Arista Networks, Inc.

Broadcom Corporation

Neal Thomas Nuckolls

Hugh Weber Holbrook

Sriram Sellappa

Jason A Trachewsky

Matthew James Fischer

Stephen Ray Palm

George Dionyssios Kondylis

Bruce Edwards

Ling Su

Robert J Marinelli

Aaron Gregory Levitan

Stephen George Siener

Changxi Jin

Grzegorz Poloczek

Guillermo A Loyola

In general, embodiments of the invention relate to a method for modifying a targeted subset of a table row (consisting of assorted data) on a network element. More specifically, a network element agent, executing on the network element, may request that changes be applied to a portion of the assorted data, hence the targeted subset, without affecting the remainder of the table row (which may include data relevant to the responsibilities of other network element agents). Through the application of masking, changes applied only to the targeted subset may be achieved.

Method and system for performing a read-modify-write operation on a network element

A method and apparatus of a device that broadcasts data to multiple hardware forwarding engines is described. In an exemplary embodiment, a central processing unit of the device receives the data to broadcast to the plurality of hardware forwarding engines. The device further writes the data to a broadcast log. In addition, the device transmits a signal to one or more co-processors that the data is available to be read, wherein each of the plurality of hardware forwarding corresponds to one of the one or more co-processors. Each of these co-processors reads the data in the broadcast log by receiving the signal that the data is ready to be read from the broadcast log. In addition, each co-processor determines a broadcast log entry for the data for that co-processor. Each co-processor further reads the data from the broadcast log entry via a direct memory access in memory that stores the broadcast log and the plurality of hardware forwarding engines use the data to process network traffic.

System and method for broadcasting data to multiple hardware forwarding engines

A method and system for a bandwidth efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol is provided, which may comprise communicating a request to transmit (RTS) signal to a receiving station to determine if a channel is available for transmission. A clear to send (CTS) acknowledgement signal may be received from the receiving station if the channel is available for transmission. A plurality of medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) fragments separated by a point coordination function (PCF) interframe space (PIFS) interval may be transmitted in response to the received CTS acknowledgement signal.

Method and system for a bandwidth efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol

A framing mechanism may be provided that enables passing of messages over an addressed bus. This creates a form of information hiding, which passes information by converting an addressed bus interface to a message-based bus interface. Address-based information in a transaction may be replaced with additional information that specifies framing details comprising, for example, a check pattern and length information. The check pattern provides a mechanism for determining whether frame information may be valid. An end device may utilize this length information to determine an actual length of an incoming frame. The combination of the check pattern and the length information may provide a pattern for resynchronizing a data stream when errors are detected. The framing mechanism may operate over existing addressed buses without requiring host side controller hardware modifications and additional host side software driver may be utilized to add the framing information.

Method and system for efficient framing on addressed buses

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Neal Thomas Nuckolls