128 Technology, Inc.

Acme Packet, Inc.

Priority Call Management, Inc.

Juniper Networks, Inc.

Boston Technology, Inc.

Lhs Group, Inc.

Sprint Communications Comapny L.p.

Patrick John MeLampy

Robert F Penfield

Patrick Timmons

Michael Baj

Hadriel S Kaplan

Abilash Menon

Prashant Kumar

Peter Commerford

Ephraim Webster Dobbins

Clifford M Spencer

Kaushik Adesh Agrawal

Cynthia E Arens

Andrew D Ory

Stephen T Voto

Rebecca A Pedersen

Sarah V Jaffer

Stephen Norton

Jisheng Wang

Ruchit Rajkumar Mehta

Ryan Koss

David Gray

Scott A Jones

Michael John Adams

Christopher R Sklarin

Kevin P Klett

Mariana Benitez Pelaez

Jeremy Richard Breau

Gregory David Schumacher

Pierce Andrew Gorman

Anna Yungelson

Mark Alan Lipford

Biao Ren

Mohiuddin Mohammed Khan

Kenneth Kuenzel

Ajay Manuja

Duncan S Fisher

Theresa H Ryan

Jos&eacute; J Cap&oacute;

David Gosselin

Pietro Botticelli

Todd Sherer

Jeffrey G Gibson

David Michael Gray

Mohiuddin M Khan

An example method includes receiving, by an SD-WAN system, WAN link characterization data for a plurality of WAN links of the SD-WAN system over a time period; and for each site of a plurality of sites of the SD-WAN system, generating, by the SD-WAN system, a local policy for the site, wherein generating the local policy is based on a machine learning model trained with the WAN link characterization data for the plurality of WAN links, and providing the local policy to an SD-WAN edge device of the site.

Adaptive location-based SD-WAN policies

A router advertises an aggregated service or route that can be evaluated by other routers as a unitary segment rather than as a group of individual links/paths associated with the aggregated service or route. The aggregated service or route can be based on service and topology state information received from one or more other routers and can be advertised with the router as the nexthop for the aggregated service or route. The router can advertise an aggregated metric for the aggregated service or route for use in such evaluation. An aggregated route can be associated with different aggregated metrics for different services.

Routing using segment-based metrics

A first router generates session establishment metrics for use in network path selection. For example, a plurality of routers connect a client device to a network service instance hosted by a server. A first router is connected to the network service instance via first and second paths. The first router receives session performance requirements for a session between the client device and the network service instance. The first router forwards, along the first path, network traffic for the session by modifying a first packet of the session to include a session identifier for the session. The first router determines that session establishment metrics for the session do not satisfy the session performance requirements. In response, the first router forwards, along the second path, the network traffic for the session by modifying a second packet of the session to include the session identifier for the session.

Session monitoring using metrics of session establishment

A routing system for implementing a service and topology exchange protocol (STEP) includes a primary STEP server configured to maintain a STEP repository and a plurality of routers, with each router including a STEP client in communication with the primary STEP server. The STEP client of each router is configured to transmit, using STEP, STEP documents containing service and topology state information for at least one route or service available through the router to the primary STEP server for storage in the STEP repository. The primary STEP server is configured to transmit to the STEP client of each router, using STEP, service and topology state information from the STEP repository for at least one other router based on configured relationships between routers. Each router is configured to make routing decisions based at least in part on the service and topology state information from the at least one other router.

Service and topology exchange protocol

A method and apparatus form and/or define a network topology in a Layer 3 network with a plurality of nodes, where each node has at least one interface. To that end, the method defines a plurality of neighborhoods, and assigns at least one interface of each node to at least one of the neighborhoods. The method also assigns a communication role to each interface so that each communication role is effective relative to one of the plurality of neighborhoods. The method then enables communication between the interfaces of the plurality of nodes as a function of the neighborhoods and the communication roles.

Network neighborhoods for establishing communication relationships between communication interfaces in an administrative domain

An example method includes receiving, by a software-defined networking in a wide area network (SD-WAN) system having a first WAN link and a second WAN link for an SD-WAN service, WAN link characterization data for the first WAN link over a time period; determining, by the SD-WAN system based on processing the WAN link characterization data for the first WAN link using a machine learning model trained with historical WAN link characterization data for one or more WAN links, an indicator of a predicted performance metric of the first WAN link at a future time; and reassigning, by the SD-WAN system based on the indicator, an application from the first WAN link to the second WAN link.

AI-assisted WAN link selection for SD-WAN services

A method and apparatus for routing a plurality of session packets across a network toward a destination modifies each packet to include a sequence number that is different from the sequence number of other packets in the plurality of packets. Accordingly, at this point, each of the plurality of packets is transformed into a corresponding plurality of processed packets. The method also duplicates the plurality of processed packets to produce a corresponding plurality of duplicated packets. Next, the method forwards the plurality of processed packets toward the destination using a first stateful path through the network, and correspondingly forwards the plurality of duplicated packets toward the destination using a second stateful path through the network. In preferred embodiments, the first stateful path is different from the second stateful path. For example, the two paths may be entirely distinct in that they share no common intermediary elements.

Router device using flow duplication

A routing system for routing packets for a route or service comprises a plurality of routers including a source router, wherein the source router is configured to receive, using a service and topology exchange protocol, service and topology state information from a STEP repository for at least one other router based on configured relationships between routers; determine a first path to a destination for a route or service based on the service and topology state information, the first path including an ordered list of successive routers to receive a packet associated with the route or service starting with a first successive router and ending with a destination router; and transmit a packet toward the first successive router with first metadata including a list of at least one remaining router of the ordered list of routers to receive the packet associated with the route or service. Each successive router, starting with the first successive router, is configured to receive a packet and determine if the router is the destination router based on metadata associated with the received packet, and when the router is not the destination router, forward the packet toward a next successive router in the ordered list of routers.

Source-based routing

A routing system for distributing multicast routing information for a multicast service includes a plurality of routers including a multicast source router and a plurality of multicast receiver routers, the plurality of routers providing a multicast service, wherein the routers are configured to exchange multicast information associated with the multicast service including identification of multicast sources and the multicast receivers.

Distribution of multicast information in a routing system

A method routes packets from a source to a destination across an IP network having a plurality of nodes (including the source and destination), and a plurality of network segments interconnecting the plurality of nodes. The source and destination are configured to use a given service. To those ends, the method receives information relating to the given service, and forms a path between the source and the destination. The path includes a) at least one intermediate node between the source and the destination and b) a plurality of specific network segments extending from the source to the destination. The plurality of specific network segments are a sub-set of the plurality of network segments. To form the path, the method assigns the plurality of specific network segments to the network path between the source and the destination as a function of the information relating to the given service.

Service related routing method and apparatus

A network device has an input configured to receive a message relating to a given device attempting to forward one or more packets across a computer network. The message has given device information relating to the given device. In addition, the routing device also has a selector, operatively coupled with the input, configured to select (after receiving the given data) a given group routing policy from a plurality of group routing policies. Preferably, the selector is configured to select the given group routing policy as a function of the given device information. The routing device also has an output operatively coupled with the selector. The output is configured to cause routing of device communication across the network using link-layer routes specified by the given group routing policy.

Device information method and apparatus for directing link-layer communication

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Pepperell, MA, United States of America

Patrick John MeLampy