Cisco Technology, Inc.

Fuyong Zhao

Bruce D Moon

An adaptive, deterministic approach for updating network routing information is disclosed. From among a set of routers, each of which is associated with an amount of time relative to a destination, the router that is associated with the lowest amount of time is selected. A 'forward ant' data packet, which indicates the destination, is sent to the selected router. A 'backward ant' data packet is received. The &#x201c;backward ant&#x201d; data packet indicates an amount of time taken for the &#x201c;forward ant&#x201d; data packet to travel to the destination. Based on this amount of time, the amount of time that is associated with the selected router is updated. Based on information contained in the &#x201c;backward ant&#x201d; data packet, the routing table is updated.

Adaptive, deterministic ant routing approach for updating network routing information

A method of updating probabilistic network routing information is disclosed. A 'backward ant' data packet is received. The backward ant data packet contains information about the quality of a network route, at least a portion of which was selected based on a set of router-probability associations, and through which a 'forward ant' data packet was transmitted. The set, which is associated with a particular destination router for which the forward ant data packet was destined, is updated based on the information.

Method and apparatus for updating probabilistic network routing information

An ant-based method for discovering a network path that satisfies a quality of service (QoS) requirement is disclosed. A 'forward QoS ant,' which indicates a destination and a QoS requirement, is received at a particular router. The forward QoS ant is updated to indicate the particular router's identity. Given a metric 'X,' such as delay, jitter, etc., it is determined whether a least-&#x201c;X&#x201d; path from the particular router to the destination satisfies the QoS requirement, and whether the forward QoS ant has visited any other routers in the least-&#x201c;X&#x201d; path. If the least-&#x201c;X&#x201d; path satisfies the QoS requirement and the forward QoS ant has not visited any other router in the least-&#x201c;X&#x201d; path, then the forward QoS ant is sent to the next router in the least-&#x201c;X&#x201d; path. Later, a &#x201c;backward QoS ant,&#x201d; which indicates the path taken by the forward QoS ant, is received at the particular router.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Fuyong Zhao