POLICY BASED AUTOMATIC FLOW COLLECTION DISCOVERY
Granted: November 21, 2019
Application Number:
20190356597
In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to methods and systems for automatically identifying a set of communications flows in a network environment, and grouping the identified set into a flow collection for management and monitoring. The system may dynamically maintaining the group membership, without requiring manual analysis and grouping. As a result, manual grouping of flows may be avoided, avoiding this complex, tedious, and error prone task, and allowing easier and more…
NETWORK DEVICE WITH SERVICE SOFTWARE INSTANCES DEPLOYMENT INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION
Granted: December 20, 2018
Application Number:
20180367455
Virtual machine environments are provided in the switches that form a network, with the virtual machines executing network services previously performed by dedicated appliances. The virtual machines can be executed on a single multi-core processor in combination with normal switch functions or on dedicated services processor boards. Packet processors analyze incoming packets and add a services tag containing services entries to any packets. Each switch reviews the services tag and…
KEEP-ALIVE TECHNIQUE IN A NETWORK DEVICE
Granted: October 11, 2018
Application Number:
20180295192
A network device may execute a process (e.g., a software keep-alive process (SKAP)) that schedules the transmission of keep-alive messages or packets. The network device maintains a database of keep-alive network sessions storing information that is used for scheduling the transmission of the keep-alive messages or packets for the keep-alive network sessions. The database may be read and a next transmission time and session frequency for one or more keep-alive sessions may be determined.…
KEEP-ALIVE TECHNIQUE IN A NETWORK DEVICE
Granted: October 4, 2018
Application Number:
20180288167
A network device may execute a software keep-alive process (SKAP) that enables the network device to continue to send keep-alive packets without interruption even during events such as a network operating system failover/switchover or an in-place system upgrade. The network device maintains a database of keep-alive network sessions storing information that is used to schedule and send keep-alive messages or packets for the keep-alive network sessions. The database may be shared between…
HOT-PLUG HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
Granted: September 27, 2018
Application Number:
20180276024
A network device may include various cards and modules, such as management modules, line cards, and switch fabric modules. In various implementations, these components can be “hot-plugged” meaning that the components can be inserted into and removed from the network device while the network device is powered on. In various implementations, hardware in the network device can identify when a component has been added. The hardware can notify a virtual machine, which can then notify the…
BUFFER MANAGER
Granted: August 9, 2018
Application Number:
20180225204
Systems, methods, apparatus and computer-readable medium are described for improving efficiency and robustness for sharing data across different users, agents, processes, drivers, and applications in a system. A shared buffer between multiple entities may be used for sharing data such that the data is only stored once and accessed by multiple entities without copying the data over and over again. An example system may be a network device. For a received packet at a network interface of a…
FLEXIBLE COMMAND LINE INTERFACE REDIRECTION
Granted: August 9, 2018
Application Number:
20180225162
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are described for executing a foreground bound process with characteristics similar to a background process. In certain implementations, a code wrapper is executed before and/or after the foreground bound process is invoked that dissociates the process input/output with the standard input/output provided by the operating system and redirects the input/output such that the foreground process no longer blocks the input/output and…
HIGH AVAILABILITY FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES
Granted: August 9, 2018
Application Number:
20180225140
Systems, methods, apparatus, and a computer-readable medium are described for generating and receiving information regarding the current state of the active virtual machine in the host and switching the standby virtual machine from standby to active in response to determining that the current active virtual machine may no longer be able to service network packets.
