Cisco Technology, Inc.

Ericsson Ab

Redback Networks Inc.

Naiming Shen

Enke Chen

Jun Zhuang

Carlos M Pignataro

James Neil Guichard

Keyur Patel

Swapna Yelamanchi

Nag Avadhanam

Zach Cherian

Rajiv Asati

Stig Ingvar Venaas

Laxmikantha Reddy Ponnuru

Michael Lee Sullenberger

Liming Wei

Kishore Krishna Seshadri

Ashutosh Gupta

Veeranjaneyulu Pendyala

Thomas J Meehan

An apparatus controls discovery of nodes for a network fabric and accommodates communication among the nodes. The apparatus may be a controller operating as a first node on a network and having a processor connected to memory. The controller is communicatively connected to a second node that has a native network protocol. The memory stores computer readable software instructions that, when implemented by the processor, cause the controller to send a discovery data packet to the second node in the second node's native network protocol. The discovery data packet advertises controller status information to the second node for use in establishing a communications link between the controller and the second node in the network fabric.

Network fabric topology expansion and self-healing devices

Disclosed is a method that includes receiving, at a layer 2 switch, a first message to establish a fast re-switch tunnel between the layer 2 switch and a standby wireless controller and receiving, at the layer 2 switch, a second message to trigger use of the fast re-switch tunnel. The switch receives data and forwards the data to the standby wireless controller through the fast re-switch tunnel. Once MAC tables are updated for the standby wireless controller, the fast re-switch tunnel can be torn down.

System and method for providing a layer 2 fast re-switch for a wireless controller

Aspects of the embodiments are directed to systems, methods, and network elements executing instructions stored thereon. Aspects are directed to, for each spine node connected to a leaf node network element, identifying a spine router identifier, identifying a multicast group address, computing a plurality of hash values based on a hash function using the spine router identifier and the multicast group address, identifying a root spine node based on a highest hash value from the plurality of hash values; and transmitting an IS-IS message to root spine node indicating election of spine node as the root spine node.

Multicast service with is-is spine-leaf extension in a fabric network

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes configuring on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and advertising the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

Virtual private network forwarding and nexthop to transport mapping scheme

Techniques for routing and forwarding between multiple virtual routers implemented by a single device are described. A second virtual router is configured to learn routes from a first virtual router. A first route is inserted into a first routing table of the first virtual router, which includes a next hop corresponding to a physical network interface of the device leading to an external destination. The first route is distributed to a second virtual router to be installed in a second routing table as a second route, responsive to the second virtual router begin configured to learn routes from the first virtual router. Responsive to receiving a packet, the packet is forwarded according to a forwarding table entry corresponding to the second route of the second routing table to send the packet using the physical network interface to the external destination.

Techniques for routing and forwarding between multiple virtual routers implemented by a single device

A system comprising a plurality of service nodes, a controller and a network device in communication with the controller. Each of the plurality of service nodes is configured to support one or more service functions to establish a service function chain that includes a plurality of service functions to be performed by routing traffic among the plurality of service nodes. The controller is configured to generate provisioning information for the service function chain. The provisioning information includes at least one condition upon which a service function reclassification or branching operation is to be performed by at least one service node. The network device is in communication with the controller, and is configured to distribute the provisioning information for the service function chain to the plurality of service nodes using a distributed routing protocol.

Service function chaining branching

In one embodiment, a method includes generating at a network device, a trace packet comprising an IP (Internet Protocol) to Source Group Tag (SGT) binding, transmitting the trace packet from the network device to an SGT capable device, wherein at least one non-SGT capable device is interposed in a path between the network device and the SGT capable device, and receiving at the network device, a reply packet from the SGT capable device in response to the trace packet, the reply packet indicating that the IP to SGT binding was installed at the SGT capable device. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.

Network wide source group tag binding propagation

A method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers is described. A method in a single network element comprises peering a first virtual router to a second virtual router, wherein the first and second virtual routers have separate address spaces and separate routing tables, distributing a set of one or more routes from the first virtual router to the second virtual router, wherein a first of the set of routes identifies the first virtual router as a next hop of the first route, said first route including a destination, and downloading to a set of one or more forwarding tables, the destination and the next hop.

Method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers within a single network element

A method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers is described. A method in a single network element comprises peering a first virtual router to a second virtual router, wherein the first and second virtual routers have separate address spaces and separate routing tables, distributing a set of one or more routes from the first virtual router to the second virtual router, wherein a first of the set of routes identifies the first virtual as a next hop of the first route, said first route including a destination, and downloading to a set of one or more forwarding tables, the destination and the next hop.

A method and system for providing routing instance information are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a trace packet at a network device, generating an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packet in response to the trace packet, and transmitting the ICMP packet. The ICMP packet includes routing instance information contained within the network device.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Naiming Shen