Abstract: In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first housing, a second housing and at least one cable. The first housing includes a first interface card of a switch fabric. The second housing includes a second interface card of the switch fabric and a third interface card of the switch fabric. The second interface card of the switch fabric is operatively and physically coupled to the third interface card of the switch fabric via a midplane. The second interface card defines a plane that is nonparallel to the a plane defined by the third interface card and a plane defined by the midplane. The plane defined by the third interface card is nonparallel to the plane defined by the second interface card and the plane defined by the midplane. The cable is configured to operatively couple the first interface card to the second interface card.

Abstract: A data center management device determines that a virtual machine should be moved from a first physical system to a second physical system. The data center management device instructs a first service appliance at the first physical system to perform state synchronization with a second service appliance at the second physical system in order to continue providing the services offered prior to the move. The data center management device instructs the virtual machine to be instantiated at the second physical system.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a switch core that has a multi-stage switch fabric physically distributed among a set of chassis. The multi-stage switch fabric has a set of input buffers and a set of output ports. The switch core can be configured to be coupled to a set of edge devices. The apparatus can also include a controller implemented in hardware without software during operation and with software during configuration and monitoring. The controller can be coupled to the set of input buffers and the set of output ports. The controller can be configured to send a flow control signal to an input buffer from the set of input buffers when congestion at an output port from the set of output ports is predicted and before congestion in the switch core occurs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a switch core that defines a single logical entity and has a multi-stage switch fabric physically distributed across a plurality of chassis. The multi-stage switch fabric has a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports. The switch core is configured to be coupled to a plurality of peripheral processing devices via the plurality of ingress ports and the plurality of egress ports. The switch core is also configured to provide non-blocking connectivity at line rate between a first peripheral processing device disposed with a first chassis and a second peripheral processing device disposed within a second chassis.

Abstract: A multicast-capable firewall allows firewall security policies to be applied to multicast traffic. The multicast-capable firewall may be integrated within a routing device, thus allowing a single device to provide both routing functionality, including multicast support, as well as firewall services. The routing device provides a user interface by which a user specifies one or more zones to be recognized by the integrated firewall when applying stateful firewall services to multicast packets. The user interface supports a syntax that allows the user to define subsets of the plurality of interfaces associated with the zones, and define a single multicast policy to be applied to multicast sessions associated with a multicast group. The multicast policy identifies common services to be applied pre-replication, and exceptions specifying additional services to be applied post-replication to copies of the multicast packets for the one or more zones.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a non-transitory processor-readable medium stores code representing instructions to be executed by a processor. The code causes the processor to receive, from a source peripheral processing device, a portion of a data packet having a destination address associated with a destination peripheral processing device. The code causes the processor to identify, based on the destination address, a service to be performed on the portion of the data packet. The code causes the processor to select, based on the service, an identifier of a service module associated with the service. The code further causes the processor to send the portion of the data packet to the service module via a distributed switch fabric such that the service module performs the service on the portion of the data packet and sends the portion of the data packet to the destination peripheral processing device via the distributed switch fabric.

Abstract: In some embodiments, a non-transitory processor-readable medium stores code representing instructions to be executed by a processor. The code causes the processor to receive, at an edge device, a first data unit having a characteristic. The code causes the processor to identify, at a first time, an identifier of a service module associated with the characteristic in response to each entry from a set of entries within a flow table not being associated with the characteristic. The code causes the processor to define an entry in the flow table associated with the characteristic and the identifier of the service module. The code causes the processor to send the first data unit to the service module. The code causes the processor to receive, at the edge device, a second data unit having the characteristic, and send the second data unit to the service module based on the entry.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes sending a configuration signal to a virtual network switch module within a control plane of a communications network. The configuration signal is configured to define a first network rule at the virtual network switch module. The method also includes configuring a packet forwarding module such that the packet forwarding module implements a second network rule, and receiving status information from the virtual network switch module and status information from the packet forwarding module. The status information is received via the control plane.

Abstract: A device may receive a request to read data from or write data to a memory that includes a number of memory banks. The request may include an address. The device may perform a mapping operation on the address to map the address from a first address space to a second address space, identify one of the memory banks based on the address in the second address space, and send the request to the identified memory bank.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes sending a configuration signal to a virtual network switch module within a control plane of a communications network. The configuration signal is configured to define a first network rule at the virtual network switch module. The method also includes configuring a packet forwarding module such that the packet forwarding module implements a second network rule, and receiving status information from the virtual network switch module and status information from the packet forwarding module. The status information is received via the control plane.