MULTICHANNEL INPUT/OUTPUT VIRTUALIZATION
Granted: August 2, 2018
Application Number:
20180219777
Provided are systems, methods, and computer-readable medium for enabling sharing of a multi-channel packet processor by multiple processes executing on a network device. The network device can include a memory management unit, configured to include an address map. The address map can include a reserved portion. The virtual machine can allocate a guest portion in the address map, where the guest portion is allocated in a part of the address map that does not include the reserved portion.…
COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK FOR A FEDERATION OF NETWORK CONTROLLERS
Granted: August 2, 2018
Application Number:
20180219868
A communication framework is provided that can be configured to control or limit a network controller's ability to communicate, export, or share the network controller's data with others, such as with other network controllers in the network environment. As part of this framework, techniques are provided that enable constraints to be specified for a particular network controller, where the constraints control and limit the data that is permitted to be communicated from the particular…
RULE-BASED NETWORK IDENTIFIER MAPPING
Granted: May 3, 2018
Application Number:
20180123827
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a storage device, a rule management module, a network identifier module, and a packet processor. During operation, the rule management module stores, in the storage device, a first mapping that maps a virtual network identifier of a tunnel to a rule for classifying traffic. The virtual network identifier identifies a virtualized network associated with the tunnel. The network identifier module generates, for a…
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FLOW RULE MANAGEMENT IN SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKS
Granted: April 5, 2018
Application Number:
20180097723
Embodiments described herein provide a switch. The switch can include one or more ports, a communication module, and a flow rule management module. During operation, the communication module obtains a flow rule from a notification message from a controller of a software-defined network. The flow rule management module then determines whether a priority value of the flow rule is in a local flow table. The flow table can store flow rules received from the controller. If the priority value…
APPLICATION LAUNCHER AND MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR A NETWORK DEVICE
Granted: March 1, 2018
Application Number:
20180062922
An application launcher and management framework (ALM framework) is provided for enabling and managing the execution of external applications (e.g., third party applications) on a network device. The ALM framework enables external applications to be executed and managed on a network device based upon configuration information specified for the external applications. In certain embodiments, the ALM framework enables an external application to be executed within the network device's…
MULTI-DESTINATION PACKET FORWARDING FOR A MULTI-HOMED DEVICE IN A VIRTUAL NETWORK
Granted: February 1, 2018
Application Number:
20180034665
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a network-virtualization module, an update module, an acknowledgment module, and an election module. During operation, the network-virtualization module establishes a forwarding segment for an end device multi-homed with the switch and a second switch. The forwarding segment can be identified by a segment identifier persistent in the switch and the second switch. The update module constructs, for the second…
CONFIGURATION ORCHESTRATION
Granted: January 25, 2018
Application Number:
20180026914
One embodiment of the present invention provides a network device that facilitates configuration orchestration. During operation, the system interprets a configuration command and stores a data structure representing a set of business logic. The business logic can be triggered by the configuration command, a local condition, or both. Furthermore, the system configures the switch according to an outcome of the business logic.
PROGRESSIVE MAC ADDRESS LEARNING
Granted: January 25, 2018
Application Number:
20180026889
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch in a network of interconnected switches. The switch includes a storage device, a hardware management apparatus, and a layer-2 management apparatus. The storage device stores a forwarding table, which includes an entry comprising a MAC address and an egress port for the MAC address. The hardware management apparatus determines whether a destination MAC address of a frame is present in a hardware table in memory of the switch. The…
INTEGRATED HETEROGENEOUS SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORK
Granted: January 18, 2018
Application Number:
20180019941
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch in a software-defined network. The switch includes at least one port, a flow management module, and forwarding circuitry. The port is capable of receiving a frame belonging to a software-defined data flow and a frame belonging to a regular data flow. The flow management module logically partitions the port for the frame belonging to the software-defined data flow from the frame belonging to the regular data flow. The forwarding…
NETWORK EXTENSION GROUPS OF GLOBAL VLANS IN A FABRIC SWITCH
Granted: January 18, 2018
Application Number:
20180019927
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch in a network of interconnected switches. The switch includes a network extension module, which maintains a mapping between a first virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier and a first global VLAN identifier of a network extension group. The network extension group is represented by a range of global VLAN identifiers for a tenant. A global VLAN identifier is persistent in a respective switch of the network and represents a…
ADVANCED LINK TRACKING FOR VIRTUAL CLUSTER SWITCHING
Granted: January 11, 2018
Application Number:
20180013614
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes a port that couples to a server hosting a number of virtual machines. The switch also includes a link tracking module. During operation, the link tracking module determines that reachability to at least one end host coupled to a virtual cluster switch of which the switch is a member is disrupted. The link tracking module then determines that at least one virtual machine coupled to the port is affected…
FACILITATING HOT-SWAPPABLE SWITCH FABRIC CARDS
Granted: November 30, 2017
Application Number:
20170346766
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switching system. The switching system includes a plurality of line cards, each of which includes one or more ports, a processor, one or more switch fabric cards for facilitating switching among the line cards, and a memory storing instructions for facilitating efficient hot-swapping. During operation, the switching system identifies a hot-swapping event of a first switch fabric card based on a data structure indicating the one or more…
