Cisco Technology, Inc.

Sampath Kumar Sthothra Bhasham

Aravind Sitaraman

Shuxian Lou

Maria Alice Dos Santos

Shujin Zhang

Kali Prasanna Mishra

Sunil Kumar Chandrupatla

Joseph F Mann

Sunil Podar

Jie Chu

Leslie Alan Thomas

Andrew M Gutman

Anil Kumar Chandrupatla

Kalpathi S Suryanarayanan

Changhong Shen

Jane Jiaying Jin

Vincent Li

Ruozhong Xuan

Houshang Nayeb Hosseini

Sandeep Saksena

In one embodiment, a method includes acquiring an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address for a physical interface of a first network element. The method also includes configuring an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) over IPv6 tunnel between the first network element and a second network element using the physical interface of the first network element. The method also includes acquiring an updated IPv6 address for the physical interface of the first network element and using an IPv6 Service Level Agreement (SLA) Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) operation to notify the second network element of the updated IPv6 address to establish a bidirectional IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel. The method further includes establishing a control connection with an IPv4 SD-WAN controller and automatically building an SD-WAN overlay tunnel with the bidirectional IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel as a transport.

Systems and methods for providing SD-WAN fabric connectivity over IPv6 transit networks via an automatic IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel

A single database maintained centrally hosts both proxy service data and authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) data. Data is then copied to storage used locally by each system when both systems are instantiated. Therefore the ISP/Telco need not maintain two different data bases. A protocol gateway (PGW) is used to determine if the incoming user is a wholesale or retail user. The PGW filters the domain portion of the access request to locate a remote AAA service. If one such service is found, the PGW routes the communication via the proxy service to proxy it to the remote AAA service. The returned packet from the remote AAA service is then searched for an IP address to be assigned to the incoming user. If one is not found the PGW obtains a dynamically allocated IP address from a DHCP server (using an IP-Pool-ID if supplied in the returned packet from the remote AAA service). The same mechanism is used to forward accounting event packets from the NAS to the remote AAA server. The PGW may monitor more than one proxy and/or AAA service and load balance among them.

Integration of authentication authorization and accounting service and proxy service

Service requests, which are used to properly process a network access request received from a client, are processed by routing the service requests between at least two service component instances according to a load balancing algorithm. Load balancing includes: calculating a first ticket amount and a second ticket amount; assigning the first ticket amount to a first instance and the second ticket amount to a second instance; using a selection scheme to select an instance having a ticket amount greater than a threshold amount to process a service request; decrementing the ticket amount corresponding to the instance selected; and scheduling the instance selected to receive a service request. The present invention may further include distinguishing between operable and inoperable instances, providing ticket amounts that are not based on performance ratings to inoperable instances, and providing ticket amounts that are based on performance ratings to operable instances.

Load balancing between service component instances

A method and system for authenticated access to multicast traffic receives a request for a user to join a multicast channel. Access privileges of the user to the multicast channel are authenticated. The request is disallowed in response to at least an unsuccessful authentication.

Method and system for authenticated access to internet protocol (IP) multicast traffic

A method for handling access requests at multiple PoPs using the sharing of NAS information between the PoPs, enabling each PoP to maintain its own, independent, database of user records. When an access request is received, it is forwarded to a specific PoP designated as the user's 'home PoP'. This home PoP is the only PoP to contain the user's records. The home PoP may then handle the access request by utilizing a local NAS list, the local NAS list being synchronized with other NAS lists in the network and providing information on all the 'known' NASes throughout the entire network. This allows for a user to roam between PoPs, while reducing the bandwidth and security concerns that have existed in the past when users chose to roam. The NAS lists may then be updated via a central Network Control Console.

Sharing of NAS information between PoPs

A method for conveying data communications network management information to an umbrella management system whereby network management information events are published on an information bus and received at a subscribing monitor interface located on the information bus. The monitor interface then converts the network management information events into umbrella management system-useable information and communicates the umbrella management useable information to the umbrella management system. In this manner, the umbrella management system is able to import valuable information pertaining to the devices and services that comprise the overall network. The monitor interface includes an adapter located on the information bus that subscribes to network management information events, a converter that formats the network management information events into data useable by the umbrella management system, and a forwarder that communicates the umbrella management system-useable data to the umbrella management system.

Facility to transmit network management data to an umbrella management system

A method for maintaining Quality of Service for communication network subscribers regardless of their log-on location is disclosed. For one embodiment the communications network has a first access point having a first router and a local memory containing at least one user profile containing a subscriber's pool identifier, and a second access point having a second router configured to provide a forwarding rate based on a source address from each of said packets. A service type for a subscriber is defined. A pool identifier corresponding to a service level agreement is assigned to the subscriber. If the subscriber attempts to log-on to the second access point, the subscriber's pool identifier is obtained from a global memory available to the second access point. The pool identifier is used to select a source address. A packet sent by the subscriber is forwarded using the second router, each packet containing the source address.

Dynamic IP addressing and quality of service assurance

A system for managing access to IP multicast traffic includes a join request manager within an access router. The access router includes a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory unit. The access router replicates multicast traffic flows for communication to one or more user devices within user systems coupled to the access router using a link. The join request manager receives a request to receive a multicast traffic flow, the request being received from one of the user devices within one of the user systems, and denies the request if a system metric is above a threshold.

Managing access to internet protocol (IP) multicast traffic

An address is allocated to a host device which is selected to obtain network access from any access point within a given communications system, while maintaining a network bandwidth management scheme that is consistently applied to a user's network bandwidth usage regardless of the access point used by the user. This is accomplished using a communications network having a at least one access point coupled to a first router which is configured to forward packets at a forwarding rate based on a source address contained in each of the packets. A user profile is assigned to each subscriber belonging to an access point. Each user profile includes a pool identifier which corresponds to a forwarding rate used by the router for packets corresponding to the subscriber. If a subscriber attempts to log-on to an access point, a source address is selected using the address pool identifier, the source address is assigned to the subscriber, and each packet is forwarded at a forwarding rate based on the source address contained within each of the packets. The communications system may also include a global memory which contains all of the user profiles stored for the communications system. The global memory provides the pertinent user profile to any access point from which a subscriber seeks to obtain access when the subscriber does not have a user profile contained within the local memory of the access point, such as in the case of a roaming subscriber.

A data transfer interface for importing data from a source system to a target system, including a source data adapter having an attribute definition transcriber for generating transcribed data, and a target data adapter having a data format converter for converting the transcribed data from a first format to a second format. The data transfer interface may include a data validator to ensure that the user data selected for importation is valid before the data is transcribed. The source data adapter and the target data adapter may be configured for use with a communications architecture that allows the source data adapter and the target data adapter to receive and transmit user data as events on a data communications network.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Sampath Kumar Sthothra Bhasham