Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch is configurable to be a member of a first fabric switch. The switch includes a link aggregation module. During operation, the link aggregation module marks an ingress-switch field of a frame with a virtual switch identifier. This virtual switch identifier is associated with the switch and a second switch, which is a member of a second fabric switch, and is from a range of identifier associated with the first fabric switch and the second fabric switch. Each of the first fabric switch and the second fabric switch is operable to accommodate a plurality of switches and operate as a single switch.

Abstract: A diagnostic testing utility is used to perform single link diagnostics tests including an electrical loopback test, an optical loopback test, a link traffic test, and a link distance measurement test. To perform the diagnostic tests, two ports at each end of a link are identified and then statically configured by a user. The ports will be configured as D_Ports and as such will be isolated from the fabric with no data traffic flowing through them. The ports will then be used to send test frames to perform the diagnostic tests.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a gateway subgroup module, a tunnel management module, and a packet processor. The gateway subgroup module operates the switch in conjunction with a remote switch to form a gateway subgroup. The switch and the remote switch actively operate as tunnel gateways. The tunnel management module maintains a data structure indicating whether a tunnel source subnet is associated with the gateway subgroup. The packet processor decapsulates a tunnel-encapsulated packet in response to a tunnel source subnet of the tunnel-encapsulated packet being associated with the gateway subgroup.

Abstract: Systems for performing inline wire speed data deduplication are described herein. Some embodiments include a device for inline data deduplication that includes one or more input ports for receiving an input data stream containing duplicates, one or more output ports for providing a data deduplicated output data stream, and an inline data deduplication engine coupled to one or more input ports and one or more output ports to process input data containing duplicates into output data which is data deduplicated, where the inline data deduplication engine has an inline data deduplication bandwidth of at least 4 Gigabytes per second.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a wireless network controller. The wireless network controller includes a data structure, a tunnel management scheme, an encapsulation mechanism, and a forwarding mechanism. The data structure stores a TRILL RBridge identifier associated with a remote wireless network controller. The tunnel management mechanism maintains a tunnel with a local access point, and the encapsulation mechanism encapsulates a packet received from the tunnel with a TRILL header which includes the RBridge identifier of the remote wireless network controller. The forwarding mechanism forwards the encapsulated packet.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a notification mechanism. The notification mechanism constructs a single message that contains a locally learned MAC address associated with a local device, a TRILL RBridge identifier associated with the switch, and an identifier of an interface associated with the MAC address. In some embodiments, the switch includes a data structure and an entry management mechanism. The data structure stores device information learned at a remote switch, wherein the device information includes a MAC address of a device, a TRILL RBridge identifier associated with the remote switch, an identifier of an interface coupled to the device, and a type indicator of the MAC address. The entry management mechanism manages an entry in the data structure based on the RBridge identifier and the interface identifier.

Abstract: An FCoE VN_Port virtualizer where VF_Ports are used to connect downstream to host and target VN_Ports and a VN_Port is used to connect upstream to further FCoE VN_Port virtualizers or to an FCF. An alternate embodiment uses an Ethernet Fabric for an additional purpose. The Ethernet Fabric devices all act as FCoE VN_Port virtualizers, so that the Ethernet Fabric itself is considered a virtual FCoE VN_Port virtualizer.

Abstract: Pluggable transceiver modules with additional functions and circuitry contained within the module. In a first embodiment, additional circuitry is added to determine bit error rates at the point of the module itself. This allows a much better diagnostic evaluation of location of problem. In an alternate embodiment, various logic is placed in the module. In a first alternate embodiment encryption/decryption units are placed in the converter module so that encryption and decryption operations on the serial bitstream do not need to be performed in a switch. Existing switches can be used but the interconnecting links can still be encrypted. A second alternate embodiment includes compression/decompression units placed in the module to allow effective higher throughput on the selected links.

Abstract: An electronic device includes a bulkhead assembly. The bulkhead assembly includes a bulkhead and one or more cable cassettes coupled to the bulkhead. The cable cassettes include floating connectors. The cable cassettes are modular assemblies that contain all the wiring and connectors. As the connectors float in the cable cassettes, the cable cassettes are blind mated to the bulkhead as standalone units.

