Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel

Jagjeet Bhatia

Jeremy W Touve

Nalinakshan Kunnath

Laurence Rose

Uday M Shankar

Timothy Hicks

Phil S Ghang

Micahael See

The invention includes a method and apparatus for processing protocol messages for multiple protocol instances. In one embodiment, a method for processing protocol messages includes receiving a plurality of messages for a plurality of processors where each received message is associated with one of the protocol instances, generating a processing request for each message, queuing the processing requests, and servicing the queues in a manner for arbitrating access by the queues to the processors for processing the messages. A processing request generated for a received message identifies one of the protocol instances with which the message is associated. The processing requests are queued using a plurality of queues associated with the respective plurality of protocol instances, where each processing request is queued in one of the queues associated with the one of the protocol instances with which the processing request is associated. The servicing of each queue includes reading a processing request from the queue, if the queue has at least one processing request queued therein, and causing the one of the processors with which the processing request is associated to process one of the messages associated with the protocol instance identified by the processing request. The queues may be serviced in a round-robin manner for arbitrating access by the queues to the processors, thereby enabling atomic processing of the messages.

Method and apparatus for processing protocol messages for multiple protocol instances

A manner of providing for re-convergence in a dual homing network following the failure of one of the dual homing links. When such a failure is detected, the port roles are recomputed using an xSTP protocol. Prior to the completion of the computation, the operEdge variable is set to true, typically resulting in a more rapid re-convergence that may achieve sub 50 ms performance. When the computation is complete, the operEdge variable is reset to 'false. The xSTP protocol may be, for example, RSTP or MSTP. The invention may be implemented in a CE device attached to a VPLS core or other network, and may be used in a LAG environment.

Method for reconvergence after failure in a dual-homing network environment

A network node is described herein which ensures that whenever an ingress station (e.g., PC) communicates a special MAC DA packet then that packet's copies are forwarded (via a high availability VLAN) to its port(s) that are associated with remote network node(s) and/or egress server(s) (e.g., firewall(s)) and not forwarded to its port(s) that are associated with data storage server(s) or ingress station(s) (e.g., PCs). The network node also ensures that whenever an ingress station (e.g., PC) communicates a normal MAC DA packet then that packet's copies are forwarded to all of its port(s) that are associated with ingress station(s), remote network node(s), egress server(s) and/or data storage server(s) so that these stations/servers can maintain their connectivity via a default VLAN.

Method and system for implementing a high availability VLAN

System and method for performing automatic trunk formation in a multiple spanning tree protocol ('MSTP')-enabled bridge comprising a plurality of ports are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining which ones of the ports comprise MSTP trunk ports; forming an MSTP trunk group for each multiple spanning tree instance ('MSTI') comprising a group of Virtual Local Area Networks (&#x201c;VLANs&#x201d;) belonging to the MSTI; and, for each of the MSTP trunk ports, determining whether a status of the MSTP trunk port is trunk active and if so, adding all VLANs in the MSTP trunk group of the MSTIs that are forwarding on the MSTP trunk port as tagged members of the MSTP trunk port.

System and method for implementing multiple spanning tree protocol automatic 802.1Q trunking

A method and apparatus for mirroring traffic from a first network device to a second network device are disclosed. The method includes the selecting of one or more ingress frames from an ingress stream using mirror classification criteria; duplicating the one or more ingress frames; appending a mirrored flow encapsulation header with a virtual local area network tag; transmitting the duplicate frames with tags from the first network device to the second network device; and removing the mirrored flow encapsulation header at the target network device to regenerate the ingress frames originally received at the first network device. The ingress frames may then be forwarded to an egress port of the second network device and analyzed by a traffic analysis tool, for example. With the invention, the traffic received at the first network device may be analyzed remotely.

Method and apparatus for mirroring traffic over a network

A VLAN tagging method employed in a data communications switching device is disclosed. VLAN tagging is processed in accordance with one of a plurality of VLAN tagging modes, namely, a fixed port mode, a tagged port mode, a protocol-enforced port mode, a protocol-enforced port mode, and a standards-observant mode. The fixed port mode applies a VLAN tag with a default VLAN identifier associated with the ingress port. The tagged port mode preserves the tag received with the packet, or appends a new tag with a default VLAN identifier if the incoming VLAN tag is not present. In the protocol-enforced port mode, the VLAN identifier is selected based on the protocol type of the received PDU. In the standards-observant mode, an incoming VLAN tag is retained if present, or a new tag selected based on the protocol type of the received PDU if the received packet is untagged.

Tagging rules for hybrid ports

The present invention features embodiments of automatically re-enabling a disabled port or physical media interface by monitoring the link status of the physical layer interface. Any change in the link status automatically re-enables a previously disabled port, thereby permitting data coming in through the previously disabled port to be admitted into the switch and automatically forwarded or routed/switched, without the network administrator manually issuing any commands to manually re-enable the port.

Port re-enabling by monitoring link status

A VLAN classification and tagging system for a switching node. During VLAN classification, an inbound packet is assigned to a VLAN in accordance with a classification mode selectable from a PASS, FORCE, and PROTOCOL modes. In PASS mode, the packet is assigned to a VLAN associated with a VLAN ID from the packet. In FORCE mode, the packet is assigned to a VLAN associated with an ingress port. In PROTOCOL mode, the packet is assigned to a VLAN associated with a protocol type of the packet. During VLAN tagging, a VLAN identifier in an outbound packet is modified or not in accordance with a tagging mode selectable from a PASS, FORCE, and REMOVE modes. In PASS mode, the VLAN ID in the packet is retained as received. In FORCE mode, the VLAN ID in the packet is replaced with a VLAN ID to which the packet was classified at inbound. In REMOVE mode, the VLAN ID from the packet is removed without substitution.

Growing community of inventors

Simi Valley, CA, United States of America

Jagjeet Bhatia