Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel Canada Inc.

Maged Edward Shaker

Carl Rajsic

Ken W Young

Alykhan Nathoo

Michael Ellsworth Weedmark

Michael Prince

Katherine Chan

Michael Weedmark

Various exemplary embodiments are a method and of discovering medium access control (MAC) addresses in a network and a related access node including one or more of the following: receiving, at an access node, a diagnostic message from an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of a destination bridge port is unknown to the operator; forwarding the diagnostic message to a respective bridge port of the access node; determining whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the respective bridge port; and sending a reply message to the operator specifying a MAC address of the respective bridge port.

Bridge port MAC address discovery mechanism in ethernet networks

There is provided a method of forwarding a traffic flow in a communications network having at least one network node for which network traffic is selectively prevented from transiting the network node. The method includes the step of selecting a specified category of network traffic that is to be prevented from transiting the network node. The method also includes the step of determining a path within the network for forwarding the traffic flow, whereby the network node is excluded for transit in establishing the path where the traffic flow is identified with the specified category of network traffic.

Forwarding of network traffic in respect of differentiated restricted transit network nodes

The invention provides a system and method for identifying a pre-computed path for an incoming connection at a node in a policy-based routing network. The method comprises: examining requirements of the incoming connection; examining policies associated with routes available from the node; identifying at least one policy of the policies which meets the requirements of the incoming connection; and utilizing that one policy for the pre-computed path for the incoming connection.

System and method for identifying pre-computed paths in a policy-based routing network

A method and system for improving call routing in a PNNI network using crankback messaging. A destination logical group node (LGN) blocked crankback procedure is used by entry border nodes, in the event of a failed connection attempt, to instruct preceding routing capable nodes to route the connection over another link. If the entry border node is in the lowest level peer group a Succeeding End Blocked (SEB) crankback message is sent to the preceding routing-capable node. If the entry border node is not in the lowest level peer group, a destination LGN blocked crankback message is sent to the preceding routing-capable node wherein the message has special information to signal the routing node that the link into the destination LGN is blocked.

Procedures for improving call routing in PNNI networks

A method and apparatus for adaptive service interworking include processing that begins by obtaining connection information of a receiving end-point network switch in response to receiving a setup message from a sending party. The setup message identifies a receiving party, which is operably coupled to the receiving end-point switch. Such connection information may be obtained by sending an enhanced traffic descriptor appended to the setup message and receiving an enhanced traffic descriptor that was appended to a connection message from the receiving end-point switch. The connection information is then interpreted to determine whether the receiving end-point switch is capable of supporting a transparent link. If the end-point network switch is capable of supporting the transparent link, the transparent link is established and utilized to transport data between the sending and receiving parties.

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Ottawa, Canada

Maged Edward Shaker