Centralized control and management planes for different independent switching domains

1. A switching domain comprising:

a cell-based switch fabric;

a plurality of cell-based switches coupled to the cell-based switch fabric, each cell-based switch communicating with each other cell-based switch through the cell-based switch fabric in accordance with a cell-based distributed fabric protocol; and

a server device coupled to one of the cell-based switches, the server device comprising:

memory storing program code for providing control plane functionality for a switching domain comprised of a plurality of interconnected standalone packet-based switches that communicate with each other in accordance with a packet-based distributed fabric protocol and program code for providing control plane functionality for the plurality of cell-based switches that communicate with each other through the cell-based switch fabric in accordance with the cell-based distributed fabric protocol; and

a processor executing the program code stored in the memory to process control packets for the switching domain comprised of the plurality of interconnected standalone switches in accordance with the packet-based distributed fabric protocol and control packets for the plurality of cell-based switches in accordance with a protocol different from the packet-based distributed fabric protocol.

2. The switching domain of claim 1 , wherein the program code for providing control plane functionality for the switching domain comprised of the plurality of interconnected standalone packet-based switches enables the switching domain comprised of the cell-based switch fabric and plurality of cell-based switches to join, as a virtual standalone switch, the switching domain comprised of the plurality of interconnected standalone packet-based switches.

3. The switching domain of claim 2 , wherein the virtual standalone switch is a master switch and one or more of the standalone packet-based switches is a follower switch.

4. The switching domain of claim 2 , wherein the virtual standalone switch is a follower switch and one of the standalone packet-based switches is a master switch.

5. A method for centralizing control plane functionality for heterogeneous switching domains, the method comprising:

configuring a server device with logic for processing control packets for standalone switches of a first switching domain in accordance with a packet-based distributed fabric protocol and with logic for processing control packets for cell-based switches of a second switching domain in accordance with a protocol that is different from the packet-based distributed fabric protocol;

receiving, by a given one of the standalone switches, a control packet;

forwarding, by the given standalone switch, the control packet to a server device connected to a network port of a cell-based switch in the second switching domain;

processing, by the server device, the control packet in accordance with the packet-based distributed fabric protocol; and

joining, by the second switching domain, the first switching domain as a virtual standalone switch.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

generating, by the given standalone switch, a switch stack;

adding each standalone switch as a separate virtual slot to the switch stack; and

adding, by the given standalone switch, each cell-based switch in the second switching domain to the switch stack as a separate virtual slot.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising assuming, by the standalone packet-based switches, roles as follower switches while the second switching domain assumes a role of a master switch in the first switching domain.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising assuming, by one of the standalone packet-based switches, a role of a master switch in the first switching domain while the second switching domain assumes a role of a follower switch in the first switching domain.

9. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

receiving, by the given standalone switch, a management packet;

forwarding, by the given standalone switch, the management packet to the server device; and

processing, by the server device, the management packet in accordance with the distributed fabric protocol.

10. A method for centralizing control plane functionality for heterogeneous switching domains, the method comprising:

configuring a server device with logic for processing control packets for standalone switches of a first switching domain in accordance with a packet-based distributed fabric protocol and with logic for processing control packets for cell-based switches of a second switching domain in accordance with a protocol that is different from the packet-based distributed fabric protocol;

receiving, by a given one of the cell-based switches, a control packet;

forwarding, by the given cell-based switch, the control packet to the server device;

processing, by the server device, the control packet in accordance with the protocol that is different from the packet-based distributed fabric protocol; and

assuming, by the server device, a role as a master switch of the first switching domain with each of the standalone packet-based switches operating in a role of a follower switch.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising joining, by the second switching domain, the first switching domain as a virtual standalone switch.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

generating, by the server device, a switch stack;

adding, by the server device, each standalone packet-based switch to the switch stack as a separate virtual slot; and

adding, by the server device, each cell-based switch in the second switching domain to the switch stack as a separate virtual slot.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

receiving, by the given cell-based switch, a management packet;

forwarding, by the given cell-based switch, the management packet to the server device; and

processing, by the server device, the management packet in accordance with the protocol that is different from the packet-based distributed fabric protocol.

14. A switching domain comprising:

a distributed fabric comprised of a plurality of interconnected standalone packet-based switches, each standalone packet-based switch communicating with each other standalone packet-based switch in accordance with a packet-based distributed fabric protocol, at least one of the plurality of standalone packet-based switches being connected to a cell-based switch of a cell-based switching domain, each standalone packet-based switch being configured to forward management and control packets received by that standalone packet-based switch to the cell-based switch for subsequent forwarding to a server device for processing in accordance with the packet-based distributed fabric protocol, wherein a given one of the standalone switches assumes a role of a master switch and the cell-based switching domain assumes a role of a follower switch.

15. The switching domain of claim 14 , further comprising a virtual standalone switch comprised of the cell-based switching domain.

16. The switching domain of claim 14 , wherein a given one of the standalone switches generates a switch stack, adds each standalone switch as a separate virtual slot to the switch stack, and adds each cell-based switch in the cell-based switching domain as a separate virtual slot in the switch stack.

17. The switching domain of claim 14 , wherein each of the standalone switches assumes a role of a follower switch while the cell-based switching domain assumes a role of a master switch.