Abstract: Accelerating network convergence may be provided. Consistent with embodiments of the disclosure, a mapping server may be configured to map an interconnection of various network elements comprising at least the following: a wireless host, at least two access switches, a plurality of distribution switches, a core switch, a mobility controller, and a mapping database. The mapping server may then receive an indication from the mobility controller that the wireless host has roamed from a first access switch to a second access switch. In response to the indication, the mapping server may remap the interconnection of network elements in the mapping database to update network routing information associated with the wireless host.

Abstract: Accelerating network convergence may be provided. Consistent with embodiments of the disclosure, a mapping server may be configured to map an interconnection of various network elements comprising at least the following: a wireless host, at least two access switches, a plurality of distribution switches, a core switch, a mobility controller, and a mapping database. The mapping server may then receive an indication from the mobility controller that the wireless host has roamed from a first access switch to a second access switch. In response to the indication, the mapping server may remap the interconnection of network elements in the mapping database to update network routing information associated with the wireless host.

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 method and apparatus to apply aggregate ACL/QoS features using a redirect cause is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a control processor configured to support a plurality of virtual interfaces is provided, wherein each of the plurality of virtual interfaces is associated with a quality of service level. According to another embodiment, each quality of service level is associated with a processing bandwidth of the control processor. According to yet another embodiment, a control processor interface is provided coupled to the control processor which is configured to select a virtual interface of the plurality of virtual interfaces using data of a received data unit, and to transfer the received data unit to the selected virtual interface.

Abstract: Various systems and methods that allow multiple aggregation protocol sessions to be established in a daisy chain network are disclosed. One method involves sending a first aggregation protocol packet and a first session identifier associated therewith to a first network device via a first interface and sending a second aggregation protocol packet and a second session identifier associated therewith to a second network device via the first interface.

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: 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 systems and methods that allow multiple aggregation protocol sessions to be established in a daisy chain network are disclosed. One method involves sending a first aggregation protocol packet and a first session identifier associated therewith to a first network device via a first interface and sending a second aggregation protocol packet and a second session identifier associated therewith to a second network device via the first interface.

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 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.