CONTROL PACKET BICASTING BETWEEN STACKABLE DEVICES
Techniques that enable a network device such as a switch to bicast control packets to an active controller and a standby controller in a stackable system. Techniques are provided for encapsulating control packets with one or more proprietary headers to bicast encapsulated control packets to an active controller and a standby controller in a stackable system.
1 . A network switch stack comprising:
an active controller;
a standby controller; and
a stack member,
wherein said active controller, said standby controller, and said stack member are configurable to be part of a network switch stack,
wherein at least one of said active controller and said standby controller receives a control packet including two internal switching headers.
2 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , wherein said internal switching header is a Distributed Switch Architecture (DSA) header.
3 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , said stack member encapsulates said internal switching header in said control packet.
4 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , said active controller encapsulates said internal switching header in said control packet.
5 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , said standby controller encapsulates said internal switching header in said control packet.
6 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , wherein said internal switching header comprises packet forwarding information.
7 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , wherein said stack member encapsulates said internal switching header in a control packet at a device driver layer.
8 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , wherein said active controller encapsulates said internal switching header in a control packet at a device driver layer.
9 . The network switch stack of claim 1 , wherein said standby controller encapsulates said internal switching header in a control packet at a device driver layer.