Worldwide Packets, Inc.

Ciena Corporation

Kevin Q Daines

Dackary Ronald Busch

Keith Michael Bly

Kelly Donald Fromm

C Stuart Johnson

Scott Daniel Wilsey

Asheesh Jadav

Loren Douglas Larsen

Cory Gordon

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches receive an Ethernet packet including a customer destination address and select one of a plurality of packet tunnel identifiers based on the customer destination address. The packet switch then modifies the received Ethernet packet by adding the selected packet tunnel identifier and forwards the modified packet to a packet tunnel associated with the selected packet tunnel identifier. Other methods and packet switches receive Ethernet packets including a same service virtual local area network identifier value from a first Ethernet network and forward one of the received Ethernet packets to a second Ethernet network via a first packet tunnel and forward another of the received Ethernet packets to a third Ethernet network via a second packet tunnel. Packet tunnel networks including Ethernet provider networks and edge bridges fully connected by packet tunnels having two endpoints.

Multipoint packet forwarding using packet tunnels

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches receive an Ethernet packet from an Ethernet provider network and create a plurality of duplicates of the received Ethernet packet. The methods and switches then modify the duplicates by assign a same service instance identifier and a different packet tunnel identifier to each of the duplicates and then forward the modified duplicates to packet tunnels associated with the packet tunnel identifiers. Other methods and packet switches receive an Ethernet packet including a service instance identifier from a packet tunnel and prevent the received Ethernet packet from being forwarded to another packet tunnel associated with the service instance identifier. Packet tunnel networks including Ethernet provider networks and edge bridges fully connected by packet tunnels. The edge bridges are configured to prevent packets received from one of the tunnels from being forwarded to other tunnels.

Processing Ethernet packets associated with packet tunnels

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches receive, at a packet switch, a control packet from another packet switch. The packet switch and the other packet switch are coupled together by two or more tunnels. The control packet indicates that a particular one of the tunnels is active on the other packet switch. In response, the packet switch operating methods and packet switches activate the particular tunnel indicated by the received control packet on the packet switch.

Activating a tunnel upon receiving a control packet

This document describes tools useful in relaying a data stream from a data device to a network tunnel, such as by injecting in-band control messages without impacting a data rate. For example, the tools may receive data packets on a first link and then relay the data packets to a data device on a second link. While doing so, the tools may periodically free an amount of link time by reducing the length of the relayed data packets by reducing the length of a header of each data packet. The tools may then consume the freed link time by sending a control message on the second link to the data device.

Injecting in-band control messages without impacting a data rate

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches detect, at a packet switch, a change in a first tunnel's ability to relay packets between the packet switch and another packet switch and, in response, send a control packet to the other packet switch. The control packet indicates a particular one of the tunnels is active on the packet switch. The packet switches are coupled together by the first tunnel and a second tunnel. A packet switch network includes a first packet switch and a second packet switch both configured to recognize disagreement regarding which one of a first tunnel and a second tunnel is active and which one is inactive in response to receiving control packets from each other and resolve the disagreement so that a particular one of the first tunnel and the second tunnel is active according to both the first packet switch and the second packet switch.

Activating tunnels using control packets

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches use a first port of forwarding circuitry of the packet switch to receive first packets and transmit second packets. The methods and packet switches mirror the first and second packets on a second port of the forwarding circuitry, encapsulate the mirrored packets with a transport identifier, and transmit the encapsulated packets using a third port of the forwarding circuitry.

Modifying a duplicated packet and forwarding encapsulated packets

This document describes tools useful in relaying a data stream from a data device to a network tunnel, such as by enabling virtual switching using a provisional identifier to conceal a user identifier. These tools, for example, may use an inexpensive switch module to create virtual switch instances. To do so, the tools may assign data packets to a virtual switch instance by mapping the data packets to a particular provisional identifier and then modifying the data packets to include the provisional identifier. The switch module may then forward the data packets based on the provisional identifier rather than on the user identifier. The tools may remove the provisional identifier before forwarding the data packets to a destination.

Virtual switching using a provisional identifier to conceal a user identifier

This document describes tools that communicate an operational state of a transport service. The transport service provides connectivity between two or more networks, enabling the networks to exchange packets. The tools detect an operational state of a transport service. After doing so, the tools may convey the operational state of the transport service to at least one of the networks through a user-to-network interface port of a network interface device, send a message to a network interface device requesting that the network interface device convey the operational state to a network connected to the network interface device, or configure a network interface device to communicate the operational state.

Communicating an operational state of a transport service

Element managers and processes retrieve information from a first packet switch. The information is derived from layer-two (data link layer) control packets relayed from a second packet switch to the first packet switch via a tunnel. The layer-two control packets conform to a layer-two control protocol. Based at least in part on the retrieved information, the element managers and processes determine that the tunnel is configured to relay layer-two control packets conforming to the layer-two control protocol despite a desired tunnel configuration specifying that the tunnel should not be configured to relay layer-two control packets conforming to the layer-two control protocol. Element managers and processes may alternatively or additionally detect other discrepancies between the desired tunnel configuration and the tunnel.

Determining the state of a tunnel with respect to a control protocol

Element managers and processes receive, from a selected network element, first neighbor information describing a first neighboring network element directly connected to the selected network element and second neighbor information describing a different second neighboring network element directly connected to the selected network element. Based at least in part on the first neighbor information and the second neighbor information, the element managers and processes determine that the first neighboring network element is a logical neighbor that is connected by a tunnel to the selected network element and is coupled to the selected network element via one or more intermediate packet switches.

Determining a logical neighbor of a network element

Packet switch operating methods and packet switches receive a packet on a first port of the packet switch. The packet is addressed to a device that is in communication with a second port of forwarding circuitry of the packet switch and the packet has an Ethernet destination address field and an Ethernet source address field. The Ethernet destination address field includes a first address and the Ethernet source address field includes a second address. The methods and packet switches also forward the packet to an output queue associated with a third port of the forwarding circuitry, forward the packet from the output queue to the first port, and modify the packet so that the Ethernet destination address field comprises the second address instead of the first address.

Packet loopback methods and replacing a destination address with a source address

This document describes tools useful in relaying a data stream from a data device to a network tunnel. These tools may utilize an encapsulation scheme to convert data packets from a user format to a tunnel format required by a network tunnel. Similarly, the tools may utilize a de-encapsulation scheme to convert data packets from the tunnel format to the user format required by the user. The tools may also forward the data packets from a user network to the network tunnel and vice versa, through a conventional switch module. In some embodiments, the tools do so by modifying the data packets to add a provisional identifier recognized by the switch module to map a particular data stream into a particular network tunnel.

Relaying a data stream from a data device to a network tunnel

Packet tunnel network configuration methods, management system operation methods, and management systems receive a request to enable layer-two Ethernet communication between service virtual local area networks via edge bridges fully connected by packet tunnels. The packet tunnel network configuration methods, management system operation methods, and management systems direct the edge bridges to establish the packet tunnels and modify Ethernet packets received from the service virtual local area networks by adding an instance service identifier and a tunnel identifier to the received Ethernet packets.

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Liberty Lake, WA, United States of America

Kevin Q Daines