Cisco Technology, Inc.

Chris O'Rourke

Mark Albert

Louis F Menditto

Tzu-Ming Tsang

Pranav Kumar Tiwari

Robert Michael Batz

Richard A Howes

Edward A Kersey

James A Jordan

William Monte LeBlanc

Robert A Mackie

Walter Glenn Dixon

Ashish A Chandwadkar

Jayaraman R Iyer

Jacob Mark McGuire

Richard Gray

Barron Cornelius Housel, Iii

Bruce F Wong

Thomas R Bakita

Humberto M Tavares

Kevin Shatzkamer

Pranav Tiwari

Gaurang Shah

John G White

Michael Sutton

Keith Richard Schomburg

Frank W Pittenger

Mark Grayson

Alpesh S Patel

Dwight Rodney Frye, Jr

Steven C Klein

Anand K Oswal

Biswaranjan Panda

Sean W Hull

Kent Kinchu Leung

Timothy Peter Stammers

Udayakumar Srinivasan

Bhaskar Bhupalam

Richard Mandfred Pruss

Edward Curt Kersey

Eric Philippe Hamel

Laurent Andriantsiferana

Marco Cesare Centemeri

Robert M Broberg

Nathan Allen Mitchell

Rafael Mantilla Montalvo

Wayne Roiger

Rabih A Dabboussi

Weimin Ma

John M Glotzer

Wai-tak Siu

Ravishankar Chandrasekaran

Haihong Zhu

Ethan M Young

James A Jordon

Franklin Jones

James C Balquist

Dwight R Frye

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving one or more packets of a communication session from one or more interfaces, such that the interface is a subscriber interface or a network interface. The method further includes associating the communication session to an end user with a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the packet if the packet is received from the subscriber interface or to an end user with a destination IP address of the packet if the packet is received from the network interface.

System and method for associating an end user for billing in a network environment

Methods and apparatus for providing availability information of a virtual machine to a load balancer are disclosed. The availability information of the virtual machine may be normalized information from performance metrics of the virtual machine and performance metrics of the physical machine on which the virtual machine operates. The normalized availability of a virtual machine is provided by a feedback agent executing on the virtual machine. Alternatively, the normalized availability of a virtual machine is provided by a feedback agent executing on a hypervisor executing multiple virtual machines on a common set of physical computing hardware.

Server load balancing based on virtual utilization, physical utilization, and feedback

According to one embodiment, availability information describing virtual machines running on physical machines is accessed. The availability information associates each virtual machine with a physical resource used by the virtual machine. Use by the virtual machines is determined from the availability information. Availability of the physical resources is determined according to the use. Server load is balanced according to the availability of the physical resources. According to another embodiment, the following is performed until a load is accommodated: selecting a server having a load that is less than an expansion threshold; loading the server until the expansion threshold is reached; selecting a next server having a load that is less than a next expansion threshold; and loading the next server until the next expansion threshold is reached. Load of a low load server is determined to be below a contraction threshold, and the low load server is drained.

Balancing server load according to availability of physical resources based on the detection of out-of-sequence packets

In one embodiment, a method for providing an ACK packet while queuing data is provided. One or more packets in a series of packets may be received from a client at a gateway. The gateway determines that a packet in the series of packets has not been received. The one or more packets are then queued. The queued packets may have included an ACK for one or more previously sent packets. Thus, if the gateway had forwarded the one or more packets that are queued, then the ACK would have been received by the server. However, the one or more packets are queued and thus the ACK included in the packets is not sent with the queued packets. Even though the plurality of packets are queued, an acknowledgement packet is generated and then sent for the previously sent packets. The acknowledgement packet acknowledges to the server that the one or more previously sent packets were received by the client. The server may then continue transmitting packets to the client and knows it does not need to retransmit the one or more previously sent packets.

Allowing TCP ACK to pass a gateway while queuing data for parsing

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a first congestion message associated with traffic congestion in a signaling system seven (SS7) a network, the first congestion message being associated with a first timer. The method also includes receiving a second congestion message after the first timer has expired and before a second timer has expired. The method further includes communicating a portion of traffic, which was originally intended for a first destination, to a second destination in the network based on receiving the second congestion message. The method can further include recovering and returning to an initial state.

