Cisco Technology, Inc.

Symantec Corporation

Cisco Systems Inc.

Xyplex, Inc.

Scott G Wasson

Kenneth P Siegel

John J Krawczyk

Katherine Royce

Richard C Stevens

Steven Colby

Raj Krishnan Nair

Jacob J Vos

Peter Ashley

Igor Moochnick

Alex Klimov

Rai Krishnan Nair

George E Conant

Steven H Sherry

A virtual machine template is created. The template includes a file system containing files to be deduplicated across multiple virtual machines. For each file to deduplicate, a hash of the content is generated and stored in association with the file. The content of the file is moved from the virtual machine template to a file store. The entry for the file in the store is indexed according to the hash. Multiple virtual machines are created by cloning the template, each containing a copy of its file system and the hashes stored locally in association with the corresponding deduplicated files. File access operations are monitored on each one of the multiple virtual machines, and attempts to access deduplicated file are detected. In response, the corresponding locally stored hash is used to retrieve the content of the file from the central file store, and provide it to the virtual machine.

File deduplication and scan reduction in a virtualization environment

The reputations of content sources are tracked as running rates of content origination. Information concerning content origination from multiple sources is received and aggregated. The aggregated information is used to calculate running rates of content origination. An initial running rate of content origination can be calculated based on the number of detections of originations from a given source over a period of time. Running rates can be updated based on additional detections from the source since the last update. As incoming electronic content is received from specific sources, the running rates from given sources are used to determine whether to block or allow the incoming content. Reputation characterization percentages can be calculated based on the running rates, and incoming content from a specific source can be blocked if a reputation characterization percentage is above a given threshold.

Compact input compensating reputation data tracking mechanism

A content-aware flow switch intercepts a client content request in an IP network, and transparently directs the content request to a best-fit server. The best-fit server is chosen based on the type of content requested, the quality of service requirements implied by the content request, the degree of load on available servers, network congestion information, and the proximity of the client to available servers. The flow switch detects client-server flows based on the arrival of TCP SYNs and/or HTTP GETs from the client. The flow switch implicitly deduces the quality of service requirements of a flow based on the content of the flow. The flow switch also provides the functionality of multiple physical web servers on a single web server in a way that is transparent to the client, through the use of virtual web hosts and flow pipes.

Method and apparatus for directing a flow of packets based on request and server attributes

Content-aware switching of network packets

A network with parallel bridges transmits information packets over parallel paths between first and second terminals in a network having other terminals while maintaining conformity with a protocol that precludes establishing loops formed by links between terminals that allow information packets to recirculate indefinitely. There is a first pair of bridges with each bridge connected to a respective one of the first and second terminals and interconnected by a first link. There is a second pair of bridges each connected to a respective one of the first and second terminals and interconnected by a second link. At least one bridge in each of the first pair of bridges and the second pair of bridges is designatable as a master bridge and has a forwarding/filtering module for forwarding and filtering information packet transfer between the first and second terminals, a topology recognition/traffic assignment module for sensing the existence of parallel transmission paths between the first and second terminals and assigning information packets to respective ones of the parallel transmission paths for transfer between the first and second terminals, and a spanning tree module for providing a spanning tree bridge identifier signal. A spanning tree bridge identifier signal sensor senses the spanning tree bridge identifier signals and designates as a master that bridge having the spanning tree bridge identifier signal meeting a pre-determined condition.

Parallel bridging

Growing community of inventors

Shrewsbury, MA, United States of America

Scott G Wasson