Dynamic service insertion in a fabric switch
Granted: August 22, 2017
Patent Number:
9742693
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a service management module and a packet processor. During operation, the service management module identifies a service provided by an appliance coupled to the switch via a local port. The packet processor constructs a notification message for a remote switch. The notification message includes information about the service and the appliance. In this way, the switch allows the remote switch to request the…
End-to end lossless Ethernet in Ethernet fabric
Granted: August 15, 2017
Patent Number:
9736085
One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing system. The computing system includes a packet processor, a buffer management module, a data monitoring module, and a flow control module. The packet processor identifies a class of service indicating priority-based flow control associated with a remote computing system from a notification message. The buffer management module creates a buffer dedicated for frames belonging to the class of service from the remote computing…
Method and apparatus for determining the identity of a virtual machine
Granted: August 15, 2017
Patent Number:
9733962
A hypervisor preferably provides VM identification, priority and LUN/LBA range information to the HBA when a VM is created. Alternatively, the HBA can determine that a LUN/LBA range is new and request VM identity, priority and LUN/LBA range from the hypervisor. The HBA creates a table containing the VM identification, priority and LUN/LBA range. The HBA then detects operations directed to the LUN/LBA range and does a lookup to determine VM identification and priority. VM identification…
Method and apparatus for provisioning of resources to support applications and their varying demands
Granted: August 8, 2017
Patent Number:
9729464
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for allowing efficient allocation of data center resources in a virtualized data center. In one step, network information is obtained from a network using an application resource broker (ARB). In another step, data center information is obtained from a virtual center server using the ARB. In another step, a set of application traffic metrics and a set of virtualized infrastructure metrics are determined using the ARB based on the…
Method and apparatus for enhanced routing within a shortest path based routed network containing local and long distance links
Granted: August 8, 2017
Patent Number:
9729449
Use of a Location ID in addition to normal information to allow development of non-shortest path routes. The edge switches which terminate the distance links between locations are identified. Shortest path routes are determined for all switches in the same location. For each edge switch, routes over the distance links to other locations are determined, marking the interface connected to the distance links. The two determined sets of routes are combined. For devices directly connected to…
Link aggregation in software-defined networks
Granted: August 8, 2017
Patent Number:
9729387
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch capable of processing software-defined data flows. The switch includes an identifier management module and a flow definition management module. During operation, the identifier management module allocates a logical identifier to a link aggregation port group which includes a plurality of ports associated with different links. The flow definition management module processes a flow definition corresponding to the logical identifier,…
SAN fabric online path diagnostics
Granted: August 8, 2017
Patent Number:
9727501
A diagnostic testing utility is used to perform online path diagnostic tests to troubleshoot components in a path that contribute to performance degradations and check application level data integrity, while traffic is allowed to flow as normal. To perform the diagnostic tests, two HBA or CNA ports at each end of a path are identified and used to send test frames to perform the diagnostic tests. The entire diagnostic procedure is performed without taking any ports or servers offline.
