Christopher C James

US Patent:

63049015, Oct 16, 2001

Filed:

Sep 22, 2000

Appl. No.:

9/667296

Inventors:

Keith McCloghrie - San Jose CA
Bernard R. James - Mountain View CA
Christopher James - Boulder Creek CA
Norman W. Finn - San Jose CA

Assignee:

Cisco Technology, Inc. - San Jose CA

International Classification:

G06F 15163
G06F 15177
G06F 1342
G06F 1340
H04L 1256

US Classification:

709221

Abstract:

A system in which a single VLAN architecture spans multiple VLAN transport protocols and technologies, including a method and system in which multiple different VLANs may be combined in a single enterprise network. Each LAN-switch in the system identifies each frame with an identifier, and associates that identifier with particular VLAN identifiers for each type of VLAN technology. When a frame is bridged or routed from a first type of VLAN to a second type of VLAN, the first VLAN encapsulation is removed and the second VLAN encapsulation is added, with appropriate change in the VLAN identifier for the frame or packet. The identifier may also be implicit for the frame, such as when a particular set of sender's MAC addresses are identified with a particular VLAN. Individual VLANs, of whatever architecture, may be added, configured or reconfigured, modified, or deleted, using control tools associated with the multiple VLAN architecture system. Individual ports may be associated with particular VLANs, or may be designated "dynamic" so that frames or packets associated with those ports are associated with particular VLANs in response to source or destination addresses or other information.