International Business Machines Corporation

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation

Extreme Networks, Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Buzzcore Limited Liability Company

Cedell Adam Alexander, Jr

Matthew B Squire

Edward Joel Rovner

Jim Guichard

John Kevin Frick

David Delano Ward

Loren Douglas Larsen

Deepak Vig

John T Lloyd

Carlos M Pignataro

Brahmanand Kumar Gorti

Christopher Metz

Jimmy Philip Ervin

Jim Philip Ervin

Charles Allen Carriker

Richard Colbert Matlack, Jr

Arush Kumar

Olen Lee Stokes, Jr

Clarence Filsfils

Colin Beaton Verrilli

Donald Bruce Grosser, Jr

Jeffrey James Lynch

Sonia Kiang Rovner

Doron Oz

Timothy James Smith

Rama Mohan Yedavalli

Russell Eugene Gardo

Hood L Richardson, Jr

Charles Frederick Burton, Iii

Keith E Karlsson

Brian Lance Hiltscher

Rajesh Ishwariah Balay

Mark Alan Tippens

Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node to an application node for applying one or more Layer-4 to Layer-7 services to the packets, with service-applied packets being returned to the service node. An identification of a virtual private network (VPN) may be carried within a request packet, encapsulating a particular packet, sent by a service node to an application node for applying a service to the particular packet; with the corresponding response packet sent to the service node including an identification of the VPN for use by the service node in forwarding the services-applied packet. Additionally, parameters may be included in a request packet to identify a particular service of a general service to be applied to a particular packet encapsulated in the request packet.

Service node using services applied by an application node

Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node to an application node for applying one or more Layer-4 to Layer-7 services to the packets, with service-applied packets being returned to the service node. An identification of a virtual private network (VPN) may be carried within a request packet, encapsulating a particular packet, sent by a service node to an application node for applying a service to the particular packet; with the corresponding response packet sent to the service node including an identification of the VPN for use by the service node node in forwarding the services-applied packet. Additionally, parameters may be included in a request packet to identify a particular service of a general service to be applied to a particular packet encapsulated in the request packet.

An application node advertises service(s), using a routing protocol, that it offers to other network nodes. For example, the routing protocol used to advertise service(s) in a Service Provider Network is typically an link-state, Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), such as, but not limited to, Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) or Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node (e.g., packet switching device) using one or more advertised services applied to a packet by an application node (e.g., a packet switching device and/or computing platform such as a Cisco ASR 1000).

Discovery of services provided by application nodes in a network

An application node advertises service(s), using a label distribution protocol, that it offers to other network nodes and a corresponding label to use to identify these services(s). For example, a Targeted Label Distribution Protocol (tLDP) session may be established between a packet switching device and the application node providing these services to communicate the advertisement. Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node (e.g., packet switching device) with the corresponding label to have one or more advertised services applied to the packet by an application node (e.g., a packet switching device and/or computing platform such as a Cisco ASR 1000).

Label distribution protocol advertisement of services provided by application nodes

Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node to one or more application nodes for applying one or more Layer-4 to Layer-7 services to the packets. Before which for a packet, the service node performs a lookup operation based on a destination address of the packet in a routing data structure derived from a exterior network protocol, such as, but not limited to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). This lookup operation results in the identification of a next hop packet switching device to which the packet would be sent from the service node. The service node includes this identification of the next hop address in the request packet sent to the application node(s). After the service(s) are applied to the packet, an application node will send the services-applied packet to this next hop address. In this manner, application nodes do not need to run an exterior network protocol. Although, they typically will run an Interior Gateway Protocol for identifying how to forward packets to the next hop address.

Service request packet including an exterior network protocol attribute

Packets are encapsulated and sent from a service node (e.g., packet switching device) using one or more services applied to a packet by an application node (e.g., a packet switching device and/or computing platform such as a Cisco ASR 1000) to generate a result, which is used by the service node to process packets of a flow of packets to which the packet belonged. An example of a service applied to a packet is a classification service, such as, but not limited to, using deep packet inspection on the packet to identify a classification result. The service node can, for example, use this classification result to process other packets in a same packet flow, such that all packets of a flow do not need to be, nor typically are, sent to an application node for processing.

Packet switching device using results determined by an application node

The solution to the shortest path between a source node and multiple destination nodes is accelerated using a grouping of nodes, where the nodes are grouped based on distance from the source node, and a corresponding set of memory locations that indicate when a group includes one or more nodes. The memory locations can be quickly searched to determine the group that represents the shortest distance from the source node and that includes one or more nodes. Nodes may be grouped into additional groupings that do not correspond to the set of memory locations, when the distance from the source node to the nodes exceeds the range of memory locations. Advantageously, the disclosed system and method provide the ability to reach asymptotically optimal performance.

Method of accelerating the shortest path problem

An integrated circuit has a hardware decoder that parses a frame to identify a type of encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a number of hardware parsers, each parser being coupled to the decoder by an enable line. During packet processing, one of the parsers is enabled by the decoder, based on the value which identifies the encapsulation type. The enabled parser retrieves one or more attributes from the frame, depending on the encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a register, coupled to each parser. The register holds the attributes retrieved by the parser. The integrated circuit also has a key generation hardware which creates a key, by concatenating from the attributes register, certain attributes that are pre-selected by a user for forming the key. The integrated circuit supplies the key to a memory to look up a set of user-specified actions to be performed on data in the frame.

User-specified key creation from attributes independent of encapsulation type

An apparatus and method to provide a portable networking interface for distributed switching systems. Two Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are defined for communication to a Forwarding Database Distribution Library (FDDL). The FDDL sits between network client applications and the switch device driver in order to provide a uniform interface to the switch device driver. Towers may be added to the FDDL to provide additional functionality specific to certain client applications.

Portable networking interface method and apparatus for distributed switching system

An integrated circuit has a hardware decoder that parses a frame to identify a type of encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a number of hardware parsers, each parser being coupled to the decoder by an enable line. During packet processing, one of the parsers is enabled by the decoder, based on the value which identifies the encapsulation type. The enabled parser retrieves one or more attributes from the frame, depending on the encapsulation. The integrated circuit also has a register, coupled to each parser, to hold the attributes. The integrated circuit also has a key generation hardware which creates a key, by concatenating from the attributes register, certain attributes that are pre-selected by a user for forming the key. The integrated circuit uses the key to look up in memory a set of user-specified actions that are then performed on data in the frame.

An interface method to provide a portable networking interface for distributed switching systems. Two Application Program Interfaces (APIs) are defined for communication to a Forwarding Database Distribution Library (FDDL). The FDDL sits between network client applications and the switch device driver in order to provide a uniform interface to the switch device driver. Towers may be added to the FDDL to provide additional functionality specific to certain client applications.

Portable networking interface method for distributed switching system

Accelerating the shortest path problem

Methods and systems for providing redundant network connectivity across a network using a tunneling protocol by dynamically moving a TLS tunnel between master and slave switches based on relative connectivity provided by the switches are disclosed. A standby routing protocol executes on the master and slave switches to monitor the relative connectivity. In response to detecting that the relative connectivity of the slave switch exceeds that of the master switch, the standby routing protocol reverses the roles of the master and slave switches, thus moving the TLS tunnel to the new master switch.

Methods and systems for providing redundant connectivity across a network using a tunneling protocol

Growing community of inventors

Durham, NC, United States of America

Cedell Adam Alexander, Jr