Cisco Technology, Inc.

Vmware, Inc.

Amit Surendra Singh

Alon Shlomo Bernstein

Aditya Gudipati

Deepak Srinivas Mayya

John T Chapman

Jan Medved

Giridhar Subramani Jayavelu

Lalit Kumar

Brian Patrick Bresnahan

Rajesh Amaresh Rajah

Fabio Giannetti

David Walker

Manjunath Sreedhara Bangalore

Khalil A Jabr

Narendra Jayawant Gathoo

Rakesh Misra

Rajesh L G

Raman Shankara Krishnan

Keith Burns

Prabandham Madan Gopal

Srividhya Nagarajan

Ranga Rajagopalan

Nick Satsia

Bhanushree Krishnamurthy

To provide a low latency near RT RIC, some embodiments separate the RIC's functions into several different components that operate on different machines (e.g., execute on VMs or Pods) operating on the same host computer or different host computers. Some embodiments also provide high speed interfaces between these machines. Some or all of these interfaces operate in non-blocking, lockless manner in order to ensure that critical near RT RIC operations (e.g., datapath processes) are not delayed due to multiple requests causing one or more components to stall. In addition, each of these RIC components also has an internal architecture that is designed to operate in a non-blocking manner so that no one process of a component can block the operation of another process of the component. All of these low latency features allow the near RT RIC to serve as a high speed IO between the E2 nodes and the xApps.

Data IO and service on different pods of a RIC

RIC and RIC framework communication

Datapath load distribution for a RIC

Separate IO and control threads on one datapath Pod of a RIC

Temporal transaction locality in a stateless environment may be provided. First, a current message having an identifier may be received. Next, it may be determined, based on the identifier, that the current message is associated with a transaction. Then, in response to determining that the current message is associated with the transaction, the current message may be sent to a target service instance corresponding to the transaction.

Temporal transaction locality in a stateless environment

Packet loss mitigation may be provided. First, queue control data may be sent to a first container and then a route may be stalled after sending the queue control data. The route may correspond to a data path that leads to the first container. Next, modified queue control data may be received from the first container and the first container may be deleted safely with empty queues, preventing packet loss in response to receiving the modified queue control data.

Packet loss mitigation in an elastic container-based network

An example system and method for facilitating virtual cable modem termination system (VCMTS) migration in cable modem network environments is provided and includes spawning, by an orchestration component executing using a processor, a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF) on a first server in a cable modem network, storing state of the first instance as state information in an external database, spawning a second instance of the VNF on a different second server, synchronizing state of the second instance with the state information stored in the external database, and deleting the first instance. In specific embodiments, the VNF comprises a VCMTS.

Virtual modem termination system migration in a cable modem network environment

An example system and method for facilitating virtual cable modem termination system VCMTS redundancy in cable modem network environments is provided and includes spawning a first instance of a virtual network function (VNF) on a first server in a cable modem network, spawning a second instance of the VNF on a different second server, configuring the second instance to be communicatively coupled to the first instance in a same subnet of the network, and synchronizing (e.g., copying, coordinating, matching, etc.) state between the first instance and the second instance. In specific embodiments, the VNF comprises a VCMTS.

Virtual cable modem termination system redundancy in a cable modem network environment

In an example embodiment, an apparatus with a first interface coupled to a local domain with routers that employ a redundant router protocol, such as Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) and/or Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), and a second interface coupled with a shared domain, such as Virtual Private LAN (Local Area Network) Service (VPLS), and virtual bridging logic coupled with the first and second interfaces. The virtual bridging logic performs packet snooping, filtering and/or provides a proxy service so that the routers employing the redundant router protocol are localized in the local domain, and avoids the routers employing the redundant router protocol from associating with other routers employing the redundant routing protocol that are in another local domain coupled with the shared domain.

Protocol for supporting gateways with redundant routers in a shared domain

Traffic between a first device and a second device across a plurality of communication lanes of a communication link is stalled. A first device side of the communication lane is powered-down on at least one of the plurality of communication lanes to deactivate the at least one communication lane. A power-down request is sent from the first device to the second device to power-down a second device-side of the at least one communication lane. Traffic between the first device and the second device is restarted over the active communication lanes.

Dynamic communication link scaling

An example system and method for multicast flow reordering in a network is provided and includes receiving a data packet at an egress of a node, the data packet associated with a descriptor including at least one parameter; determining the at least one parameter of the descriptor; and processing the data packet for reordering based on the determining of the at least on parameter of the descriptor.

Multicast flow reordering scheme

A number of ports are configured in a linecard in a network device as dedicated ports and a remaining number of ports as shared ports. A total bandwidth allocated to the dedicated ports is computed. It is determined that available bandwidth at a central crossbar is greater than the total bandwidth allocated to the dedicated ports. The total data sent the central crossbar is rate limited to less than the available bandwidth at the central crossbar. First data associated with the dedicated ports is scheduled to the central crossbar using a first priority. Second data associated with the shared ports is scheduled using a second priority. A shared port data is scheduled based on a ration of a bandwidth requirement for the shared port as a fraction of overall bandwidth requirement for the shared ports.

Managing crossbar oversubscription

In an example embodiment, there is disclosed herein an apparatus comprising an ingress interface, an egress interface, and a storm controller coupled to the ingress interface and the egress interface. The storm controller is operable to determine whether to forward packets for a traffic flow received at the ingress interface to the egress interface based on a rate over a time period. The storm controller forwards packets for the traffic flow while the rate exceeds a first threshold and is less than a second threshold while a predefined condition exits. The storm controller limits traffic for the traffic flow to the first threshold while the rate exceeds the first threshold and the predefined condition does not exist.

Adaptive storm control

A unified access control component (UACC) can maintain information relating to network access information and physical location information associated with respective users who may access a network that can include network resources (e.g., applications, information). The UACC can cross reference the network access information (e.g., user network access events, credentials, and policy) and physical location information (e.g., user physical access events, credentials, and policy) and can generate and enforce a unified network access policy based on network access information and physical location information associated with a particular user. After network access privileges have been granted to a user, the UACC can continue to monitor the user. The UACC can include a dynamic authentication component that can request a user re-authenticate if a change in the physical location and/or network access associated with the user is detected, such that a re-computation of network access privileges is desired.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Amit Surendra Singh