Ciena Corporation

Rpx Clearinghouse LLC

Alcatel-lucent Canada Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Rockstar Consortium US LP

Prx Clearinghouse LLC

Cieno Corporation

Ian Hamish Duncan

Michael Alain Gazier

Daniel Rivaud

Nigel Lawrence Bragg

Morteza Ghodrat

Lyndon Y Ong

Bradley Cain

Matthew B Squire

Haldon Sandick

Brian Haberman

Anthony Mayenburg

Ken W Young

Simon J E Shearman

James Watt

James Tierney

Grant Hall

Stephen Kieran Adolph

Denis Fluet

James Andrew Frodsham

Michael Y Frankel

Gerard Leo Swinkels

Vladimir Pelekhaty

Cengiz Alaettinoglu

Raghuraman Ranganathan

Michaël Gazier

Simon JE Shearman

Anthony J Mayenburg

A modular network element includes one or more lineboxes which are a hybrid between a rack mounted module and a line module which is inserted in a chassis; one or more linebox carriers which are rack mountable and configured to selectively receive the one or more lineboxes and provide power connectors and data connectors thereto; and a core chassis including one or more switch modules, one or more controller modules, and a set of connectors located at the rear for cabling to the power connectors and the data connectors on the one or more linebox carriers.

Modular network element architecture

Systems and methods for coordinating an optical layer and a packet layer in a network, include a Software Defined Networking (SDN) Internet Protocol (IP) application configured to implement a closed loop for analytics, recommendations, provisioning, and monitoring, of a plurality of routers in the packet layer; and a variable capacity application configured to determine optical path viability, compute excess optical margin, and recommend and cause capacity upgrades and downgrades, by communicating with a plurality of network elements in the optical layer, wherein the SDN IP application and the variable capacity application coordinate activity therebetween based on conditions in the network. The activity is coordinated based on underlying capacity changes in the optical layer and workload changes in the packet layer.

Interworking between variable capacity optical layer and ethernet/IP/MPLS layer

Programmable switches and routers are described herein for enabling their internal network fabric to be configured with a topology. In one implementation, a programmable switch is arranged in a network having a plurality of switches and an internal fabric. The programmable switch includes a plurality of programmable interfaces and a buffer memory component. Also, the programmable switch includes a processing component configured to establish each of the plurality of programmable interfaces to operate as one of a user-facing interface and a fabric-facing interface. Based on one or more programmable interfaces being established as one or more fabric-facing interfaces, the buffer memory component is configured to store packets received from a user-facing interface of an interconnected switch of the plurality of switches via one or more hops into the internal fabric.

Programmatically configured switches and distributed buffering across fabric interconnect

Systems and methods of managing a modular network element as a single entity and the modular network element includes a plurality of line modules and zero or more switch modules in a chassis. The plurality of line modules are located separate from the chassis and connected to the chassis and/or to one another via cabling. The method includes operating a management plane between the plurality of line modules and the zero or more switch modules via one or more dedicated links in the cabling; managing the plurality of line modules and the zero or more switch modules as a single network element utilizing a chassis management protocol over the management plane; and designating one of a controller in the chassis and a processor in one of the plurality of line modules operating as a virtual controller as primary for the chassis management protocol.

Scalable management plane for a modular network element

A multicast method for Segment Routing includes, in a Segment Routing network with a plurality of nodes, wherein Segment Routing utilizes globally significant labels as node identifiers such that path state installation is only required at an ingress node of a Segment Routing domain, advertising a multicast flow by a source node; determining roles in the multicast flow for the plurality of nodes; and installing appropriate forwarding behavior for the multicast flow at the plurality of nodes based on the determined roles. The advertising can utilize Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). For the multicast flow, source node segments are used to construct source routed trees rather than destination-based paths, wherein the source routed trees define broadcast paths, versus destination-based paths which are used in Segment Routing to define a node segment.

