Nortel Networks Corporation

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Avaya Inc.

Rockstar Consortium US LP

Rockstar Bidco, LP

Rockstar Consortion Uslp

Phil Wang

Tal Isaac Lavian

Ramesh Durairaj

Franco Travostino

Indermohan S Monga

Richard Brand

Satish Raghunath

Abdulkader Omar Barbir

Various embodiments allow Grid applications to access resources shared in communication network domains. Grid Proxy Architecture for Network Resources (GPAN) bridges Grid services serving user applications and network services controlling network devices through proxy functions. At times, GPAN employs distributed network service peers (NSP) in network domains to discover, negotiate and allocate network resources for Grid applications. An elected master NSP is the unique Grid node that runs GPAN and represents the whole network to share network resources to Grids without Grid involvement of network devices. GPAN provides the Grid Proxy service (GPS) to interface with Grid services and applications, and the Grid Delegation service (GDS) to interface with network services to utilize network resources. In some cases, resource-based XML messaging can be employed for the GPAN proxy communication.

Grid proxy architecture for network resources

A method and apparatus for Ethernet data compression enables the size of Ethernet frames to be reduced. Compression and decompression of Ethernet frames occur by the Ethernet network elements, rather than by user computers or end devices that transmit data on the Ethernet network. A new EtherType value may be used to identify the type of compressed Ethernet frames and optionally the type of mechanism used to compress the payload of Ethernet frames. The new EtherType may be inserted into a newly assembled frame ahead of the original EtherType. Alternatively, the new EtherType may replace the original EtherType and a short subheader may be used to identify the original EtherType. Out-of-band network signaling by the Ethernet control plane may also be used to determine whether frames are to be compressed and decompressed over controlled Ethernet links and tunnels, with or without use of the new EtherType.

Method and apparatus for Ethernet data compression

A Grid Proxy Architecture for Network Resources (GPAN) is proposed to allow Grid applications to access resources shared in communication network domains. GPAN bridges Grid services serving user applications and network services controlling network devices through its proxy functions such as resource data and management proxies. Working with Grid resource index and broker services, GPAN employs distributed network service peers (NSP) in network domains to discover, negotiate and allocate network resources such as bandwidth for Grid applications. An elected master NSP is the unique Grid node that runs GPAN and represents the whole network to share network resources to Grids without Grid involvement of network devices. GPAN provides the Grid Proxy service (GPS) to interface with Grid services and applications, and the Grid Delegation service (GDS) to interface with network services to utilize network resources. Resource-based XML messaging is employed for the GPAN proxy communication.

A network element (NE) includes an intelligent interface (II) with its own operating environment rendering it active during the NE boot process, and with separate intelligence allowing it to take actions on the NE prior to, during, and after the boot process. The combination of independent operation and increased intelligence provides enhanced management opportunities to enable the NE to be controlled throughout the boot process and after completion of the boot process. For example, files may be uploaded to the NE before or during the boot process to restart the NE from a new software image. The II allows this downloading process to occur in parallel on multiple NEs from a centralized storage resource. Diagnostic checks may be run on the NE, and files, and MIB information, and other data may be transmitted from the II to enable a network manager to more effectively manage the NE.

Method and apparatus for intelligent management of a network element

Described are a method and a system for using XML in a real-time message for transmission of data from a source to a destination over a network. The real-time XML message includes a header element and a body element. The header element includes one or more destination elements and one source element, each having a unique identifier and a set of pre-defined and user-defined real-time properties. The body element of the message includes the data to be carried to the destination in plain or encoded XML content. XML addresses are proposed as the identifier of the source and destination, and an XML naming service can look up an XML address from the canonical name of the source and destination. Advantageously, the real-time message can be transported through the network using XML addresses included in the destination and source elements of the message.

Real-time XML messaging protocol

Network resources allocated for particular application traffic are aware of the characteristics of L4+ content to be transmitted. One embodiment of the invention realizes network resource allocation in terms of three intelligent modules, gateway, provisioning and classification. A gateway module exerts network control functions in response to application requests for network resources. The network control functions include traffic path setup, bandwidth allocation and so on. Characteristics of the content are also specified in the received application network resource requests. Under request of the gateway module, a provisioning module allocates network resources such as bandwidth in optical networks and edge devices as well. An optical network resource allocation leads to a provisioning optical route. Under request of the gateway module, a classification module differentiates applications traffic according to content specifications, and thus creates and applies content-aware rule data for edge devices to forward content-specified traffic towards respective provisioning optical routes.

Content-aware dynamic network resource allocation

Described are a network and method for performing live migration of a virtual machine (VM) executing at a source site to at least one destination site over an optical network. An application program executes on the VM on behalf of a client system. In the event of a VM migration, a virtual machine turntable control agent coordinates the resource allocation with the VM data transfer. One or more lightpaths are dynamically and securely established through the optical network between the source site and the destination site(s). The VM migration from the source site to multiple destination sites occurs simultaneously, while the application program executes on the VM. After the VM migration, the application resumes at the destination site(s).

Seamless live migration of virtual machines across optical networks

Bit-stream Huffman coding may be used for data compression to quickly and efficiently compress relatively small and large datasets. A symbol used in data compression may not be a byte or 8 bits. Rather it has any number of bits. For a certain dataset, a symbol has a dynamic number of bits according to the data size. A symbol may have less than 8 bits for a small dataset, or more than 8 bits for a large dataset. For rapid processing, a large dataset may be broken into smaller datasets that are fast encoded in parallel. Accordingly, the Huffman encoding inputs from a bit-stream instead of a conventional byte-stream and outputs a bit-stream. In particular, bit-stream Static and Adaptive Huffman codings are presented with extended algorithms. Hardware implementation with parallel Huffman encoders and decoders is also illustrated for fast network data compression.

Bit-stream huffman coding for data compression

External resources may be interfaced with a network element using an intelligent interface including an independent processing environment to enable the operational capabilities of the network element to be enhanced. The intelligent interface may serve as an interface to external resources such as network software repositories, storage servers, logging facilities and security services. By providing an intelligent interface, it is possible to interface external resources and enhanced services to the network element while allowing processing requirements to be offloaded to an external device or to the intelligent interface itself, so that the resources of the network element may be more fully utilized to perform network operations such as switching and routing functions. The intelligent interface also enables new resources to be made available to the network element when they are needed. An external communication port of the intelligent interface may be configured to operate using one of the USB standards.

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Nepean, Canada

Phil Wang