Cisco Technology, Inc.

Ann Roshini Paul

Ayan Banerjee

Srinivasan Ramabadran

Roshan Lal

Rishi Chhibber

Anand Kumar Singh

Padmanab Pathikonda

Rahul Savarapu Parameswaran

Nataraj Batchu

Chandrasekhar V Modumudi

In one illustrative example, an IP network media data router includes a spine and leaf switch architecture operative to provide IP multicast delivery of media data from source devices to receiver devices without the overhead communication with a controller. The architecture can include K spine switches, K sets of L leaf switches, M data links between each leaf switch, and a plurality of bidirectional data ports connected to each leaf switch for a guaranteed non-blocking IP multicast delivery of data. A deterministic hash function a used on both the first hop router and the last hop router to ensure the same spine node is selected for flow stitching. Accordingly, without the extra communication with a centralized controller, the right spine for establishing a multicast flow can be chosen using the deterministic hash function and the distributed resource information stored on each node.

Methods and apparatuses for non-blocking IP multicast delivery of media data in a multi-spine network

In one illustrative example, an IP network media data router includes a spine and leaf switch architecture operative to provide IP multicast delivery of media data from source devices to receiver devices. The architecture may include K spine switches, K sets of L leaf switches, M data links between each leaf switch and each spine switch where each data link has a maximum link bandwidth of BW, and a plurality of bidirectional data ports connected to each leaf switch. Notably, the router is provided or specified with a number of bidirectional data ports N=(a/K)&#xd7;(BW/BW) for a guaranteed non-blocking IP multicast delivery of data at a maximum port bandwidth of BW, where 'a' is a fixed constant greater than or equal to K. The architecture may be reconfigurable or expandable to include C additional spine switches and C additional sets of L leaf switches. The reconfiguration may provide for a redistribution or reconnection of the M data links, so that the new number of M data links between each leaf switch and each spine switch is M=(K&#xd7;M)/(K+C)=a/K. The reconfiguration provides a new maximum number of bidirectional data ports as N=(a/K)&#xd7;(BW/BW) for maintaining the non-blocking IP multicast delivery of data at a maximum port bandwidth of BW.

Methods and apparatus for non-blocking IP multicast delivery of media data using spine and leaf architectures

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Ann Roshini Paul