Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Steven Glen Jorgensen

Mark Gooch

Bruce E LaVigne

Alan R Albrecht

Duane Edward Mentze

Mauricio Sanchez

Jonathan Greenlaw

Michael L Ziegler

Mark Gravel

Jonathan Michael Seely

Joseph D Gleason

One aspect of the instant application provides a system and method for managing a switch buffer. During operation, the system establishes a hierarchical accounting structure to determine utilizations of different elements of a buffer on the switch. The hierarchical accounting structure comprises one or more parent elements, and each parent element is associated with one or more child elements. The system determines a base utilization of a child element based on an amount of buffer space allocated to the child element and an amount of buffer space used by the child element, and determines an adaptive utilization of the child element based at least on the base utilization of the child element and a congestion state of a corresponding parent element. Determining the adaptive utilization of the child element comprises performing a table lookup operation. The system then stores a received packet associated with the child element in the buffer in response to the adaptive utilization of the child element being less than a predetermined threshold.

System and method for adaptive buffer management

A method for handling of conflicts in a multicast routing election in a multicast network is described herein. The multicast network includes a plurality of multicast network devices. A conflict is detected in a Designated Forwarder (DF) election for a link.

Methods for handling conflicts in a multicast routing election

According to an example, a counter update determination module may receive a counter address for a local counter and map the counter address to a specific forwarding mode of a plurality of forwarding modes. In addition, a remote processing module may receive a posted value associated with the local counter. The remote processing module may include a plurality of forwarding engines respectively associated with a mapped forwarding mode. A forwarding engine of the plurality of forwarding engines may be selected based on the mapped forwarding mode, and the selected forwarding engine may forward the posted value to a remote device for remote processing.

Counter update remote processing

A forward counter block may include at least one of a plurality of local counter storage elements for counting events. The forward counter block may also include an update engine, the update engine configured to update an external memory by forwarding a value stored in any of said at lease one of a plurality of local counter storage elements and return a zero value to that local counter storage element, when the value stored in that local counter storage element reaches or surpasses a threshold value.

Forward counter block

Techniques are provided for determining if an element is contained in a set of elements. In one aspect, an element may be received and inserted into a bloom filter. The element may also be inserted into a memory associative on the bloom filter indexes. In another aspect, a search element may be received and compared to a bloom filter. If the search element is included in the bloom filter, a memory may be used to determine if the search element is included in the set of elements.

Bloom filter with memory element

Techniques are provided for sending request messages to destination nodes. Destination nodes may be indicated as unresolved. Request messages are sent to destination nodes indicated as unresolved.

Sending request messages to nodes indicated as unresolved

Methods for controlling a Designated Forwarder (DF) election in a multicast network are described herein. The multicast network includes a plurality of multicast network devices, including a first network device and a second network device. A Designated Forwarder is determined. It is determined whether to initiate a Designated Forwarder election based on a comparison of a metric measuring a distance to a Rendezvous Point Address from a first network device and a metric measuring the distance to the Rendezvous Point Address from the second network device.

Methods for controlling elections in a multicast network

Techniques for reducing a number of physical counters are provided. Logical counters may be associated with physical counters. The number of physical counters may be less than the number of logical counters. It may be determined if an association of a logical counter to a physical counter exists already. If not, a new association may be created. The physical counter associated with the logical counter may then be updated.

Physical and logical counters

A method for sliding window processing of a datagram split into packets, may include processing entire strings of adjacent consecutive packets of the datagram regardless the order of the packets using parallel processors. The method may also include processing adjacent ends of the strings of the adjacent consecutive packets while maintaining the order of the adjacent ends to correspond to the order of the consecutive packets.

Method and system for sliding window processing of a datagram

A network, network devices, and methods are described for packet processing indication. A method includes tunneling a packet from a first network device to a second network device associated with a first checking functionality. The second network device has an address different than an original destination address of the packet. The method also includes return-tunneling the packet from the second network device to the first network device with an indication of whether the packet was processed by the first checking functionality. The method includes tunneling the packet from the first network device to a third network device associated with a second checking functionality in response to the indication being that the packet was not processed by the first checking functionality. The third network device has an address different from the original destination address of the packet.

Packet processing indication

A network, network devices, and methods are described for marked packet forwarding. A network device includes a network chip having a number of network ports for receiving and transmitting packets. The network chip includes logic to decapsulate a packet received from a tunnel, mark the packet with a handle associated with an originating network device of the packet using information from an encapsulation header, and forward the marked packet to a checking functionality having a destination address different from an original destination address of the packet.

Marked packet forwarding

An apparatus includes a checking functionality (CF) for processing data packets in a computer network that comprises a plurality of CFs. The CF includes an interface for communication with one or more source switches that route data packets to the CF for processing, a packet processing capability for processing the data packets, and logic for communicating data regarding the packet processing capability to the source switch through the interface.

Loadbalancing network traffic across multiple remote inspection devices

One embodiment disclosed relates to a method of mirroring network traffic. A data packet is received by a network device, and an algorithm including randomization is applied to determine whether the data packet is selected to be mirrored. The packet is sent to a destination port, and if the data packet is selected to be mirrored, then the packet is also sent to a mirror port. Another embodiment of the invention relates to a networking device. The networking device includes at least a plurality of ports, a switching/routing engine, and a mirroring engine. The plurality of ports receive and transmit packets therefrom, and the switching/routing engine is coupled to the ports for transferring the packets therebetween. The mirroring engine is configured to apply an algorithm including randomization to select data packets for mirroring. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Mirroring of a random subset of network traffic

A network, network devices, and methods are described for packet processing. A method includes using logic on a first network device to select a checking functionality based on a number of criteria. The method uses logic on the first network device to select the checking functionality from a list of checking functionalities. The checking functionality is selected for processing packets identified by the first network device. The method also includes using logic on the first network device to configure a tunnel initiation to tunnel packets to a second network device that is associated with the selected checking functionality. The second network device has a destination address different from an original destination address of identified packets.

Tunnel configuration associated with packet checking in a network

Network devices, systems, and methods are provided for packet processing. One network device includes a network chip including logic and a number of network ports for the device for receiving and transmitting packets therefrom. The logic is operable to mirror packets on a per port per virtual local area network (VLAN) membership basis.

Growing community of inventors

Newcastle, CA, United States of America

Steven Glen Jorgensen