Modified Ethernet preamble for inter line card communications in a modular communication chassis

1. A method of providing information regarding an Ethernet frame, within an Ethernet preamble of the Ethernet frame, said method comprising

inserting into the Ethernet preamble an inter-line-card header that includes at least one information element selected from the group consisting of a start control character, a version number, a parity bit, a source port, a destination port, and a forwarding domain entry,

preserving said inter-line-card header, inside of said Ethernet preamble, in a Media Access Control (MAC) sub-layer in said Ethernet frame, to create a modified Ethernet preamble and

passing the modified Ethernet preamble and said Ethernet frame over an Ethernet backplane to an inter-line-card header processing module.

2. The method of claim 1 in which said inter-line-card header further includes an action and action parameters.

3. The method of claim 2 in which said action includes controlling or modifying the associated Ethernet frame by pushing or popping an MPLS label,

adding an MPLS label,

setting the time to live (TTL) for an MPLS label,

decrementing an MPLS TTL,

setting an MPLS TTL to a specific value,

pushing or popping a VLAN tag,

setting or decrementing an Internet Protocol (IP) TTL field,

setting the committed information rate (CIR) and the excess information rate (EIR) to new values or

resetting the CIR and EIR to known values for the Ethernet Virtual Circuit to which the Ethernet frame belongs.

4. The method of claim 2 which includes applying said action parameters according to said action as decoded in said inter-line-card header.

5. The method of claim 1 in which said start control character indicates the beginning of a new Ethernet frame.

6. The method of claim 1 which includes selecting the decoding format for said inter-line-card header corresponding to said version number.

7. The method of claim 1 in which said parity bit is used to verify that an inter line card header is not corrupted, whereby the parity bit is set to reflect an even or an odd parity.

8. The method of claim 1 in which said source port identifies the source of the Ethernet frame on the communication line card from which the Ethernet frame received over the Ethernet backplane originates.

9. The method of claim 1 in which said destination port identifies the port on which to transmit the Ethernet frame for the communication line card where the Ethernet frame is received.

10. The method of claim 1 which includes forwarding other Ethernet frames according to additional forwarding information provided by said forwarding domain entry.

11. The method of claim 1 which includes extracting said destination port from said modified preamble, and determining from said destination port which of one or more Ethernet port of a communication line card shall be used to send the Ethernet frame received with said modified preamble.

12. A method of providing information regarding an Ethernet frame comprising

modifying an Ethernet preamble comprised in the Ethernet frame to include an inter-line-card header that comprises at least one information element selected from the group consisting of a start control character, a version number, a parity bit, a source port, a destination port, and a forwarding domain entry,

preserving said inter-line-card header, inside of said modified Ethernet preamble, in a Media Access Control (MAC) sub-layer in said Ethernet frame,

wherein said inter-line-card header further includes an action and action parameters, and

said action includes controlling or modifying the Ethernet frame by one or more of the following

pushing or popping an MPLS label,

adding an MPLS label,

setting the time to live (TTL) for an MPLS label,

decrementing an MPLS TTL,

setting an MPLS TTL to a specific value,

pushing or popping a VLAN tag,

setting or decrementing an Internet Protocol (IP) TTL field,

setting the committed information rate (CIR) and the excess information rate (EIR) to new values or

resetting the CIR and EIR to known values for the Ethernet Virtual Circuit to which the Ethernet frame belongs.

13. The method of claim 12 in which said start control character indicates the beginning of a new Ethernet frame.

14. The method of claim 12 which includes selecting the decoding format for said inter-line-card header corresponding to said version number.

15. The method of claim 13 in which said parity bit is used to verify that an inter line card header is not corrupted, whereby the parity bit is set to reflect an even or an odd parity.

16. The method of claim 12 in which said source port identifies the source of the Ethernet frame on the communication line card from which the Ethernet frame received over the Ethernet backplane originates.

17. The method of claim 12 in which said destination port identifies the port on which to transmit the Ethernet frame for the communication line card where the Ethernet frame is received.

18. The method of claim 12 which includes forwarding other Ethernet frames according to additional forwarding information provided by said forwarding domain entry.

19. The method of claim 12 further comprising passing the modified preamble and the Ethernet frame over an Ethernet backplane to an inter-line-card header processing module.

20. The method of claim 12 which includes extracting said destination port from said inter-line-card header, and determining from said destination port which Ethernet port of a communication line card shall be used to send the associated Ethernet frame.

21. The method of claim 12 which includes applying said action parameters according to said action as decoded in said inter-line-card header.