Abstract: A virtual network device cluster includes several different virtual network device sub-units, which collectively operate as a single logical network device. The virtual network device cluster identifies the virtual network device sub-unit via which a given packet enters the virtual network device cluster. A packet is forwarded through the virtual network device cluster based on which virtual network device sub-unit has been identified for that packet. In one embodiment, a method involves receiving a packet via a first interface of a first one of several virtual network device sub-units of a virtual network device and associating the packet with the first one of the virtual network device sub-units. The method also involves inhibiting the packet from being sent via an interface of one of the virtual network device sub-units, in response to the packet being associated with the first one of the virtual network device sub-units.

Abstract: A system for evaluating a review having unstructured text comprises a segment splitter for separating at least a portion of the unstructured text into one or more segments, each segment comprising one or more words; a segment parser coupled to the segment splitter for assigning one or more lexical categories to one or more of the one or more words of each segment; an information extractor coupled to the segment parser for identifying a feature word and an opinion word contained in the one or more segments; and a sentiment rating engine coupled to the information extractor for calculating an opinion score based upon an opinion grouping, the opinion grouping including at least the feature word and the opinion word identified by the information extractor.

Abstract: A scraper system comprises a first scraper including a scraper manager for determining when to initiate content capture from a first website, the first website including content containing at least one end-user opinion corresponding to a category of interest; a navigation engine coupled to the scraper manager for navigating to the first website; a content capture engine coupled to the navigation engine for capturing the content on the first website; and a scraper database manager coupled to the content capture engine for controlling the storage of the captured content.

Abstract: Various methods and systems for detecting whether a network device supports a protocol, which defines a supplemental header, are disclosed. One method involves detecting a value within a preamble generated by a sending device and verifying that a header format of a header, also generated by the sending device, conforms to a header format definition of a protocol. The header format definition of the protocol defines a supplemental header. The preamble can be an Ethernet preamble. In one embodiment, the preamble is a converged data link (CDL) preamble or other type of preamble that is used to convey operation, administration and management (OAM) information.

Abstract: Various methods and systems for detecting whether a network device supports a protocol, which defines a supplemental header, are disclosed. One method involves detecting a value within a preamble generated by a sending device and verifying that a header format of a header, also generated by the sending device, conforms to a header format definition of a protocol. The header format definition of the protocol defines a supplemental header. The preamble can be an Ethernet preamble. In one embodiment, the preamble is a converged data link (CDL) preamble or other type of preamble that is used to convey operation, administration and management (OAM) information.

Abstract: An efficient distributed architecture for forwarding packets. The packet to be forwarded arrives in an ingress port, is processed by an ingress forwarding engine, transferred to an egress forwarding engine, and then transmitted via an egress port. An address-based lookup at the ingress forwarding engine identifies the correct egress forwarding engine and also identifies a translation index specifying the forwarding equivalence class (e.g., combination of address prefix and mask) of the packet. The egress forwarding engine then uses the translation index as a memory pointer to recover adjacency information with which to rewrite the packet header. The egress forwarding engine may maintain its adjacency information entirely locally without the need to share the information or propagate updates to ingress forwarding engines. This approach results in a scalable and highly efficient packet forwarding architecture.

Abstract: Various methods and systems for detecting whether a network device supports a protocol, which defines a supplemental header, are disclosed. One method involves detecting a value within a preamble generated by a sending device and verifying that a header format of a header, also generated by the sending device, conforms to a header format definition of a protocol. The header format definition of the protocol defines a supplemental header. The preamble can be an Ethernet preamble. In one embodiment, the preamble is a converged data link (CDL) preamble or other type of preamble that is used to convey operation, administration and management (OAM) information.

Abstract: A virtual network device cluster includes several different virtual network device sub-units, which collectively operate as a single logical network device. The virtual network device cluster identifies the virtual network device sub-unit via which a given packet enters the virtual network device cluster. A packet is forwarded through the virtual network device cluster based on which virtual network device sub-unit has been identified for that packet. In one embodiment, a method involves receiving a packet via a first interface of a first one of several virtual network device sub-units of a virtual network device and associating the packet with the first one of the virtual network device sub-units. The method also involves inhibiting the packet from being sent via an interface of one of the virtual network device sub-units, in response to the packet being associated with the first one of the virtual network device sub-units.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for a token bucket metering or policing system with a delayed filing scheme which may be used, inter alia, in a computer or communications system, such as a packet switching system, router, or other device. The token bucket scheme updates the number of tokens in a particular bucket in response to an expiration of a timer or a receipt of a packet corresponding to a packet stream being metered or policed based on the particular bucket. One implementation determines whether a difference between a current time value with a last bucket update time value equals or exceeds a predetermined time interval. If the difference between the current time value with the last bucket update time value equals or exceeds the predetermined time interval, then a predetermined number of tokens is added to a bucket, and the last bucket update time value is incremented by approximately the predetermined time interval.

Abstract: A virtual network device sub-unit includes an interface to a virtual network device link and a distributed forwarding module. The interface receives a packet, and the distributed forwarding module forwards the packet received by the interface. The distributed forwarding module performs an ingress lookup if the packet includes a multicast destination address and an egress lookup if the packet includes a unicast destination address. If the packet includes a multicast destination address, the distributed forwarding module replicates the packet for each of several outgoing VLANs associated with the multicast destination address. If an additional multicast packet is received via an interface that is not coupled to a virtual network device link, the distributed forwarding module sends at most one copy of the additional multicast packet via the virtual network device link.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for supporting online consultations are disclosed. In order to submit an online consultation request, a user registers to receive online consultation services. During the preliminary registration process, an online messaging privileges request is transmitted to a healthcare provider requesting that online messaging privileges be granted to the user. During the registration process, the healthcare provider may choose to decline the online messaging privileges request (e.g., if the user is not a patient of the healthcare provider) or accept the online messaging privileges request, thereby enabling the user to send online messages to and receive online messages from the healthcare provider via the Internet. Upon successful completion of the registration process, the user submits an online consultation request message via the Internet indicating that medical information and/or medical advice are requested from a healthcare provider.