Method of data delivery across a network fabric in a router or Ethernet bridge

1. A method of data delivery across a network comprising a network fabric configured to provide interconnectivity to a plurality of Ethernet ports, the method comprising steps of:

receiving an Ethernet frame or packet at one of the plurality of Ethernet ports, the Ethernet frame or packet comprising an Ethernet Protocol Data Unit having Ethernet destination address information;

generating a Fabric Protocol Data Unit from the received Ethernet Protocol Data Unit, the Fabric Protocol Data Unit comprising a header portion and a payload portion, wherein the payload portion carries the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit, which includes the Ethernet destination address information, and the header portion comprises a destination descriptor for the network fabric derived from the Ethernet destination address which identifies the complete route across the network fabric, wherein while generating the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, one or more control tokens is added to the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, the one or more control tokens is used to provide information related to line flow control, to communicate Ethernet delivery acknowledgement, to fetch address translations, to verify fabric cabling and to exchange congestion information;

transmitting the Fabric Protocol Data Unit from an ingress network port of the network fabric to at least one egress network port of the network fabric using the destination descriptor and without extracting the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit wherein fabric comprises a plurality of switches, and wherein the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit is neither de-encapsulated or re-encapsulated by any of the switches;

at the at least one egress port, extracting the Ethernet frame or packet from the Fabric Protocol Data Unit; and

delivering the Ethernet frame or packet to an Ethernet device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network fabric further comprises a plurality of network ports and wherein during the step of transmitting the Fabric Protocol Data Unit the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit is neither de-encapsulated or re-encapsulated by any of the network ports.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein during the step of transmitting the Fabric Protocol Data Unit the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit is invisible to the switches of the network fabric.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein during the step of transmitting the Fabric Protocol Data Unit no part of the payload of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit is modified.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein each one of the network ports is allocated a destination number which is representative of the physical position of the network port on the network fabric whereby the Fabric Protocol Data Unit is transmitted across the network using algorithmic routing.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of Ethernet ports are programmable and adapted to support automatically both Ethernet Protocol Data Units and proprietary Fabric Protocol Data Units whereby during the step of receiving an Ethernet frame the Ethernet ports automatically interpret either protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of generating a Fabric Protocol Data Unit implements a new protocol layer additional to the protocol layers of the Open Systems Interconnect model for Ethernet networks.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the new protocol layer is stacked between the Physical Layer and the Data Link Layer of the Open Systems Interconnect model for Ethernet networks and provides for encapsulation of network layer Protocol Data Units and data link layer Protocol Data Units in the Fabric Protocol Data Unit.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of replacing or removing one or more control tokens previously inserted into a Fabric Protocol Data Unit.

10. The Method of claim 1 wherein extracting the Ethernet Frame comprises stripping the header from the Fabric Protocol Data Unit leaving the Ethernet Frame or Packet for delivery to the Ethernet Device.

11. An Ethernet bridge or router comprising:

a network fabric configured to provide interconnectivity to a plurality of Ethernet ports, each of the Ethernet ports being configured to receive and/or transmit Ethernet frames; wherein the Ethernet bridge or router further comprises software instructions for operating an encapsulator to generate a Fabric Protocol Data Unit from a received Ethernet Protocol Data Unit, the Fabric Protocol Data Unit comprising a header portion, and a payload portion which comprises the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit concerned, and wherein the encapsulator transforms Ethernet destination address information from the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit into a destination descriptor for the network fabric, and includes this destination descriptor in the header portion of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, and

wherein the encapulsator further inserts one or more control tokens to the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, the one or more control tokens used to provide information related to line flow control, to communicate Ethernet delivery acknowledgement, to fetch address translations, to verify fabric cabling and to exchange congestion information.

12. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 11 , wherein the encapsulator transforms Ethernet destination address information from the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit into the destination descriptor which defines a set of complete routes for the Fabric Protocol Data Unit through the network fabric, wherein the encapsulator further transmits the Fabric Protocol Data Units to the network fabric, such that the Fabric Protocol Data Unit is transmitted across the fabric to a selected Ethernet Port.

13. An Ethernet bridge or router, comprising:

a plurality of Ethernet ports, each of the Ethernet ports being adapted to receive and/or transmit Ethernet Protocol Data Units;

a network fabric configured to provide interconnectivity between the plurality of Ethernet ports, the network fabric having a plurality of switches and a plurality of network ports;

an encapsulator connected to receive the Ethernet Protocol Data Units from the Ethernet ports, the encapsulator generates a Fabric Protocol Data Unit from the received Ethernet Protocol Data Unit, the Fabric Protocol Data Unit comprising a header portion, and a payload portion which comprises the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit concerned, wherein the encapsulator further transforms Ethernet destination address information from the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit into a destination descriptor which defines a complete route for the Fabric Protocol Data Unit through the network fabric, wherein the network fabric is thus capable of receiving and/or transmitting the Fabric Protocol Data Unit directly through the network fabric to an egress network port using the destination descriptor, without de-encapsulation or re-encapsulation of the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit, wherein the encapsulator includes the destination descriptor in the header portion of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, and wherein the encapulsator inserts of one or more control tokens to the Fabric Protocol Data Unit, the one or more control tokens is used to provide information related to line flow control, to communicate Ethernet delivery acknowledgement, to fetch address translations, to verify fabric cabling and to exchange congestion information.

14. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 13 , wherein the Ethernet Protocol Data Unit of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit is invisible to the switches of the network fabric.

15. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 14 , wherein the network fabric is adapted so as not to modify any part of the payload of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit.

16. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 13 , wherein each of the network ports is allocated a destination number which is representative of the physical position of the network port on the network fabric thereby enabling algorithmic routing of the Fabric Protocol Data Unit across the network.

17. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of Ethernet ports are programmable and adapted to support automatically both Ethernet Protocol Data Units and proprietary Fabric Protocol Data Units, the ports automatically interpreting either protocol when it is received.

18. The Ethernet bridge or router of claim 13 , wherein the encapsulator implements a new protocol layer additional to the protocol layers of the Open Systems Interconnect model for Ethernet networks.

19. The Ethernet bridge or router as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the new protocol layer is stacked between the Physical Layer and the Data Link Layer of the Open Systems Interconnect model for Ethernet networks and provides for encapsulation of network layer Protocol Data Units and data link layer Protocol Data Units in the Fabric Protocol Data Unit.

20. The Bridge or Router of claim 13 wherein the header from the fabric Protocol Data Unit can be stripped to accommodate delivery of the Ethernet Protocol Data Units to the Ethernet port.