International Business Machines Corporation

Lenovo (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

3com Corporation

3 Com Corporation

Dar-Ren Leu

Keshav G Kamble

Vijoy A Pandey

Dayavanti G Kamath

Sushma Anantharam

Nandakumar Peethambaram

Nilanjan Mukherjee

Chandarani J Mendon

Nirapada Ghosh

Alexander Philip Campbell

Bhalachandra G Banavalikar

Jayakrishna Kidambi

Stephan Benny

Deepak Kumar

David Iles

Vipin K Garg

Ethan M Spiegel

Chidambaram Bhagavathiperumal

Uday Shankar Nagaraj

Santosh Rajagopalan

Daljeet Singh

Ashok N Chippa

James A Maples

Robert E Zagst, Jr

Amitabha Biswas

Wing Cheong Chau

Atul A Tambe

Tsyr-Shya Joe Sun

Tienwei Chao

Ioana M Costea

Immanuel Rahardja

Sze W Lao

Sreenath Bandari

Dayavanti G Karnath

Nilanjan Mukharjee

Tien-Wei Chao

Reassembly of member cells into a packet comprises receiving an incoming member cell of a packet from a switching fabric wherein each member cell comprises a segment of the packet and a header, generating a reassembly key using selected information from the incoming member cell header wherein the selected information is the same for all member cells of the packet, checking a reassembly table in a content addressable memory to find an entry that includes a logic key matching the reassembly key, and using a content index in the found entry and a sequence number of the incoming member cell within the packet, to determine a location offset in a reassembly buffer area for storing the incoming member cell at said location offset in the reassembly buffer area for the packet for reassembly.

Segmentation and reassembly of network packets for switched fabric networks

A distributed device architecture includes a master device and one or more member devices. A simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent of a master device receives an SNMP request from a managing device. Where the SNMP request pertains to a given member device, and where the SNMP request requires involvement of the given member device to fulfill the SNMP request, the master device generates a non-SNMP request corresponding to the SNMP request and transmits the non-SNMP request to the given member device. A non-SNMP agent of the given member device processes the non-SNMP request and transmits processing results back to the master device. The master device generates an SNMP response corresponding to the processing results, and the SNMP agent of the master device transmits the SNMP response back to the managing device.

SNMP request processing within distributed device architecture

A tool for partitioning a switch into one or more logical switches in a distributed system. The tool creates, by one or more computer processors, one or more logical switch routers, based, at least in part, on a user configuration. The tool assigns, by one or more computer processors, based, at least in part, on a user configuration, one or more ports to the one or more logical switch routers. The tool manages, by one or more computer processors, the one or more logical switch routers.

Logical switch architecture for network virtualization

A tool for assigning virtual port channels to one or more logical switch routers in a distributed system. The tool receives, by one or more computer processors, a request to assign a virtual port channel to a second logical switch router. The tool sends, by one or more computer processors, a request to negotiate a link-down on the channel on a first logical switch router to a universal fiber port on the first logical switch router for processing. The tool sends, by one or more computer processors, a request to create the channel on the second logical switch router to a second interface manager on the second logical switch router for processing. The tool sends, by one or more computer processors, a request to negotiate a link up on the channel on the second logical switch router to the universal fiber port on the first logical switch router for processing.

Virtual port support in a logical switch architecture

In one embodiment, a system includes at least one processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the at least one processor, the logic being configured to receive, by the at least one processor, a request to assign a media access control (MAC) address to a device on a port, determine, by the at least one processor, the MAC address to assign to the device based at least partially on the port, and send, by the at least one processor, a response to the request with the MAC address. According to a further embodiment, the logic may be configured to create a MAC address allocation table that includes a plurality of hash values, each hash value being associated with one port and a plurality of MAC addresses, wherein the assigned MAC address is one of the MAC addresses associated with the port in the MAC address allocation table.

Layer 2 packet switching without look-up table for Ethernet switches

A distributed system includes first-tier entities, and a master entity in communication with each first-tier entity. The master entity provides a single access point through which an administrator can submit commands to manage all entities. The master entity maintains a table of virtual slots. Each virtual slot points to one of the first-tier entities, and each first-tier entity is pointed to by at least one virtual slot. The processor runs an RPC (remote procedure call) client to submit RPC requests to the first-tier entities, and determines a destination first-tier entity for a given RPC request in response to which virtual slot the administrator submits a command. The distributed system can include second-tier entities, each indirectly communicating with the master entity through a first-tier entity. The table has a virtual slot for each second-tier entity, which points to the first-tier entity acting as proxy for the second-tier entity.

