Cisco Technology, Inc.

Faisal Iqbal

Carlos M Pignataro

Nagendra Kumar Nainar

Clarence Filsfils

Zafar Ali

Rakesh Gandhi

Ahmed Refaat Bashandy

Syed Kamran Raza

Jaganbabu Rajamanickam

Bhupendra Yadav

Sagar Soni

Francois Clad

Mohmad Saleem Hafeez

In one embodiment, a service chain data packet is instrumented as it is communicated among network nodes in a network providing service-level and/or networking operations visibility. The service chain data packet includes a particular header identifying a service group defining one or more service functions, and is a data packet and not a probe packet. A network node adds networking and/or service-layer operations data to the particular service chain data packet, such as, but not limited to, in the particular header. Such networking operations data includes a performance metric or attribute related to the transport of the particular service chain packet in the network. Such service-layer operations data includes a performance metric or attribute related to the service-level processing of the particular service chain data packet in the network.

Segment routing network signaling and packet processing

In one embodiment, segment routing (SR) network processing of packets is performed which includes operations signaling and processing of packets in manners providing processing and/or memory efficiencies. One embodiment includes acquiring a segment routing particular packet by a particular router in a network. Responsive to the particular router data plane ascertained during fast path processing by a fast path processing unit that the segment routing particular packet is to be Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) processed by a different processing unit in the particular router, communicating a time stamp of a current time and the segment routing particular packet including a segment routing header that includes OAM signaling from said fast path processing to the different processing unit, with fast path processing being hardware-based packet processing by the fast path processing unit. The segment routing particular packet is OAM processing by the different processing unit.

In one illustrative example, a network node (e.g. a router or switch) may receive a data packet and timestamp a copy of the data packet. The node may also compute a signature for the copy and insert the signature in a header of the copy. The node may send the copy to a controller for correlation with one or more other timestamped data packet copies of the data packet from one or more other network nodes having the same signature and for the computation of delay. The original data packet may be forwarded to a next network node without any timestamp or other metadata added to it. The processing of the data packets may be performed as part of a function for punting the timestamped data packet copy and forwarding, or as a function for forwarding and punting the timestamped data packet copy.

Hardware-friendly mechanisms for in-band OAM processing

In one illustrative example, a router node is configured for use in a network having a plurality of interconnected router nodes for routing packets according to segment routing (SR). Router nodes of a first network slice are configured to establish routes based on first path determination criteria associated with a first identifier, and router nodes of a second network slice are configured to establish routes based on second path determination criteria associated with a second identifier. Each router node in the first network slice may operate as a unit under test (UUT) and validate isolation from network resources in the second network slice. An operator of the network may be alerted when an isolation failure is detected.

Validating resource isolation between network slices in a mobile network

In one embodiment, a method includes generating a trace request at an initiator node configured for segment routing, the trace request comprising an FEC (Forwarding Equivalence Class) query corresponding to a label in an FEC stack with an unknown FEC, transmitting the trace request on a path with the unknown FEC, and receiving a response to the trace request, the response comprising FEC information including an identifier associated with a label and a forwarding path and representing a class or category of packets. An apparatus is also disclosed herein.

Target FEC (forwarding equivalence class) stack based FEC query in segment routing environments

One embodiment is a method including creating at an ingress node of a communications network a request message identifying a hashing parameter for a network application, and including range of values for the identified hashing parameter to enable load balancing for packets associated with the network application; forwarding the created request message to a node associated with a next hop along a first path through the network between the ingress node and an egress node; and receiving a response message from the node associated with the next hop, wherein the response message includes load balancing information for the node associated with the next hop corresponding to the range of values for the identified hashing parameter.

Application-aware equal cost multipath discovery mechanism

Segment routing network processing of packets including operations signaling and processing of packets in manners providing processing and/or memory efficiencies

In one embodiment, a method includes generating a first trace request at an initiator node configured for segment routing, the first trace request comprising a query for FEC (Forwarding Equivalence Class) information, transmitting the first trace request on a path comprising at least one node wherein FEC details for the node are unknown by the initiator node, receiving a response to the first trace request comprising the FEC information, transmitting a second trace request with the FEC information, and receiving a response to the second trace request providing FEC validation. An apparatus is also disclosed herein.

One embodiment is a method including creating at an ingress node of a communications network a request message including an Application Specific Mapping ('ASM') TLV identifying a hashing parameter for a network application, wherein the ASM TLV includes range of values for the identified hashing parameter to enable load balancing for packets associated with the network application; forwarding the created request message to a node associated with a next hop along a first path through the network between the ingress node and an egress node; and receiving a response message from the node associated with the next hop, wherein the response message includes load balancing information for the node associated with the next hop corresponding to the range of values for the identified hashing parameter.

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Ottawa, Canada

Faisal Iqbal