Method and system for multicast traffic reduction
Granted: December 20, 2005
Patent Number:
6977891
A method is provided to reduce multicast traffic by snooping IGMP control packets on a packet-forwarding device. A multicast traffic reducer includes an IGMP proxy, which operates in conjunction with an IGMP snooper to intercept selected IGMP control packets and generate proxy IGMP control packets in their place. The IGMP proxy may include an IGMP query batcher to consolidate IGMP queries to multicast host groups, an IGMP query responder to consolidate host responses to the IGMP queries…
Housing for electronic device
Granted: December 13, 2005
Patent Number:
D512697
Method and apparatus to minimize congestion in a packet switched network
Granted: November 29, 2005
Patent Number:
6970424
A packet-switched communication network in accordance with the invention provides a guaranteed minimum bandwidth between pairs of Packet Switches by defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs). An SLA is defined by at least a source identifier, a destination identifier, and a minimum data rate although other information can also be used. Upon arrival at certain networked nodes, packets are classified according to an SLA by reading the source and destination addresses in the packet. Once…
Rate color marker
Granted: November 29, 2005
Patent Number:
6970426
A metering device has a first token bucket with a profile, a rate, and a maximum number of tokens. The device has another token bucket with its own profile, two associated rates, and a maximum number of tokens. In operation, the device monotonically increments the number of tokens in the first token bucket at its rate if the bucket has less than the maximum number of tokens for that bucket, and monotonically increments the number of tokens in the other token bucket at the same rate if…
Apparatus and method for locking an antenna into position
Granted: November 8, 2005
Patent Number:
6963311
An antenna locking mechanism for locking an antenna of a wireless networking device at a desired position. A method of locking an antenna into position is also disclosed.
Fault tolerant automatic protection switching for distributed routers
Granted: October 18, 2005
Patent Number:
6956816
A working router is coupled to a SONET add-drop multiplexor (ADM) through a working line and a protection router is coupled to the ADM through a protection line. The routers are coupled to each other by a separate side-band connection and comprise a virtual router from the perspective of the neighboring router, which communicates with the virtual router over the SONET network using the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). The protection router transmits a heartbeat message to the working…
Method and apparatus for selecting redundant routers using tracking
Granted: October 11, 2005
Patent Number:
6954436
A method for electing a master router in a virtual router network by obtaining a tracking parameter for each of the routers participating in a virtual router network. A priority value is assigned to each of the plurality of routers based on the tracking parameter and reported to each router at periodic intervals. The router with the highest priority value is elected, or re-elected, as the new master. The tracking parameters include a ping tracking parameter obtained by pinging the active…
Method and apparatus for management of configuration in a network
Granted: August 16, 2005
Patent Number:
6930985
A method for configuring and managing network elements comprising receiving a request at a network element to monitor at least one object on the network element; logging information by the network element in response to a change in value of the object; transmitting an indication from the network element of the change in value of the object; and receiving a request at the network element to read the information logged on the network element in response to the transmitted indication.
Method and system for VLAN aggregation
Granted: July 5, 2005
Patent Number:
6914905
A method and system for an aggregated virtual local area network (VLAN) architecture in which several VLANs in a network share the same default router address and subnet mask, but remain isolated from one another's network traffic. Instead of the traditional method of assigning one subnet to a VLAN, each VLAN is assigned only a portion of a subnet's IP address space, and is further grouped into a super-VLAN uniquely associated with that subnet. Intra-VLAN traffic is forwarded only to…
Method and system of aggregate multiple VLANs in a metropolitan area network
Granted: June 28, 2005
Patent Number:
6912592
A method and system is provided in which data packets from multiple customer VLANs are forwarded over a MAN using VLAN aggregation. A layer-2 switch located at the edge of the MAN connects the customer VLANs to the MAN. The edge switch aggregates multiple customer VLANs (the “sub-VLANs”) into one provider VLAN (the “super-VLAN”). When a packet is forwarded from the sub-VLAN to the super-VLAN and vice versa, the edge switch uses modified bridge forwarding rules to exchange the…
Methods and systems for efficiently delivering data to a plurality of destinations in a computer network
Granted: June 14, 2005
Patent Number:
6907466
Methods and systems for efficiently delivering data to multiple destinations in a computer network are disclosed. Data to be delivered to multiple destinations is stored in memory. The stored data is divided into blocks. Checksums are pre-calculated for each block. Pre-calculated checksums are used to calculate the data checksums for data to be inserted in each packet to be delivered to data destinations.
