Abstract: A method is provided that is implemented by a computing device to automate management functions in a network. The method collects existing state of the network from local database tables, logs or remote system tables. An expected network state is generated from a predefined set of expectations. The expected network state is compared to the collected existing state to identify errors in the network. The method then generates a set of notifications for administrators for the identified errors.

Abstract: A method is provided that is implemented by a computing device to automate management functions in a network. The method collects existing state of the network from local database tables, logs or remote system tables. An expected network state is generated from a predefined set of expectations. The expected network state is compared to the collected existing state to identify errors in the network. The method then generates a set of notifications for administrators for the identified errors.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to networking, and more particularly to techniques and products for verifying, qualifying and/or quantifying the performance of networking devices and infrastructure. According to certain aspects, test equipment according to embodiments of the invention performs stress tests using both client and server emulation with very low overhead, providing a virtually unlimited number of servers and/or clients. According to further aspects, tests include the transfer of real files between clients and servers, not just test patterns. According to further aspects, test equipment includes an easy to use Web GUI interface. According to further aspects, tests are performed using TCP protocol, which is the predominant form of network traffic.

Abstract: An improved network flow sampling apparatus and corresponding method more intelligently selects flows to be reported beyond random flow or packet sampling intervals. Evaluation of flows selects top talkers or heavy hitters as important flows that most impact traffic and therefore should be reported. Top talkers are flows defined based on a customized definition according to, for example, number of packets in a flow, number of bytes in a flow, or bandwidth consumed by a flow. An external collector can thus proceed with traffic profiling or other flow monitoring purposes with a more intelligently determined network flow sample.

Abstract: An improved network flow sampling apparatus and corresponding method more intelligently selects flows to be reported beyond random flow or packet sampling intervals. Evaluation of flows selects top talkers or heavy hitters as important flows that most impact traffic and therefore should be reported. Top talkers are flows defined based on a customized definition according to, for example, number of packets in a flow, number of bytes in a flow, or bandwidth consumed by a flow. An external collector can thus proceed with traffic profiling or other flow monitoring purposes with a more intelligently determined network flow sample.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for converting priority based rules into isomorphic longest match rules. Rules for packet processing may be presented to a networking device in priority order, through an interface such as a Command Line Interface (CLI) or from networking applications which may reside on the networking device. The networking device may include hardware and/or software layers for accelerating packet processing; a forwarding layer may include hardware and/or software designed to perform longest match searches on packets. Prioritized rules may be converted into a data structure for the forwarding layer, so that a longest match search performed by the forwarding layer on the data structure is equivalent to a priority order search on the prioritized rules.

Abstract: An internetworking device having a set of network interface cards, where each network interface card is able to address and send data to any of the other network interface cards. According to one embodiment, when one of the network interface cards receives a network layer packet that should be forwarded to another one of the network interface cards, a process running on the network interface card that received the network layer packet determines a destination address of the network layer packet and determines whether the destination address matches a network layer address of the internetworking device. If the destination address does not match a network layer address of the internetworking device, the process further determines, based on the destination address of the network layer packet, the network interface card to which the network layer packet should be forwarded.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for converting priority based rules into isomorphic longest match rules. Rules for packet processing may be presented to a networking device in priority order, through an interface such as a Command Line Interface (CLI) or from networking applications which may reside on the networking device. The networking device may include hardware and/or software layers for accelerating packet processing; a forwarding layer may include hardware and/or software designed to perform longest match searches on packets. Prioritized rules may be converted into a data structure for the forwarding layer, so that a longest match search performed by the forwarding layer on the data structure is equivalent to a priority order search on the prioritized rules.