Cisco Technology, Inc.

Francesco Meo

Rishi Chhibber

Stig Ingvar Venaas

Roshan Lal

Padmanab Pathikonda

Rahul Savarapu Parameswaran

Ramakrishnan Chokkanathapuram Sundaram

Mankamana Prasad Mishra

Lakshmi Priya Sarma

Ravinder Vissapragada

Raja Kommula

Peter Psenak

Anand Kumar Singh

Chickayya Naik

Sharanya Subramanian

Varun Manchanda

Vaibhav Dhage

Naren Mididaddi

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request to establish a path for a data stream from the first network apparatus to a second network apparatus, where the request is associated with a requested bandwidth for the data stream, and where the first network apparatus and the second network apparatus are connected by a link aggregation group including a number of physical Ethernet links, accessing bandwidth information representing a number of remaining bandwidths of the respective multiple of physical Ethernet links, determining that the requested bandwidth is not satisfied by any of the number of remaining bandwidths of the number of physical Ethernet links, and sending a response rejecting the request to establish the path.

Bandwidth awareness in a link aggregation group

Systems and methods provide for the dynamic discovery, update and propagation of multicast streams capabilities in a network. An endpoint can be coupled to a first hop router in a network environment. The first hop router can discover multicast flow characteristics information associated with the endpoint and propagate the multicast flow characteristics information of the endpoint to additional network nodes in the network environment. The first hop router and at least a portion of the additional network nodes can form one or more multicast flows associated with the endpoint through the network environment using the multicast flow characteristic information associated with the endpoint.

Technique for dynamic discovery, update and propagation of multicast stream capabilities in a capability-aware network

This disclosure describes techniques for improved multicast network telemetry implemented over multilayer switches in a PIM domain. The multilayer switches may be configured to collectively certify end-to-end flow provisioning, and to publish telemetry data certifying flow provisioning from a single notifier to an external controller host. Computational workload and network traffic for streaming data related to certifying path provisioning is kept to a minimum for each flow that needs to be certified, which also keeps compounding of network traffic for many different flows to a minimum. Moreover, since controller hosts are notified upon successful provisioning but not at other times, controller hosts can trust that the telemetric data is minimally latent, and may be relied upon to enact timely actions which produce desired outcomes.

Efficient multi-path routing flow provisioning telemetry in protocol independent multicast

A router node may be configured for communication of multicast traffic in a network fabric which may include a plurality of spine nodes interconnected to a plurality of leaf nodes. The router node may be configured as one of the leaf nodes and serve as a first hop router for multicast traffic. At the router node, a message for flooding the network fabric may be sent based on an indication of communication of multicast traffic for a multicast group from a source device. The message may include at least one spine node identifier of at least one preferred spine node joined to the multicast group at the router node. The message may be for indicating, to at least one of the leaf nodes, to prioritize joining to the multicast group at the at least one preferred spine node according to at least one spine node identifier.

Source-initiated distribution of spine node identifiers of preferred spine nodes for use in multicast path selection

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request to establish a path for a data stream from the first network apparatus to a second network apparatus, where the request is associated with a requested bandwidth for the data stream, and where the first network apparatus and the second network apparatus are connected by a link aggregation group including a number of physical links, accessing bandwidth information representing a number of remaining bandwidths of the respective multiple of physical links, determining that the requested bandwidth is not satisfied by any of the number of remaining bandwidths of the number of physical links, and sending a response rejecting the request to establish the path.

Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Automatic configuration and connection of heterogeneous bandwidth managed multicast fabrics

In one embodiment, a first networking device associated with a switched network comprises one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising configuring, on the first networking device, a network-address-translation (NAT) rule indicating that a first multicast group is to be translated to a second multicast group. The acts further include, at least partly in response to the configuring of the NAT rule, storing the NAT rule at the first networking device, generating a message indicating the NAT rule, and sending the message to at least a second networking device associated with the switched network.

Conveying network-address-translation (NAT) rules in a network

In service flow capability updating in a guaranteed bandwidth multicast network may be provided. First, a node may determine that a bandwidth requirement of a flow has changed to a new bandwidth value. Then, in response to determining that the bandwidth requirement of the flow has changed to the new bandwidth value, an ingress capacity value may be updated in an interface usage table for a Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF) interface corresponding to the flow. The RPF interface may be disposed on a network device. Next, in response to determining that the bandwidth requirement of the flow has changed to the new bandwidth value, an egress capacity value may be updated in the interface usage table for an Outgoing Interface (OIF) corresponding to the flow. The OIF may be disposed on the network device.

In service flow capability update in guaranteed bandwidth multicast network

Multicast error detection and recovery may be provided. A join request for a multicast stream may be sent from a first network node to a second network node. The join request may be sent over a first link of a plurality of links between the first network node and the second network node. A redirect message indicating that the second network node cannot accommodate the join request may be received by the first network node from the second network node. In response to receiving the redirect message, the join request for the multicast stream may not be sent on a second link of the plurality of links by the first network node to the second network node. And in response to receiving the redirect message, an alternate upstream network node may be determined by the first network node to send the join request for the multicast stream to.

Multicast error detection and recovery

A network device includes a control processor and a network processor unit (NPU) to forward network packets between network ports of the device. The processor downloads a new operating system (OS). The processor performs a fast upgrade to the new OS using a fast upgrade/reload technique to isolate the processor from interruptions and, without rebooting the processor, start the new OS in place of an existing OS. The fast upgrade/reload also includes delaying a reset of the NPU so that the NPU continues to route the network packets based on existing forwarding information. The fast upgrade/reload includes resetting the NPU only when the new OS first accesses the NPU, and then programming the reset NPU.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Francesco Meo