FABRIC SWITCHING
Granted: November 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110268120
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes one or more ports on the switch configured to transmit packets encapsulated based on a first protocol. The switch further includes a control mechanism. During operation, the control mechanism forms a logical switch based on a second protocol, receives an automatically assigned identifier for the logical switch without requiring manual configuration of the identifier, and joins a Ethernet fabric.
VIRTUAL CLUSTER SWITCHING
Granted: November 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110268125
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes one or more ports on the switch configured to transmit packets encapsulated based on a first protocol. The switch further includes a control mechanism. During operation, the control mechanism forms a logical switch based on a second protocol, receives an automatically assigned identifier for the logical switch without requiring manual configuration of the identifier, and joins a virtual cluster switch.
DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE MONITORING
Granted: November 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110270966
A management server uses one or more performance monitoring data collectors to generate SNMP queries. Each collector can be configured to specify one or more performance parameters. Using each configured collector, the management server can collect performance parameter data for managed devices in a network. When the management server receives performance data, the management server traverses through each response to look for performance values associated with each performance parameter.…
System And Method For Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol Domains In A Virtual Local Area Network
Granted: November 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110267983
A system and method that modifies the behavior of the IEEE 802.1D STP standard to thereby decouple the one data domain from the one control domain involves managing multiple spanning tree protocol (STP) instances in a virtual local area network (VLAN). The method includes the step of assigning a unique set of ports within the VLAN to each of the multiple STP instances. Then, each of the multiple STP instances are managed to keep each of the multiple STP instances separate. Finally, when…
HOST-LEVEL POLICIES FOR GLOBAL SERVER LOAD BALANCING
Granted: October 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110264798
In a network, a user can configure host-level policies usable for load balancing traffic to servers of a domain. A global server load balancing (GSLB) switch provides load balancing to the servers, and is configured with the GSLB host-level policies. Users can define a host-level policy (alternatively or additionally to a globally applied GSLB policy) and apply the host-level policy to hosts in domains configured on the GSLB switch. Thus, the user can enable different policies for…
Remote F_Ports
Granted: October 20, 2011
Application Number:
20110255533
Disclosed techniques allow for devices of a SAN to login to an F_port of a different switch than the switch to which the device is physically connected. These techniques allow moving some of the capability from an edge switch to another switch in the fabric, with the edge switch transporting incoming frames from the device to the other switch and thence across the SAN to the destination device, and similarly transporting outgoing frames from the more-capable switch to the edge switch for…
INGRESS AND EGRESS SWITCH WHICH DETERMINES SERVICES RELATED TO AN INCOMING PACKET
Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110243142
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…
SWITCH WITH PACKET SERVICES PROCESSING
Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110243143
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…
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE WITH DISTRIBUTION OF PACKET SERVICES TO VARIOUS SWITCHES
Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110243144
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…
SIMPLIFIED DISTRIBUTION OF SOFTWARE TO NETWORKED DEVICES
Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110246899
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…
SOURCE-BASED CONGESTION DETECTION AND CONTROL
Granted: September 29, 2011
Application Number:
20110235518
Congestion control techniques based upon resource utilization information stored by a network device. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a network device is configured to identify a data source causing congestion based upon information stored by the network device identifying a set of data sources, and for each data source, information identifying the amount of a resource of the network device being used for processing data received by the network device from the data…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXTENDING ROUTING DOMAIN TO NON-ROUTING END STATIONS
Granted: September 29, 2011
Application Number:
20110235523
A system is provided for facilitating assignment of a virtual routing node identifier to a non-routing node. During operation, the system assigns to a non-routing node coupled to a switch a virtual routing node identifier unique to the non-routing node. In addition, the system communicates reachability information corresponding to the virtual routing node identifier to other switches in the network.
TECHNIQUES FOR LINK REDUNDANCY IN LAYER 2 NETWORKS
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110228669
Techniques for facilitating link redundancy using an enhanced version of Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP), referred to herein as VSRP2. In one set of embodiments, a group of Layer 2 and/or Layer 2/3 devices (switches) can act in concert as a VSRP2 virtual switch. A first switch in the group (a VSRP2 master switch) can forward, via a first link, data traffic to/from a network device in a connected Layer 2 network. A second switch in the group (a VSRP2 backup switch) can block, at…
SYNCHRONIZATION OF MULTICAST INFORMATION USING INCREMENTAL UPDATES
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110228770
Techniques that enable a network device such as a router to provide multicast routing services without interruption, even in the event of a switchover. An incremental updates technique is used to synchronize multicast information maintained by a first processor and multicast information maintained by a second processor. The first processor may be a management processor operating in active mode in a network device and the second processor may be a management processor operating in standby…
SYNCHRONIZATION OF MULTICAST INFORMATION USING BICASTING
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110228771
Techniques that enable a network device such as a router to provide multicast routing services without interruption. Techniques are provided for using bicasting to synchronize multicast information maintained by a first processor and multicast information maintained by a second processor. A multicast protocol related event of packet is sent to both a first processor operating in active mode and a second processor operating in standby mode. Each processor then updates its multicast…
PROVIDING MULTICAST SERVICES WITHOUT INTERRUPTION UPON A SWITCHOVER
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110228772
Techniques that enable a network device such as a router to provide multicast routing services without interruption. These techniques enable the network device to provide non-stop routing (NSR) capability for multicast routing even in the event of a switchover. When a switchover is performed due to which a previous standby management processor in a network device becomes the active management processor, the switchover is performed without interrupting any multicast routing services…
SYNCHRONIZING MULTICAST INFORMATION FOR LINECARDS
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110228773
In a network device comprising redundant management processors and one or more linecard processors situated on one or more linecards, a linecard processor maintains multicast information that is synchronized with multicast information, or a portion thereof, maintained by an active management processor. When a switchover is performed due to which a previous standby management processor becomes the new active management processor, the switchover is performed without interrupting any…
Method and Apparatus for Mirroring Frames to a Remote Diagnostic System
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110231570
Apparatuses and methods to mirror frames received at an input port or provided by an output port to a port not connected to the device performing the mirroring operation. A frame being sent to a diagnostic system has a mirror header added to allow the frame to be routed through any intervening switches in the same fabric. The final switch or the diagnostic system removes the mirror header. If the diagnostic system is attached in a different fabric, encapsulation and inter-fabric routing…
TECHNIQUES FOR SYNCHRONIZING APPLICATION OBJECT INSTANCES
Granted: September 22, 2011
Application Number:
20110231578
Techniques for synchronizing data object instances between applications/processes in an efficient manner. In one set of embodiments, the techniques described herein can be implemented in one or more network routers to synchronize data between a process running on an active management processor and a process running on a standby management processor, thereby facilitating features such as non-stop routing (NSR).
FCIP COMMUNICATIONS WITH LOAD SHARING AND FAILOVER
Granted: September 15, 2011
Application Number:
20110225303
An IP gateway device establishes distinct TCP sessions within a single FCIP tunnel, each TCP session being designated for a different priority of service (e.g., high, medium, low), plus a control stream. Each TCP session has its own TCP stack and its own settings for VLAN Tagging (IEEE 802.1Q), quality of service (IEEE 802.1P) and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP). By distributing data streams assigned to different priorities of service into different TCP sessions within the FCIP…
