Arista Networks, Inc.

Francois Labonte

Hugh Weber Holbrook

Kenneth James Duda

Jeevan Madhu Kamisetty

Muhammad Khalid Yousuf

Eswaran Baskaran

Kartik Chandran

Thomas Benjamin Emmons

Aditya Vikram Daga

Satish Kumar Eerpini

Xuanran Zong

Ramakrishna Shivaramaiah Paduvalli

Rajnish Gupta

Eitan Joffe

Athichart Tangpong

Systems and methods are provided herein for using a network device's software (e.g., programs executed on a CPU) to maintain and export flow data while offloading network resource intensive tasks to the network device's hardware. This may be accomplished by a network device determining whether a new flow should be tracked using only the software table (e.g., table stored only on the CPU) of the network device or whether certain flow tracking tasks (e.g., counting/parsing) can be offloaded to a hardware table (e.g., counter table in a hardware flow cache) of the network device. The network device may use one or more conditions to determine whether the new flow should be tracked using the software table or by both the software and the hardware table. The conditions can relate to the characteristics of the new flow, resource information, prioritization of the new flow, etc.

Systems and methods for tracking and exporting flows in software with augmented processing in hardware

A switching system manager programmed to obtain a base lookup data structure comprising nodes that enumerate all prefixes of a first traffic management policy of a first type and all prefixes of a second traffic management policy of a second type, modify the base lookup data structure based on a first set of inheritance rules associated with the first traffic management policy to generate an updated lookup data structure comprising first traffic management policy label allocations, modify the updated lookup data structure based on a second set of inheritance rules associated with the second traffic management policy to generate a combined lookup data structure comprising the first traffic management policy label allocations and second traffic management policy label allocations, program packet classification hardware of the switching system to adapt the switching system to process packets based on the combined lookup data structure.

System and method for programming packet forwarding hardware

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes control plane data in a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives control plane data and determines a class of the control plane data. In addition, the network element marks the control plane data based on at least on an existence of an indication of whether the network element had previously processed other data in the same class as the class of the control plane data. Furthermore, the network element queues the control plane data.

System and method of processing control plane data

Embodiments described herein relate to techniques for distributing shaped subinterfaces among physical interfaces of a port channel. Such techniques include receiving a request to configure a shape rate for a port channel subinterface; generating a physical interface set specifying: a first physical interface and a first allocated bandwidth associated with the first physical interface; and a second physical interface and a second allocated bandwidth associated with the second physical interface; making a selection, using the physical interface set, of the first physical interface based on the first allocated bandwidth being lesser than the second allocated bandwidth; assigning the first physical interface as a first anchor interface for the first port channel subinterface; and adding the first shape rate to the first allocated bandwidth to obtain a first new allocated bandwidth for the first physical interface.

Distributing shaped sub interfaces to member ports of a port channel

Systems and methods for allocating a per-interface access control list (ACL) counter are disclosed. An ACL is applied to a data packet received at an interface of the network element. In response to matching the highest priority ACL rule, a counter value is obtained based on a combination of a base index and an expansion index value. The base index, expansion index, and counter values are stored in their respective tables. The counter value is uniquely associated with the specific ACL rule hit and the interface used to receive the data packet. Systems and methods also allocate a next set of expansion and counter tables when their storage capacity is exceeded. When the next set of tables are allocated, the older set of tables along with their index mappings and entries are preserved.

Per-interface access control list (ACL) counter

Each switch unit in a networking system shares its local state information among other switch units in the networking system, collectively referred to as the shared forwarding state. Each switch unit creates a respective set of output queues that correspond to ports on other switch unites based on the shared forwarding state. A received packet on an ingress switch unit operating in accordance with a first routing protocol instance can be enqueued on an output queue in the ingress switch; the packet is subsequently processed by the egress switch unit, operating in accordance with a second routing protocol instance that corresponds to the output queue.

Networking system having multiple components with multiple loci of control

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes network data using a transformed packet classification list in a network element is described. A network element receives a packet classification list and transforms a first set of the plurality of range sets corresponding to a first one of the two or more types of packet characteristics into a first set of range labels. In addition, the network element transforms a second set of the plurality of range sets corresponding to a second one of the two or more types of packet characteristics into a second set of range labels. The network element may create a set of combination labels. The network element further processes network data by performing a first lookup to derive a first combination packet label, performing a second lookup of at least the first combination packet label, and applying a rule resulting from the second lookup to the network data.

System and method of processing packet classification with range sets

Embodiments of the present disclosure automatically set a maximum burst size in a policer to optimize the flow of traffic in a network. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a policer rate set by a first policy, a maximum rate corresponding to one or more communications channels, and maximum burst time for performing at data burst. A maximum burst size is determined automatically based on the received policer rate, maximum rate, and maximum burst time. A policer in a network device is configured to limit traffic received at the one or more communications channels based on the maximum burst size.

Automated configuration of policer parameters

Methods and systems for per-input port, per-control plane network data traffic class control plane policing in a network element are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving control plane network data at an input port of a network element, wherein the control plane network data is data that is processed by the control plane. The method may also include classifying the control plane network data based on characteristics of the control plane network data. Furthermore, the method may include storing the control plane network data in one of a plurality of output queues for the input port based on a class of the control plane network data, and forwarding control plane network data from a selected one of the plurality of output queues to a control plane of the network element.

Per-input port, per-control plane network data traffic class control plane policing

A method and apparatus of a device that determines a match for a destination address using an exact match table and a longest prefix match table of a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives a data packet that includes a destination address. The network element generates a key for the destination address, wherein the key represents more addresses than the destination address. The network element further performs an address lookup using the key in an exact match table. Furthermore, a match in the address lookup indicates a first transmitting interface of the network element. The network element additionally performs an address lookup using the destination address with a longest prefix match table, wherein a match in the address lookup indicates a second transmitting interface of the network element. In addition, the network element determines a resulting transmitting interface based on results from the exact match table address lookup and the longest prefix match address lookup. The network element forwards the data packet using the transmitting interface.

System and method of loading an exact match table and longest prefix match table

Various embodiments of a network element comprising a control plane including stream tracer logic are described herein. The network element additionally includes a data plane coupled to the control plane, where the data plane includes forwarding logic to forward a unit of network data from an ingress interface to an egress interface. The stream tracer logic can be configured to cause marking logic to mark selected units of network data for to be counted by counting logic and to cause the counting logic to count marked units of network data. The stream tracer logic can determine whether units of network data are dropped within the forwarding logic via comparison of an ingress count of the marked units of network data with an egress count of the marked units of network data.

Network data stream tracer

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes control plane data in a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives network data and determines a class of the network data. The network element additionally determines that this class of the network data is to be processed. The network element further marks the network data based on at least on an existence of an indication of whether the network element had previously processed other data in the same class as the class of the network data. Furthermore, the network element queues the network data.

System and method of processing network data

A method and apparatus of a device that determines a match for a compressed address using an exact match table of a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives a data packet that has a destination address. The network element further compresses the destination address to give a compressed address. In addition, the network element performs an address lookup using the compressed address in an exact match table. Furthermore, a match in the address lookup indicates a transmitting interface of the network element. The network element forwards the data packet using the transmitting interface.

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Menlo Park, CA, United States of America

Francois Labonte