Remote procedure call for a distributed system

A tool for supporting load distribution across one or more logical switch routers in a distributed system. The tool includes a first software module configurable to launch and monitor one or more application processes within the one or more logical switch routers in the distributed system. The tool includes a second software module configurable to manage a plurality of system information for the one or more logical switch routers in the distributed system. The tool includes a third software module configurable to control and manage a plurality of system resources in the distributed system. The tool includes a fourth software module configurable to control and manage a plurality of physical ports and a plurality of virtual ports in the distributed system. The tool includes a fifth software module configurable to manage a plurality of load distribution policies for the one or more logical switch routers in the distributed system.

Load distribution of logical switch routers in a distributed system

According to one embodiment, a system includes at least one switching distributed line card (DLC) configured to apply Access Control Lists (ACLs) on each switching interface of the at least one switching DLC to direct certain received packets to at least one appliance DLC to have deep packet inspection services performed on the certain received packets, and at least one central switch fabric coupler (SFC) in communication with the at least one switching DLC, where the at least one appliance DLC and the at least one switching DLC are connected to the at least one central SFC. Other systems, methods and computer program products for providing scalable virtual appliance cloud (SVAC) services are described in more embodiments.

Scalable virtual appliance cloud (SVAC) and methods usable in an SVAC

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving network traffic, determining whether packets have an overlay header, terminating a tunnel and de-encapsulating inner packets of packets having an overlay header, performing services on the inner packets in response to a determination that services are to be performed on the inner packets, originating a tunnel, encapsulating a first packet of the serviced inner packets with an overlay header, and switching the encapsulated serviced inner packets to a destination address in a virtual network in response to determining that the first packet is to be switched to the destination address in the virtual network, and switching a second packet of the serviced inner packets to a destination address in a non-virtual network without encapsulating the serviced inner packets with the overlay header in response to a determination that the second packet is to be switched to the destination address in the non-virtual network.

Providing services to virtual overlay network traffic

According to one embodiment, a method includes performing functionality of a management plane and a control plane for a switch system using a processor of an external host coupled to the switch system via one or more peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) ports. The method also includes providing a direct memory access (DMA) facility between the external host and switching logic of the switch system. The switch system includes a PCIe interface block coupled to PCIe ports configured to couple to external PCIe devices. Also, the PCIe interface block includes logic configured to provide DMA for each PCIe lane thereof. The switch system also includes multiple switched Ethernet ports configured to couple to one or more external Ethernet devices and switching logic configured to switch between the multiple switched Ethernet ports and the PCIe ports using DMA and a local processor coupled to the PCIe interface block.

Pass-through converged network adaptor (CNA) using existing ethernet switching device

In one embodiment, a networking system includes a physical switch and a scalable and distributed virtual control plane. The switch is adapted to receive a first packet, classify the first packet to produce a packet classification, generate a second packet based on the first packet, and forward the second packet. The scalable and distributed virtual control plane has a physical host server adapted to host a plurality of virtual machines (VMs), each VM providing a control plane for a particular protocol, and a network connecting the switch to the server. In addition, the plurality of VMs are adapted to receive the second packet, retrieve information about the first packet, handle processing of the first packet using the information to obtain forwarding information, encapsulate the first packet into a third packet including the forwarding information, and forward the third packet according to the forwarding information.

Scalable distributed control plane for network switching systems

In one embodiment, a system includes a switching processor and logic integrated with the switching processor, the logic being configured to receive a packet, wherein the packet comprises a header and a payload, determine, without using a look-up table, a destination port based on a destination address stored in the header, and send the packet to the destination port. In another embodiment, a system includes logic integrated with and/or executable by a processor, the logic being configured to create an address allocation table comprising a plurality of values, each value being associated with a plurality of IP addresses which, when an algorithm is applied thereto, result in the associated value, receive a request for an IP address from a device electrically connected to a switch, and determine a port to which the device is electrically connected to the switch based on the port on which the request is received.

Packet switching without look-up table for ethernet switches

High availability for a network may be achieved, for example, during a hitless upgrade by creating a replica controller virtual machine of an operating controller virtual machine (source controller). The replica controller virtual machine may be on a same or different server as the source controller virtual machine. The replica controller virtual machine may be copied with processes present in the source controller virtual machine and synchronized for runtime state. Upgrades or changes to software applications run in the source controller virtual machine may be provided to the replica controller virtual machine. Once enabled, the replica controller virtual machine may be operated without suspension of the source controller virtual machine.

Virtual machine based controller and upgrade mechanism

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Dar-Ren Leu