Abstract: Back pressure is mapped within a network, and primary bottlenecks are distinguished from dependent bottlenecks. Further, the presently disclosed technology is capable of performing network healing operations designed to reduce the data load on primary bottlenecks while ignoring dependent bottlenecks. Still further, the presently disclosed technology teaches identifying and/or suggesting a switch port for adding a node to the network. More specifically, various implementations analyze traffic load and back pressure in a network, identify primary and dependent bottlenecks, resolve the primary bottlenecks, collect new node parameters, and/or select a switch port for the new node. Further, a command can be sent to a selected switch to activate an indicator on the selected port. New node parameters may include new node type, maximum load, minimum load, time of maximum load, time of minimum load and type of data associated with the new node.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch which comprises one or more ports adapted to receive packets. The switch is a member of a network of interconnected switches, and also comprises a path monitoring apparatus adapted to: in response to a control packet associated with a session within a predetermined time interval, set a receive indicator for the switch to an active state; and in response to absence of the control packet associated with the session within the predetermined time interval, set the receive indicator for the switch to an inactive state. The path monitoring apparatus is also adapted to set a path state associated with the session based on the receive indicators for the switch and other member switches. The switch also comprises a broadcast apparatus adapted to broadcast at least the receive indicator for the switch to the other member switches.

Abstract: A switch can reduce power consumption in a switch network by disabling under-utilized links between switches. The switch can include one or more line cards each operable to transmit and receive packets over a respective link to a remote switch. The switch can also comprise a control mechanism operable to place under-utilized links in standby mode whenever possible to conserve power. During operation, the switch can receive a standby request for placing a first link to a neighboring switch in a standby mode, and determines whether one or more eligible links to the neighboring switch can accommodate traffic from the first link. If the eligible links are able to accommodate traffic from the first link, and if the local switch and the neighboring switch agree to place the first link in standby mode, the local switch proceeds to place the first link in standby mode.

Abstract: Ethernet Fabric devices all act as FCoE to FC gateways, so that the Ethernet Fabric itself is considered a virtual FCoE to FC gateway. Further, the Ethernet Fabric allows direct routing of FCoE packets from one FCoE device coupled to the Ethernet Fabric to another FCoE device coupled to the Ethernet Fabric.

Abstract: An intelligent system and an algorithm at a packet network to reduce the amount of signaling in the radio access network and core network is defined. The system collects all the necessary information from the signaling exchange between the radio access network and the core network and takes the subscription characteristics and policy information into consideration to choose the optimal way of reducing the amount of signaling including selecting the optimal bearers for certain types of communications and paging selected area instead of the whole area for each device. The bearer selection algorithm takes several things as input to choose the optimal bearer to perform the task.

Abstract: An electronic device includes a chassis base and a chassis cover which define an electronic enclosure. The chassis base includes a slant angle venting plate extending at an angle from a chassis base sidewall of the chassis base. The slant angle venting plate has a slant angle vent plate pattern formed therein. Further, the chassis cover includes a chassis cover venting pattern covering the slant angle vent plate pattern. As the slant angle venting plate is slanted, the available surface area in which to form the slant angle vent plate pattern is maximized thus maximizing air flow through the electronic enclosure.

Abstract: Stateful failover redundancy support is provided for network address translation (NAT). A master NAT device is backed-up with at least one back-up NAT device. Existing sessions are synchronized between the two NAT devices, such as via a dedicated link between them. In the event of a failover where the master NAT device is unable to perform its NAT functions, ownership of Internet protocol (IP) addresses is transferred from the master NAT device to the back-up NAT device. The back-up NAT device, which is now owner of the IP addresses, assumes the NAT functionality associated with these IP addresses and continues the existing sessions, as well as processing new sessions.

Abstract: Techniques for enabling peer-to-peer transmission of stateful packet flows in a virtualized network environment are provided. In certain embodiments, a computer system receives a packet belonging to a stateful flow between a first virtual machine and a second virtual machine, accesses flow associating information (e.g., network address) from the packet, determines a second computer system comprising a state analysis owner for the stateful flow, using the flow associating information, and transmits the first packet to the second computer system.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing system capable of providing feedback to a controller in a software-defined network. The computing system includes a policy management module and a communication module coupled to the policy management module. During operation, the policy management module recognizes a local policy indicating how a data flow is to be processed and identifies a data flow associated with the policy. The communication module constructs a request for a flow definition from a controller in a software-defined network. A flow definition indicates how the data flow is processed in the software-defined network.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a computing system capable of providing feedback to a controller in a software-defined network. The computing system includes a policy management module and a communication module coupled to the policy management module. During operation, the policy management module recognizes a local policy indicating how a data flow is to be processed and identifies a data flow associated with the policy. The communication module constructs a request for a flow definition from a controller in a software-defined network. A flow definition indicates how the data flow is processed in the software-defined network.

Abstract: A distributed multilayered network routing architecture comprises multiple layers including a controller layer comprising a controller, a control plane layer comprising one or more control plane subsystems, and a data plane layer comprising one or more data plane subsystems. A controller may be coupled to one or more control plane subsystems. A control plane subsystem may in turn be coupled to one or more data plane subsystems, which may include one or more software data plane subsystems and/or hardware data plane subsystems. In certain embodiments, the locations of the various subsystems of a distributed router can be distributed among various devices in the network.