Juniper Networks, Inc.

Chi-Chung Kenny Chen

Dennis C Ferguson

Philippe Lacroute

Gerald Cheung

Pankaj Patel

Tatao Chuang

Pradeep S Sindhu

Thomas Michael Skibo

Avanindra Godbole

Debashis Basu

Jeffrey Glenn Libby

Raymond Lim

Jean-Marc Frailong

Jayabharat Boddu

Srihari Raju Vegesna

Philip A Thomas

Anurag P Gupta

Sreeram Veeragandham

David James Ofelt

Rami Rahim

Song Zhang

Sarin Thomas

Chang-Hong Wu

Jorge Cruz-Rios

Jeffrey R Zimmer

Viswesh Ananthakrishnan

Jia-Chang Wang

Srihari Shoroff

Viswesh Anathakrishnan

Dennis Fersuson

Visweh Ananthakrishnan

A network device includes multiple packet processing engines implemented in parallel with one another. A spraying component distributes incoming packets to the packet processing engines using a spraying technique that load balances the packet processing engines. In particular, the spraying component distributes the incoming packets based on queue lengths associated with the packet processing engines and based on a random component. In one implementation, the random component is a random selection from all the candidate processing engines. In another implementation, the random component is a weighted random selection in which the weights are inversely proportional to the queue lengths.

Packet spraying for load balancing across multiple packet processors

In one embodiment, a method can include receiving at an egress schedule module a request to schedule transmission of a group of cells from an ingress queue through a switch fabric of a multi-stage switch. The ingress queue can be associated with an ingress stage of the multi-stage switch. The egress schedule module can be associated with an egress stage of the multi-stage switch. The method can also include determining, in response to the request, that an egress port at the egress stage of the multi-stage switch is available to transmit the group of cells from the multi-stage switch.

Methods and apparatus for transmission of groups of cells via a switch fabric

Ordering logic ensures that data items being processed by a number of parallel processing units are unloaded from the processing units in the original per-flow order that the data items were loaded into the parallel processing units. The ordering logic includes a pointer memory, a tail vector, and a head vector. Through these three elements, the ordering logic keeps track of a number of 'virtual queues' corresponding to the data flows. A round robin arbiter unloads data items from the processing units only when a data item is at the head of its virtual queue.

Maintaining packet order using hash-based linked-list queues

A network device constructs a notification corresponding to a received multicast data unit, where the notification includes administrative data associated with the multicast data unit that does not include a payload of the multicast data unit. The network device replicates the notification at least three different processing elements at different locations in a processing path of the network device to produce multiple replicated data items and produces a copy of the multicast data unit for each of replicated notifications. The network device forwards each copy of the multicast data unit towards a multicast destination.

Systems and methods for efficient multicast handling

A packet scheduler is configured to perform quality of service (QoS) scheduling on a per-data unit basis. A downstream processing engine is operatively connected to the packet scheduler for receiving forwarded packets. A feedback path is operatively connected between the downstream processing engine and the packet scheduler for transmitting a net data unit change value reflecting a change in packet size between an output of the packet scheduler and an output of the downstream processing engine.

Systems and methods for improving packet scheduling accuracy

A network device includes an interface and packet processing logic. The interface receives a multicast packet. The packet processing logic determines identifier data corresponding to the received multicast packet and replicates the identifier data to multiple outgoing packet forward engines at a first point in a processing path. The packet processing logic further replicates the identifier data to multiple data streams at a second point in the processing path and replicates the identifier data to multiple logical interfaces in the same stream at a third point in the processing path.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Chi-Chung Kenny Chen