Multicast systems and methods for segment routing

Systems and methods of Ethernet path selection in a modular network element including one or more ingress line modules, a plurality of switch modules in a chassis, and one or more egress line modules, wherein the one or more ingress line modules and the one or more egress line modules are located separate from one another and connected to the chassis via cabling. The method includes distributing one or more Ethernet flows from the one or more ingress line modules to the one or more egress line modules via the plurality of switch modules; receiving fabric state information at the one or more ingress line modules from the core chassis out-of-band via the cabling; and, responsive to congestion on a path through the plurality of switch modules, selecting a new path by an ingress line module for an Ethernet flow.

Multipath selection in an ethernet fabric in a modular network element

Multicast systems and methods for Segment Routing include receiving, at a node, a multicast packet including an outer label comprising a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) source node identifier defining a source-rooted broadcast tree and an inner label including a service identifier defining a service specific multicast tree; responsive to the node including a branch point on the source-rooted broadcast tree, popping the outer label, analyzing the inner label to identify active egress ports, pushing back the outer label, and forwarding the multicast packet to the active egress ports; and responsive to the node including point-to-point transit for the source-rooted broadcast tree, forwarding the multicast packet on the source-rooted broadcast tree.

A method and apparatus facilitates an enterprise to lease virtual appliances from network services provider. The method operates by deploying a converged networking and computing device at a service location, downloading a virtual network function to the converged networking and computing device, activating the virtual network function by a service in the wide area network, and connecting the virtual network function to a provisioned network path over the wide area network. Different virtual network functions can be deployed to different locations. The same virtual network function scan be deployed to different locations. Moreover, more than one virtual network function may be deployed to more than one service location. The virtual network functions can be realized through virtual machines, software containers, etc.

Method and apparatus for provisioning virtual network functions from a network service provider

A method and apparatus facilitates an enterprise to lease virtual appliances from network services provider. The method operates by deploying a converged networking and computing device at a service location, downloading a virtual machine to the converged networking and computing device, activating the virtual machine by a service in the wide area network, and connecting the virtual machine to a provisioned network path over the wide area network. Different virtual machines can be deployed to different locations. The same virtual machine can be deployed to different locations. Moreover, more than one virtual machine may be deployed to more than one service location.

Method and apparatus for provisioning a virtual machine (VM) from a network service provider

A source Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network element, a destination MPLS network element, and a MPLS method are disclosed which introduce the concept of a source label into the MPLS label stack for source identification preservation. The source label can located at the bottom of the label stack thereby being a last item popped in the MPLS stack at the destination node, or indicated subsequent to an explicit reserved label identifier. The source label is used for maintaining Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data efficiently without requiring deep packet inspection.

Source identification preservation in multiprotocol label switching networks

A forwarder for use within an internetworking system operating over an ATM backbone is provided. The physical internetworking devices within the system are shared to provide the internetworking functions while servicing two or more distinct and isolated user networks. This is accomplished by logically partitioning the devices into distinct sub-elements which provide all or part of the internetworking functions. These sub-elements are uniquely allocated to independent realms which are then assigned to specific user networks.

Method and apparatus for forwarding packets

A method and apparatus for quickly determining the status of a network device in a network communicates status inquiry messages over the forwarding plane of one network device to at least one neighboring network device. The status inquiry messages indicate the connectivity status with at least one neighboring network device.

Method and apparatus for the fast detection of connectivity loss between devices in a network

A method and apparatus for quickly determining the status of a network device in a network communicates status inquiry messages over the forwarding plane of one network devise to at least one neighboring network device. The status inquiry messages indicate the connectivity status with at least one neighboring network device.

The present disclosure relates to carrying synchronization through Ethernet, Optical Transport Network (OTN), and other asynchronous protocols. In one exemplary embodiment, timing markers or symbols are used in packets to enable a downstream device to recover timing based upon a time differential between markers or symbols. Advantageously, enabling Ethernet, OTN, etc. to carry synchronous information will de-risk switching from SONET/SDH to Ethernet and/or OTN for service providers. The present disclosure also includes frame decomposition scheme of the Ethernet stream. Ethernet packets are broken into fixed bandwidth and excess bandwidth. The fixed bandwidth is subdivided into fixed (negotiated) flits, with each flit corresponding to a specific user or combination of users like a private tunnel. This offers service providers a method to provide deterministic and more secure bandwidth over Ethernet to multiple clients.

Growing community of inventors

Ottawa, Canada

Ian Hamish Duncan