Big Switch Networks, Inc.

Arista Networks, Inc.

Kenneth Hsinchao Chiang

Srinivasan Ramasubramanian

Robert Wesley Sherwood

Rajneesh Bajpai

Shunjia Yu

Ning Song

Kiran Poola

Richard Lane

Mary Preeti Manohar

Sandip K Shah

Xin Wu

Gregor Maier

Mei Yang

Richard Leegan Lane, Ii

Michael T Stolarchuk

Robert W Sherwood

Gregor Mathias Maier

Data taps are provided in a production network to mirror traffic flow through the network. Feeds from the data taps are provided to a monitoring fabric comprising a network of service nodes. A service node receives mirrored traffic and identifies packets in the mirrored traffic for further processing, for example to be forwarded to one or more monitoring/security tools. The packets are identified based on the contents of the packets. For example, packets at the beginning of a TCP session and at the end of the TCP session can be identified based on the TCP flags in the packets. The service node can cause these packets to be sent to one or more monitoring/security tools.

Session slicing of mirrored packets

In various example embodiments, a system, a method, and a machine readable medium to manage multicast traffic are disclosed. The system includes a controller server for receiving first multicast group member information and for providing centralized control of a network. The first multicast group member information is received from a first end-host computer and received at the controller server responsive to a first packet forwarding system identifying the first end-host computer is joining a first multicast group on a first virtual network. The controller server generates a first multicast tree and communicates a first network configuration message to at least one packet forwarding system of the first plurality of packet forwarding systems. The first network configuration message includes a packet flow table entry enabling configuration of a flow table to enable communication of multicast traffic for the first multicast group over a portion of the first multicast tree.

Systems and methods to manage multicast traffic

In various example embodiments, a system and method for optimizing management of a multicast tree are disclosed. The system receives first multicast group member information, from over a network and via a first packet forwarding system, at a controller server that provides for control of a network comprised of a first virtual local area network including a first packet forwarding system, the first multicast group member information being received by the first packet forwarding system and describing a first end-host computer as joining a first multicast group on the first virtual local area network. The system generates a multicast tree, at the controller server, and communicates a network configuration message to at least one packet forwarding system of a first plurality of packet forwarding systems to enable communication of the multicast traffic for the first multicast group over a portion of the multicast tree.

A controller implemented on computing equipment may control switches in a network. The controller may provide flow tables that implement network policies to the switches to control packet forwarding through the network. The controller may provide debug table entries to the switches for use in a debug table that is separate from the flow table. The debug table entries may match incoming network packets and increment corresponding counters on the switches. The controller may retrieve count information from the counters for performing debugging operations on the network. For example, the controller may identify conflicts between fields of a selected flow table entry, determine whether elephant packet flows are present between switches, determine whether desired load balancing is being performed, determine whether a network path has changed, determine whether packet loss has occurred, and/or determine whether network packets are taking undesired paths based on the retrieved count information.

Systems and methods for performing debugging operations on networks using a controller

Growing community of inventors

Fremont, CA, United States of America

Kenneth Hsinchao Chiang