Policy based quality of service
Granted: February 22, 2005
Patent Number:
6859438
A flexible, policy-based, mechanism for managing, monitoring, and prioritizing traffic within a network and allocating bandwidth to achieve true quality of service (QoS) is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for managing bandwidth allocation in a network that employs a non-deterministic access protocol, such as an Ethernet network. A packet forwarding device receives information indicative of a set of traffic groups, such as: a MAC address,…
Method and system for managing traffic in a packet network environment
Granted: August 24, 2004
Patent Number:
6781990
A network switch includes a first content addressable memory (CAM), a second CAM, a binding lookup table (BLT), and a packet manager. The BLT extracts two sets of header information from ingressing packets. The first set is applied the first CAM to retrieve a service policy index. The second set of header information is applied to the second CAM to determine whether a connection already exists. If a connection exists, a flow transmission control block (fTCB) pointer is retrieved from the…
Ethernet automatic protection switching
Granted: July 20, 2004
Patent Number:
6766482
A method and apparatus is provided for automatic protection switching in a ring network by creating a protection domain having a control vlan and protected data vlans and designating a master node and transit nodes connected by a primary port and a secondary port. The master node blocks the secondary port for data vlan traffic until it detects a fault either by notice from a transit node or by polling. When a fault is detected, the master node unblocks the secondary port for data vlan…
Method and apparatus for interconnection of packet switches with guaranteed bandwidth
Granted: March 30, 2004
Patent Number:
6714517
A packet-switched communication network in accordance with the invention provides a guaranteed minimum bandwidth between pairs of Packet Switches by defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs). An SLA is defined by at least a source identifier, a destination identifier, and a minimum data rate although other information can also be used. Upon arrival at certain networked nodes, packets are classified according to an SLA by reading the source and destination addresses in the packet. Once…
Provisioning networks for reliable quality of service
Granted: March 23, 2004
Patent Number:
6711125
A system and method in accordance with the invention provides efficient allocation of network resources to network virtual connections while providing reliable and guaranteed quality of service. Such a system is generally used in a network that includes a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links interconnecting the nodes. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, for each connection in the network established between a pair of nodes, a normal path ni between the nodes having…
Policy based quality of service
Granted: January 13, 2004
Patent Number:
6678248
A flexible, policy-based, mechanism for managing, monitoring, and prioritizing traffic within a network and allocating bandwidth to achieve true quality of service (QoS) is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for managing bandwidth allocation in a network that employs a non-deterministic access protocol, such as an Ethernet network. A packet forwarding device receives information indicative of a set of traffic groups, such as: a MAC address,…
Method and system for implementing end-to-end QoS in packet-switched networks
Granted: January 6, 2004
Patent Number:
6674760
Disclosed herein is a system and method to implement end-to-end QoS for connections in IP-based networks, even when the communications are between different subnetworks. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, QoS is provided between subnet routers that are attached to the network through a network backbone. An embodiment of the invention can differentiate connections between routers and can classify data streams for both inter-subnet and intra-subnet connections using only…
Method and apparatus to reduce Jitter in packet switched networks
Granted: November 25, 2003
Patent Number:
6654374
A packet-switched communication network in accordance with the invention provides a guaranteed minimum bandwidth between pairs of Packet Switches by defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs). An SLA is defined by at least a source identifier, a destination identifier, and a minimum data rate although other information can also be used. Upon arrival at certain networked nodes, packets are classified according to an SLA by reading the source and destination addresses in the packet. Once…
Method and apparatus for measuring performance in packet-switched networks
Granted: November 11, 2003
Patent Number:
6647413
In a packet-switched network, a distributed performance measurement system is disclosed. In each node, a node monitor maintains information for each virtual channel passing through the node, including a list of the arrival times of the packets queued for the virtual channel. In addition, each node determines node performance characteristics, which may include throughput, effective rate, delay, loss rate, and occupancy. The network further includes a network monitor, which periodically…
