International Business Machines Corporation

Brahmanand Kumar Gorti

Claude Basso

Colin Beaton Verrilli

Michael Steven Siegel

Clark Debs Jeffries

Natarajan Vaidhyanathan

Marco C Heddes

Philippe Damon

Andreas Kind

Bernard Metzler

Laurent Frelechoux

Jean Louis Calvignac

Joseph Franklin Logan

Anthony Matteo Gallo

Cedell Adam Alexander, Jr

Everett Arthur Corl, Jr

Donald N Jones

Bay Van Nguyen

Francis Arts

Peter I A Barri

Johan G A Verkinderen

Brian Mitchell Bass

John T Lloyd

Matthew B Squire

Dongming Hwang

Sonia Kiang Rovner

Gary Roy Shippy

Metin Aydemir

Russell Eugene Gardo

Matthew T Belanger

Richard John Blasiak

Olivier Didier Duroyon

Kartik Sudeep

Olen Lee Stokes, Jr

Natarajan Valdhyanathan

Yonas Araya

Bay V Nguygen

Clark Debs Jefferies

A method, computer program product and system for processing TCP/IP packets. A TCP protocol stack may store a payload of a received TCP/IP packet in a data fragment list. The TCP protocol stack may further read the header of the received packet to extract a value used to index into a table storing a list of transport control blocks (TCBs). The TCP protocol stack may further perform a lock and a read operation on the TCB indexed in the table. The TCP protocol stack may further transmit the payload to the TCP application without requiring the application to perform a lock, read, write or unlock operation on the indexed TCB since the TCP protocol stack and the TCP application are operating on the same thread. By the TCP application foregoing the lock, read, write and unlock operations on the TCB, there is a reduction in the number of memory accesses.

Reducing memory accesses in processing TCP/IP packets

A method and system for transmitting packets in a packet switching network. Packets received by a packet processor may be prioritized based on the urgency to process them. Packets that are urgent to be processed may be referred to as real-time packets. Packets that are not urgent to be processed may be referred to as non-real-time packets. Real-time packets have a higher priority to be processed than non-real-time packets. A real-time packet may either be discarded or transmitted into a real-time queue based upon its value priority, the minimum and maximum rates for that value priority and the current real-time queue congestion conditions. A non-real-time packet may either be discarded or transmitted into a non-real-time queue based upon its value priority, the minimum and maximum rates for that value priority and the current real-time and non-real-time queue congestion conditions.

Priority based bandwidth allocation within real-time and non-real-time traffic streams

Steering data communications packets for transparent, bump-in-the-wire processing among multiple data processing applications in a link-level data communications switch, the switch including data communications ports, a port connected to a first data communications network and another port connected to a second data communications network, other ports connected to the data processing applications, the switch also including rules governing the steering, including receiving in the switch from the first network data communications packets directed to the second network, each packet containing a source network address and a destination network address and steering by the switch each packet among the applications and through an egress port, such steering carried out only in accordance with the rules, using neither the source network address of the packet, the destination network address of the packet, nor any link-level identifier of any application.

Steering data communications packets for transparent bump-in-the-wire processing among multiple data processing applications

Priority based bandwidth allocation within real-time and non-real time traffic streams

A wire-speed forwarding platform and method for supporting multifield classification of a packet fragmented into a plurality of fragments in the wire-speed forwarding platform, comprising: receiving a fragment of the fragmented packet at the forwarding platform and deriving a key from one or more fields of the received fragment; and performing multifield classification of the received fragment by matching the key to a rule out of a plurality of rules, the rule comprising a plurality of fields including at least one field for specifying whether the received fragment's fragmentation characteristics are to be applied when performing the multifield classification.

Classification support system and method for fragmented IP packets

Packet switching node in a communication system includes apparatus for receiving incoming information packets or frames which contain header portions with formatting control blocks. Information in the frame's header contains frame alteration commands for modifying the information in the frame. The modifications include adding new information, deleting information, and overlaying information. Decoders and control devices in an alteration engine interpret the commands and apply the modifications to the frame data. Common and standard data patterns are stored for insertion or overlaying to conserve data packet space.

