-data processor. The packet meta-data processor receives the meta-data packets generated by all of the input port modules and operational status information from all of the output port modules and for each output port module, processes the meta-data packets received from all of the input port modules in connection with the operational status information to determine whether the packet should be passed or dropped. If the packet meta-data processor determines that a packet associated with a meta-data packet is to be dropped, it will notify the input port module in which the packet is buffered, which, in turn, will discard the packet.

6870849, Mar 22, 2005

Jul 6, 2000

09/610278

Ross W. Callon - Westford MA, US
James D. Carlson - North Andover MA, US
Douglas C. Ehlert - Dunstable MA, US
Yuval Peduel - Sunnyvale CA, US

H04L012/56

37039532, 370400

An apparatus and method for efficient hashing uses both an identifying portion of a data packet, e. g. , source and destination ID, and an identifying value of the node, e. g. , the IP address of the node, to generate a hash result. By inserting a unique value into the hash operation at each node, the invention effectively provides for a different hash implementation at each node. As a result, in situations where multiple paths or multiple links within a path are available to forward packets, traffic can be split over the multiple paths and links. Inefficient utilization of network links found in prior systems which use the same hash operation at each node are eliminated.