Michael B O'Sullivan

US Patent:

7502839, Mar 10, 2009

Filed:

Sep 28, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/968437

Inventors:

Michael Justin O'Sullivan - Stanford CA, US
Troy Alexander Shahoumian - Sunnyvale CA, US
Julie Ann Ward - Menlo Park CA, US

Assignee:

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - Houston TX

International Classification:

G06F 15/177

US Classification:

709220

Abstract:

Disclosed is a method for designing a network with a given set of network flow requirements, each flow requirement having a source, a destination and a bandwidth. The method comprises the steps of assigning each flow to a port on its associated source and destination, determining the partition of source and destination ports into port groups which are disjoint sets, and generating network modules to support the assignment of flows by using an appropriate interconnected combination of links, hubs and switches. The design of the module accounts for the relative costs of the links, hubs and switches and finds the allocation and subsequent module design that produces a cost effective interconnection fabric that supports all flow requirements.