Method and system for selective and secure interaction of BYOD (bring your own device) with enterprise network through mobile wireless networks
Granted: July 25, 2017
Patent Number:
9716996
A mechanism to allow provisioning and use of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for authorized access in the enterprise network through a 3G/4G/Wi-Fi access network is provided. A brokering entity in the mobile packet core is provisioned for each authorized employee with enterprise specific rules for security and steering of user traffic. An Enterprise Container is defined as entity on the User Equipment that is self-contained virtual machine with enterprise sanctioned applications. An…
Distributed configuration management for virtual cluster switching
Granted: July 25, 2017
Patent Number:
9716672
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a port to couple to a second switch. The switch also includes a control mechanism configured to maintain a set of configuration information for a virtual cluster switch which includes a number of member switches. The set of configuration information includes global configuration information for the virtual cluster switch and switch-specific configuration information for one or more member switches. In…
Fibre channel fabric copy service
Granted: July 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9712613
Copy capability moved into the SAN fabric and provided as a data mover service. A well-known address is utilized to receive copy commands from the hosts. Each switch in the fabric contains a front end or service interface which receives the copy command and manages access control or zoning and LUN mapping. LUN mapping and zoning are based on shared databases. Assuming correct zoning, the service interface will perform any necessary LUN mapping on the received copy command and forward the…
Method and system for idle mode transfer for load balancing across distributed data plane processing entities for mobile core network
Granted: July 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9712488
A system and an algorithm in a mobile core network to distribute the data load across multiple data processing entities. The system is seen as having one data plane entity to the external entities like routers; hence the system can scale without needing to update the external nodes. In general when a data plane processing entity is added or removed, a new distribution rule is provided to the remaining data plane processing entities. Only after some number of sessions have been migrated…
Efficient multicast topology construction in a routed network
Granted: July 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9712334
One embodiment of the present invention provides a layer-3 forwarding device. The layer-3 forwarding device includes a processor and a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method. The method comprises determining whether the layer-3 forwarding device is a leaf layer-3 forwarding device of a multicast distribution tree of a multicast group in a routed network based…
Techniques for end-to-end network bandwidth optimization using software defined networking
Granted: July 11, 2017
Patent Number:
9705783
Techniques for end-to-end network bandwidth optimization using software defined networking are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can receive information regarding a flow to be admitted to a network, where the flow is associated with a source and a destination. The computer system can further calculate, for each path in a plurality of paths between the source and the destination, a projected utilization of the path in view of the flow. If the projected utilization of the…
Shared dictionary between devices
Granted: July 11, 2017
Patent Number:
9703796
In one embodiment, a system and method for managing a network deduplication dictionary is disclosed. According to the method, the dictionary is divided between available deduplication engines (DDE) in deduplication devices that support shared dictionaries. The fingerprints are distributed to different DDEs based on a hash function. The hash function takes the fingerprint and hashes it and based on the hash result, it selects one of the DDEs. The hash function could select a few bits from…
Integrated fibre channel support in an ethernet fabric switch
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9699117
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a packet processor and a device management module. During operation, the packet processor constructs a notification message containing a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Routing Bridge (RBridge) identifier associated with a Fiber Channel router. The device management module operates in conjunction with the packet processor and terminates TRILL forwarding for a received TRILL packet with the…
Distributed configuration management in a switch group
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9699029
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a switch group module, a persistent storage module, and a distributed configuration management module. The switch group module maintains a membership in a switch group. The switch group includes a plurality of switches and operates as a single switch. The persistent storage module stores configuration information associated with the switch group in a table, which includes one or more columns for attribute…
Scalable and segregated network virtualization
Granted: July 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9699001
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a virtual network module and a forwarding module. The virtual network module includes a global virtual local area network (VLAN) tag in a packet. The global VLAN tag is mapped to an edge VLAN tag in the packet and is associated with a datacenter domain. The datacenter domain indicates a set of ports associated with a datacenter. The forwarding module identifies an egress edge port for the packet based on the…
Techniques for aggregating hardware routing resources in a multi-packet processor networking system
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9692695
Techniques for aggregating hardware routing resources in a system of devices are provided. In one embodiment, a device in the system of devices can divide routing entries in a software routing table of the system into a plurality of route subsets. The device can further assign each route subset in the plurality of route subsets to one or more devices in the system. The device can then install, for each route subset that is assigned to the device, routing entries in the route subset into…
Framework for reliably communicating port information in a system of devices
Granted: June 27, 2017
Patent Number:
9692652
A framework for reliably communicating port information in a system of devices is provided. In one embodiment, each device in the system of devices can create a first record that includes port information pertaining to a plurality of ports of the device, where the plurality of ports are usable for communicatively coupling the device to other devices in the system of devices. The device can further receive, from the other devices in the system of devices, one or more second records…
Federated management of intelligent service modules
Granted: May 23, 2017
Patent Number:
9661085
Intelligent services are provided in a storage network using intelligent service modules that can be cabled to a switch external to the switch chassis and yet be managed as part of the switch's logical domain. Data and management communications between the intelligent service module and the core switch are provided through a “soft-backplane” implemented using in-band communications through cabling attached between the switch and the intelligent service module rather than through a…
