Abstract: New switching technology relies upon state information for providing a previously unavailable degree of quality of service. In particular, by providing the ability to give service guarantees to uniquely identifiable sets of packets (“micro-flows”), different qualities of service can be offered for each transmission. The QoS associated with each micro-flow is characterized by a set of descriptors. These descriptors are communicated to each switch by the first packet of the micro-flow associated with the descriptors.

Abstract: New switching technology relies upon state information for providing a previously unavailable degree of quality of service. In particular, by providing the ability to give service guarantees to uniquely identifiable sets of packets (“micro-flows”), different qualities of service can be offered for each transmission. The QoS associated with each micro-flow is characterized by a set of descriptors. These descriptors are communicated to each switch by the first packet of the micro-flow associated with the descriptors.

Abstract: An invention is provided for affording an aggregate micro-flow having intelligent load balancing. Initially, a set of label switched paths (LSPs) is defined for a network domain. Then, as the network receives a set of data packets, a micro-flow comprising the set of data packets is defined. In addition to the information included in each received data packet, the micro-flow includes a quality of service (QoS) type. A particular label switched path (LSP) is selected from the defined set of LSPs, based on the QoS type of the micro-flow, and the micro-flow is transmitted along the selected LSP.

Abstract: Network tunneling methods and apparatus utilizing flow state information are provided. A router includes an ingress linecard having logic that selects a particular network tunnel for a received micro-flow. The ingress linecard further includes logic that selects a particular egress linecard and a particular port to utilize for transmitting the micro-flow. The router also includes an aggregate flow block that includes tunnel specific information for the selected network tunnel. The tunnel specific information includes but is not limited to label action and outgoing label(s), Layer 2 tunneling action or Layer 3 actions. The aggregate flow block further includes statistics for the selected network tunnel. In addition, the router includes a flow block having flow state information for the micro-flow. The flow block also includes an identifier that associates the flow block with the aggregate flow block.

Abstract: New switching technology relies upon state information for providing a previously unavailable degree of quality of service. In particular, by providing the ability to give service guarantees to uniquely identifiable sets of packets (“micro-flows”), different qualities of service can be offered for each transmission. The QoS associated with each micro-flow is characterized by a set of descriptors. These descriptors are communicated to each switch by the first packet of the micro-flow associated with the descriptors.

Abstract: A method and system performs parallel processing of asynchronous processes on ordered entities. A system focuses on the average time and variance of the variable time process. Each processor can run multiple contexts. The processing may be divided into a number of stages, each of which can be performed by each of the processors. A system also needs to ensure that the order of the entities is preserved as desired. This order may be maintained by performing some type of pre-processing on the entities to determine their order, and then not starting processing on an entity until the processing of any entity which must precede that entity has been completed. For processing of packets in a network, it may be needed to ensure that packets in the same flow maintain their order after processing. A system also may determine the number of processors that optimally are needed in order to process an incoming stream of entities at a desired speed.

Abstract: New switching technology relies upon state information for providing a previously unavailable degree of quality of service. In particular, by providing the ability to give service guarantees to uniquely identifiable sets of packets (“micro-flows”), different qualities of service can be offered for each transmission. The QoS associated with each micro-flow is characterized by a set of descriptors. These descriptors are communicated to each switch by the first packet of the micro-flow associated with the descriptors.