Abstract: In some embodiments, an apparatus comprises a core network node and a control module within an enterprise network architecture. The core network node is configured to be operatively coupled to a set of wired network nodes and a set of wireless network nodes. The core network node is configured to receive a first tunneled packet associated with a first session from a wired network node from the set of wired network nodes. The core network node is configured to also receive a second tunneled packet associated with a second session from a wireless network node from the set of wireless network nodes through intervening wired network nodes from the set of wired network nodes. The control module is operatively coupled to the core network node. The control module is configured to manage the first session and the second session.

Abstract: A device may receive a request to read data from or write data to a memory that includes a number of memory banks. The request may include an address. The device may perform a mapping operation on the address to map the address from a first address space to a second address space, identify one of the memory banks based on the address in the second address space, and send the request to the identified memory bank.

Abstract: In one embodiment, edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a multi-stage switch fabric and peripheral processing devices. The edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric can collectively define a single logical entity. A first edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a first peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The second edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a second peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The first edge device can be configured such that virtual resources including a first virtual resource can be defined at the first peripheral processing device. A network management module coupled to the edge devices and configured to provision the virtual resources such that the first virtual resource can be migrated from the first peripheral processing device to the second peripheral processing device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus can include a first edge device that can have a packet processing module. The first edge device can be configured to receive a packet. The packet processing module of the first edge device can be configured to produce cells based on the packet. A second edge device can have a packet processing module configured to reassemble the packet based on the cells. A multi-stage switch fabric can be coupled to the first edge device and the second edge device. The multi-stage switch fabric can define a single logical entity. The multi-stage switch fabric can have switch modules. Each switch module from the switch modules can have a shared memory device. The multi-stage switch fabric can be configured to switch the cells so that the cells are sent to the second edge device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a switch core that has a multi-stage switch fabric. The multi-stage switch fabric has a set of ingress ports and a set of egress ports. The switch core can be configured to be coupled to a set of edge devices via the set of ingress ports and the set of egress ports. The switch core can be configured to receive a packet from an ingress port from the set of ingress ports. The switch core can be configured to send a set of cells associated with the packet from the ingress port to an egress port from the set of egress ports without a store-and-forward delay associated with a zero-load latency for the switch core.

Abstract: A device may receive requests intended for a memory that includes a number of banks, determine a number of the requests intended for each of the banks, determine an order for the requests based on the determined number of the requests intended for each of the banks, and send one of the requests to the memory based on the determined order.

Abstract: A switching device includes multiple interfaces and a switch fabric. The switch fabric includes switch integrated circuits arranged in a number of stages. Multiple virtual switch planes may be implemented in the switch fabric. Data traffic received at the interfaces is selectively assigned to different ones of the virtual switch planes.

Abstract: A method may include receiving a packet at an ingress line interface in a forwarding plane of a network element, the packet including header information. The method may also include conducting a flow table lookup in the forwarding plane to identify an existing flow for the packet and determining, in the forwarding plane and based on the header information, whether a predicted flow can be identified for the packet if an existing flow can not be identified. The method may further include performing a service access control list (ACL) lookup in the forwarding plane if a predicted flow can not be identified; and forwarding the packet to one of a services plane or an egress line interface in the forwarding plane based on one of the existing flow, the predicted flow, or the service ACL lookup.

Abstract: A device includes a memory that includes a number of banks. The device receives requests for accessing the memory, determines the banks to which the requests are intended, determines one or more of the banks that are available, selects one or more of the requests to send to the memory based on the one or more of the banks that are available and have a request to be serviced, and sends the selected one or more requests to the memory.

Abstract: In one embodiment, edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a multi-stage switch fabric and peripheral processing devices. The edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric can collectively define a single logical entity. A first edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a first peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The second edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a second peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The first edge device can be configured such that virtual resources including a first virtual resource can be defined at the first peripheral processing device. A network management module coupled to the edge devices and configured to provision the virtual resources such that the first virtual resource can be migrated from the first peripheral processing device to the second peripheral processing device.