Cisco Technology, Inc.

Murali Duvvury

Navindra Yadav

Gnanaprakasam Pandian

Shree N Murthy

Robert Andrews

Sudhakar Padavala

Lucern K Ma

James P Rivers

Pauline Shuen

Scott A Emery

Method and system for providing dynamic configuration of link redundancy in data network based on detection of dynamic changes in the network topology including the steps of detecting data network topology, determining a number of data paths from a node in the data network topology to each of a respective pair of peer nodes coupled to the node by a corresponding interface, determining a data path in the data network topology between the peer nodes, calculating a set of nodes reachable via each interface coupled to the node and the respective peer node in the data network topology, and comparing the set of calculated nodes is provided.

Method and system for providing safe dynamic link redundancy in a data network

A method and system provides dynamic configuration of network elements using hierarchical inheritance. The method includes monitoring a data network, detecting a change associated with a configuration of the data network, identifying one or more member groups affected by the detected change, and modifying the network configuration for the one or more member groups in the data network.

Method and system for providing configuration of network elements through hierarchical inheritance

In one embodiment, detecting data traffic from a host device in a data forwarding domain, injecting a host route associated with the detected data traffic, and updating a forwarding table associated with the host route are provided.

Network routing to the socket

A method for managing a cluster of network devices, the cluster includes a command network device and at least one member network device, and the command network device has a commander IP address and a commander MAC address, includes: defining a standby group by assigning a virtual IP address and a virtual MAC address; selecting a first network device, which is the command device, for the standby group; selecting at least one second network device, which has an IP address, for the standby group; defining a standby priority for each network device in the standby group; and binding the standby group to the cluster, by replacing the commander IP address with the virtual IP address and replacing the commander MAC address with the virtual MAC address. Upon the binding, the network device with a highest priority becomes an active commander, and the network device with a second highest priority becomes a standby commander.

High-reliability cluster management

A group of network devices, such as Ethernet switches, are logically configured as a single cluster, with one commander device and one or more member devices. Each network device in the cluster contains an embedded HTML server that facilitates configuration and management of the network device via a management station running a Web browser. Each device in the cluster is identified by a unique Universal Resource Locator ('URL'). However, only the cluster commander is required to have a public IP address. The cluster commander automatically assigns private IP addresses to the other devices in the cluster. Network devices in the cluster constantly monitor network traffic on all their ports to detect conflicts between the automatically assigned IP addresses and the IP addresses of network devices outside of the cluster. When a conflict is detected, the cluster commander assigns a different private IP address to the cluster network device that caused the conflict. The process of detecting and correcting IP address conflicts continues continuously to enable the cluster network devices to react automatically to network configuration changes.

Apparatus and method for automatic cluster network device address assignment

A method provides high reliability to management of a cluster of network devices. The cluster including a command network device and at least one member network device. The command network device has a commander IP address and a commander MAC address. The method includes: defining a standby group by assigning a virtual IP address and a virtual MAC address; selecting a first network device; which is the command network device, for the standby group; selecting at least one second network device, which has an IP address, for the standby group; defining a standby priority for each network device in the standby group; and binding the standby group to the cluster, by replacing the commander IP address with the virtual IP address and replacing the commander MAC address with the virtual MAC address. Upon the binding, the network device with a highest priority becomes an active commander, and the network device with a second highest priority becomes a standby commander. The the network device with a third highest priority, if any, becomes a passive commander. The cluster is controlled through the active commander using the virtual IP address. The active commander periodically forwards the cluster configuration information to the passive commander. The control of the cluster is switched from the active commander to the standby commander upon a failure of the active commander, the standby commander becoming a current active commander.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Murali Duvvury