Force10 Networks, Inc.

Srikanth Rao

Kalpesh Zinjuwadia

Viswanathan Raman

A BGP capable packet network device is located at the boundary of an autonomous network and in communication with a peer BGP capable packet network device in a neighboring autonomous network. The BGP capable packet network device is comprised of one or more line cards for receiving and, processing and sending packets of information, and for receiving and forwarding routing update information to a route processor comprising the packet network device. The route processor runs a border gateway protocol which is configured with one or more policies that operate to filter the routing update information received from the line card. The routing update information filter is comprised of at least one variable length path attribute and the filter operates such that it only applies the variable length path attribute one time to the routing update information.

Border gateway protocol inbound policy optimization

A packet network device includes a route processor that operates to maintain one or more forwarding tables and it includes one or more line cards that operate to process information received by the packet network device from the network and to forward the information to its correct destination. The route processor also operates to identify which incoming prefixes can be used to update the forwarding tables or to identify prefixes stored in the packet network device that can be redistributed from one network protocol to another network protocol running on the route processor. A table management function running on the route processor operates to identify the best match between an incoming prefix and information included in policy statement associated with both an ordered prefix-list and a radix tree structure.

Method for optimizing a network prefix-list search

A distributed-forwarding router platform contains a master and a standby route processing manager (RPM). The master RPM uses dynamic internal routing codes to facilitate the replication of multicast packets within the router. As internal routing codes are assigned, the assignments are shared with the standby RPM. Should the standby RPM have to take over as the master RPM, the new master consults the internal routing codes assigned by the previous master as the new master builds multicast state, insuring that the internal routing codes the new master assigns are consistent with those used by the prior master. This allows the multicast forwarding plane to remain available during RPM failover, without a shutdown or unstable period while the new master RPM propagates internal routing codes. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Multicast high availability enhancements for non-stop forwarding

During initial formation of an adjacency, two neighboring PIM speakers exchange, in their hello messages, information as to whether each supports a non-stop forwarding (NSF) capability. When one of the PIM speakers restarts, the PIM neighbor senses this event, and responds by immediately forwarding its entire relevant Tree Information Base (TIB) to the restarting PIM speaker, followed by an End Of TIB (EOTIB) marker. Once the restarting PIM speaker has received TIB contents and EOTIB markers from each of its PIM neighbors, it can immediately finalize its multicast routes. In a group of routers participating in this non-stop forwarding capability, it may be possible to significantly reduce the configuration delay time currently required before purging stale multicast entries from the line card forwarding tables. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Srikanth Rao