Huawei Technologies Co., Limited

Xingjun Chu

Guoli Yin

Yapeng Wu

Peter J Ashwood-Smith

Tao Wan

Ashkan Sobhani

Amir Baniamerian

Yinfeng Henry Yu

Mehdi Arashmid Akhavain Mohammadi

Khaldoon Al-Zoubi

Mohammed El Azzab

Salaheddine Hamadi

Yashar Ganjali

Ali Munir

Amr Adel Nasr Abdelnasser

Shiva Ketabi

Khaldoon Al Zoubi

Xiaolong Zheng

Shichao Guan

A method and a network device are provided for transferring data packets to a port according to the priority of the packets and, when a packet is dropped, providing, to the sender of the packets, an early notification that the packet was dropped. The priority of a packet can be determined according to data contained in the packet, e.g., an operation code of the packet, or according to a marking of the packet by the sender, e.g., a marking resulting from a weighted random early detection template. The early notification that the packet was dropped is in the form of message generated at the network device and sent by the network device to the sender of the packet. The network device obtains, from the packet to be dropped or from a connection table, the information required for the message to arrive at the sender.

Method and apparatus for managing a packet received at a switch

There is provided a method and apparatus to provide notification of change events for microburst mitigation. The method is used by a sending device and includes tracking changes in scheduled data to be sent in a traffic flow and identifying a positive change in an amount of scheduled data to be sent in the traffic flow. The sending device then marks one or more packets to be sent in the traffic flow with a notification field, and then transmits the one or more packets including the notification field. The notification field can then be used by a recipient device, for example a network element, to identify and mitigate microbursts in a proactive manner.

System and method for a scalable source notification mechanism for in-network events

Methods and systems for partially or fully distributed network verification are described. In partially distributed network verification, each network device generates a respective device-level binary decision diagram (BDD) representing the logical behavior of the respective network device for a network property of interest. The device-level BDDs from each network device are received by a verification service that performs verification by generating an input BDD representing an input header space, and applies each device-level BDD in a logical path from a source device to a destination device, and reports the output BDD. In fully distributed network verification, each network device is responsible for calculating a device-specific output BDD by applying a device-specific BDD, which represents the logical behavior of the network device, to a device-specific input BDD.

Methods and systems for distributed network verification

A method of load balancing in a communications network includes transmitting, by a source node, to a destination node, a first plurality of packets of a 'flowlet' of a flow of packets. Each of the first flowlet of packets includes a plurality of header fields and a randomizer. The header fields and the randomizer are used by a networking device located between the source node and the destination node to select an output port of the networking device for the packets of the first flowlet. Further methods include selecting, by the source node, based on a criteria, a second randomizer for inclusion in a plurality of packets of a second flowlet of packets, waiting a time delay after transmitting the first flowlet of packets, then, inserting the second randomizer into the sequential second flowlet of packets, and transmitting the second flowlet of packets.

Method and apparatus for source flow slicing for improving the load balancing

A method and apparatus for proactively forming flowlets for a flow in a communication network. The method includes monitoring one or more conditions associated with the flow and detecting a trigger signal. Upon detection of activation of the trigger signal, the method further includes transmitting a pause message.

Method and apparatus for proactively forming flowlets for a flow in communication network

Methods and systems for load balancing of a communication network are described. Examples of the disclosed methods and systems may be topology agnostic (not specific to a particular network topology). Congestion information is obtained for a plurality of paths between two switches in the communication network. A selection probability is obtained for each path using the congestion information. A flowlet is assigned to a path based on the selection probabilities. Each path may be assigned to a path group, where each path group comprises paths of equal length. The selection probabilities may be computed for each path group and for each path within each path group, and the flowlet may be assigned by selecting a path group based on the selection probabilities of the path groups, and selecting a path within the selected path group.

Methods and systems for adaptive stochastic-based load balancing

Methods and systems related to construction and implementation of high radix topologies are disclosed. The nodes of the network topology are divided into a number of groups. Intra-group connections are constructed by connecting the nodes of each group according to a first complementary base graph. Inter-group connections are constructed based on a second complementary base graph and a plurality of permutation matrices. Each permutation matrix represents a pattern for selecting source group and destination group for each inter-group connection. One permutation matrix is randomly assigned to each edge of the second complementary base graph. An inter-group connection is constructed by identifying a source node and a destination node corresponding to a selected edge of the second complementary base graph, and identifying a source group and a destination group according to the permutation matrix assigned to the selected edge.

Methods and systems for implementing a high radix network topology

Methods, systems and media for network model checking using entropy based binary decision diagram (BDD) compression are described. Two related compression techniques are described: bit level reduction to reduce the number of bits required for each network field according to its nature, and field level reduction to reduce the size of the BDD tree by finding a near-optimum ordering of the fields in the BDD space. These two techniques, separately or together, may alleviate the state explosion problem the limits application of BDD based model checking. The two techniques complement each other synergistically, particularly in the domain of computer network checking and verification.

Methods, systems, and media for network model checking using entropy based BDD compression

Methods and systems for network verification are described. An input binary decision diagram (BDD) is defined to represent an input header space to query for a network property of interest. The input BDD is provided as input to a device-level BDD representing a source device in a logical topology representing connections among devices of the network. Each device in the network is represented by a respective device-level BDD in the logical topology. An output BDD is calculated, representing an output header space outputted by a destination device in the logical topology. The output BDD is calculated by sequentially applying, to the input BDD, each device-level BDD in a logical path from the source device to the destination device. The output BDD is then reported, and the reported output BDD is compared with an expected output BDD, to verify the network property of interest.

Methods and systems for network verification using hierarchy-based model

Aspects of the disclosure provide a system and method used for receiving Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests from access nodes and returning a designated address to satisfy a service provider' policies. This can include receiving a request from an access node at a provider edge node, and returning a designated Media Access Control (MAC) address in response to a request for a MAC address for a specified destination IP address, the designated MAC address being a MAC address for a node other than the provider edge node. This can effectively route requests to a Policy Enforcement point (PEP), which can be, for example a Broadband Services Router (BSR). A network controller can update ARP tables in the provider edge node to ensure that traffic which require policy enforcement can be routed to the PEP, whereas traffic which does not require policy enforcement can be normally routed towards the traffic's destination.

Method and system for network access discovery

A source routing method and apparatus are provided. The method includes receiving a data packet that comprises a destination address, a source address, and a payload, determining a plurality of next-hops along a service chain path between the source address and the destination address, generating a source routed data packet that comprises the destination address, the source address, the plurality of next-hops, and the payload, setting the destination address of the source routed data packet to a first next-hop from the plurality of next-hops along the service chain path, and forwarding the source routed data packet in accordance with the destination address.

Service chaining using source routing

A service description may be used in network virtualization in order to specify requirements of an application. In order to provide network virtualization for generic networking components, including legacy networking components, the service description is mapped to a logical network implementation and then subsequently mapped to a physical implementation.

Network virtualization for network infrastructure

A method implemented by a network firewall, comprising obtaining a first authentication token for a network test, receiving a test request message for performing the network test on a network element (NE) connected to the network firewall, authenticating the test request message by determining whether the test request message includes a second authentication token that matches the first authentication token, and granting the network test on the NE when the second authentication token matches the first authentication token.

Firewall authentication of controller-generated internet control message protocol (ICMP) echo requests

An address resolution method, comprising obtaining an Internet Protocol (IP) address for a destination network node, computing a Media Access Control (MAC) address for the destination network node using a mapping function and the IP address for the destination network node, and sending data traffic using the MAC address computed for the destination network node.

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Ottawa, Canada

Xingjun Chu