Frame alteration logic for network processors

A method, system and computer program product for translating a type of service field of one protocol into multiple protocols. An ingress router in a DIFFerentiated SERVices network (Diffserv over MPLS network) may determine a type of quality of service, e.g., forward IP packet using best effort. A value referred to as a Per Hope Behavior (PHB) value may be generated based on the identified type of quality of service. The PHB value may be used to index into a table comprising a row of entries with different quality of service values, e.g., DSCP value, EXP value, corresponding to a particular PHB value. Consequently, the PHB value may be used to perform a single memory access to determine the quality of service values for a plurality of protocols where the quality of service values corresponds to the identified type of quality of service.

Minimizing memory accesses for a network implementing differential services over multi-protocol label switching

A system and method for transmitting data from a first site to a second site over a shared Multi-Protocol Label Switched (MPLS) network comprising a plurality of routers, including an ingress router in communication with the first site and an egress router in communication with the second site, includes configuring a plurality of label switching paths between the ingress router and the egress router over a plurality of label switching devices. The method further includes performing a first lookup on one of at least one virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) table stored in the ingress router, whereby the first lookup identifies one routing table from a plurality of routing tables stored in the ingress router, each routing table being associated with one of the plurality of label switched paths, and performing a second lookup on the one routing table, wherein the routing table defines the associated label switched path between the ingress router and the egress router for a virtual private network (VPN) between the first site and the second site.

Method and system for supporting a dedicated label switched path for a virtual private network over a label switched communication network

System and method for maintenance and examination of timers for a computer system having connections in a networking system. Timer values in a connection table each indicate a timeout for a timer for a connection, where each connection has multiple timers, and one of the timer values is written to a global timer array for each connection such that the global timer array can be scanned to determine when timeouts occur for active connections. Sparse restart of a timer includes restarting the timer if data is communicated with a connected computer before the timeout occurs and after a predetermined time interval after timer start, and not restarting the timer if data is communicated before the timeout occurs and within the predetermined interval after timer start.

Method and system for maintaining and examining timers for network connections

A controllable mechanism for by-passing Layer 4 (L4) classification is based on the insertion into a set of Layer 3 (L3) rules in an L3 lookup tree set of Layer 4 (L4) Classification Required Flags. The state of the L4 classification flag is set by comparing the L4 classification rule to an IP (Internet Protocol) lookup rule. Routing is accomplished by selecting which rule to apply to the data packet and reading the state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag. In response to a first state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag, an L4 classification is performed followed by a routing of the data packet. In response to a second state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag performing a routing of said data packet. In a second embodiment, the method inserts into a set of L3 rules in L3 lookup means a set L4 Classification Required Flags and Global Flags. A first state of the L4 Classification Required Flag is set when a new rule is added to L4 classification means, the new rule being correlatable to a single entry in L3 lookup means. Routing is accomplished by selecting which rule to apply to the data packet and reading the state of the corresponding L4 classification required flag. In response to a first state of the corresponding L4 classification flag, a L4 classification is performed followed by a routing of the data packet. In response to a second state of the corresponding L4 classification flag, the state of the Global Flag is read, and in response to a first state of the Global flag, a L4 classification is performed followed by a routing of the data packet. In response to a second state of the Global Flag, the data packet is routed.

Algorithm to bypass L4 processing in an internet protocol forwarding processor

A method for dynamically adjusting the flow rate of a plurality of logical pipes that share a common output queue. In accordance with the method of the present invention, a minimum flow rate and a maximum flow rate are set for each of the pipes. Next a determination is made of whether or not excess queue bandwidth exists in accordance with the output flow rate of the shared queue. The determination of whether or not excess bandwidth exists comprises comparing the output flow rate of the shared queue with a pre-determined threshold queue output value. An instantaneous excess bandwidth signal has a value of 1 if there is excess bandwidth and is otherwise 0 if there is no excess bandwidth. In an alternate embodiment, the instantaneous excess bandwidth signal for a particular pipe is logically ANDed with one or more additional excess bandwidth signals to form a composite instantaneous excess bandwidth signal. In response to the existence of excess queue bandwidth, a flow rate of a pipe is linearly increased while in response to a lack of excess queue bandwidth, the flow rate of the pipe is exponentially decreased.

Bandwidth allocation in accordance with shared queue output limit

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Brahmanand Kumar Gorti