System and method for using feedback to manage congestion in a network environment

A system for facilitating persistent communications between entities in a network. In a specific embodiment, the system is adapted to facilitate fast reauthentication of a client performed by a server, such as an Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) server, that is coupled to the client via a load balancer. The system includes a first message to be exchanged between the server and the client, wherein the first message includes a field identifying the server and/or the client. A matching module communicates with or is otherwise incorporated within the load balancer. The matching module includes one or more routines for employing the field to selectively route the first message to the client and/or server. In a more specific embodiment, the server a fast reauthentication module adapted to append the field in the message. The field includes sub-realm information identifying the server.

System and method for ensuring persistent communications between a client and an authentication server

A method for communicating in a loadbalancing environment is provided that in a particular embodiment includes receiving a request packet from a network access server (NAS) to initiate a communication session. The request packet is then communicated to a tunneling protocol network server (TPNS) and a response packet is received in response to the request packet. The response packet establishes a tunnel that facilitates the communication session and that includes an identification element associated with the TPNS such that a data transfer associated with the communication session is executed between the NAS and the TPNS.

System and method for communicating in a loadbalancing environment

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a packet at a network processor, and determining the packet is to be directed to a selected one of a plurality of traffic processors if a tunnel endpoint identifier of the packet is associated with a subscriber terminal. The method further includes determining that the packet is to be directed to the selected one of the plurality of traffic processors if a destination address of the packet is associated with the subscriber terminal. The method still further includes distributing the packet to the selected one of the plurality of traffic processors.

System and method for providing single IP tunnel

A method for billing end users in a peer-to-peer transaction in a network environment is provided that includes a client services packet gateway operable to communicate with a first end user and a second end user in order to facilitate the peer-to-peer transaction and a flow manager element operable to receive one or more packets of the peer-to-peer transaction from one or more interfaces, such that the interface is a subscriber interface or a network interface. The flow manager is further operable to associate a first session object with the first user and associate a second session object with the second user.

System and method for billing end users in a peer-to-peer transaction in a network environment

A method for distributing information in a network environment is provided that includes receiving one or more packets from a communication flow initiated by an end user and selectively communicating information associated with the communication flow to a network element so that the network element may correlate a source with the communication flow.

System and method for distributing information in a network environment

In accordance with one embodiment, a method includes creating a first session object by a first traffic processor of a first network element operating in an active mode, the first session object being associated with a communication session between an end user terminal and an information provider. The method further includes sending a state synchronization message associated with the first session object from the first traffic processor. The state synchronization message includes a transport layer address associated with a second traffic processor of a second network element operating in a standby mode. The state synchronization message is adapted to be received by the second traffic processor and cause the second traffic processor to create a second session object, the second session object tracking the communication session between the end user terminal and the information provider.

System and method for providing unified IP presence

Resolving a Layer 3 address includes maintaining an address resolution table at each slave processor of a number of slave processors. The slave processors have a master processor, and the master processor and the slave processors are associated with a unified address. An address resolution table includes one or more Layer 2-Layer 3 address mappings. An address resolution request requesting a Layer 2 address corresponding to a Layer 3 address is sent from a slave processor. The address resolution request uses the unified address. An address resolution response comprising the Layer 2 address is received at the master processor. The master processor sends the response to the slaves.

Resolving a layer 3 address in a processor system with a unified IP presence

In one embodiment, a method for providing correlation of billing entries for a mobile communications network is provided. A correlating network element in a bearer path determines a plurality of billing entries for a flow. One or more of the billing entries may be received from other network elements and includes traffic altering information for a flow. The correlating network element correlates the plurality of billing entries using state information included in the billing entries. The state information is used to determine information in billing entries that may be related, such as billing entries for a single flow. Also, the correlating network element uses the traffic altering information to determine a data volume sent for the flow. A correlated billing entry may then be generated using the data volume for the flow. The correlated billing entry is then sent to a billing system from the correlating network element. Billing entries are not sent from other network elements that may be generating billing entries in a link to the billing system.

Correlation of billing information by a network element

A method for providing single point-of-presence for a network element includes receiving a packet at a network processor, determining if the packet is to be directed to a particular one of a plurality of traffic processors if a source address of the packet is associated with a subscriber terminal, and determining if the packet is to be directed to the particular one of the plurality of traffic processors if a destination address of the packet is associated with the subscriber terminal. The method further includes distributing the packet to the particular one of the plurality of traffic processors.

Providing single point-of-presence across multiple processors

Growing community of inventors

Apex, NC, United States of America

Chris O'Rourke