Patents by Inventor Mark Townsley

Mark Townsley has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240364669
    Abstract: Techniques for routing Internet Protocol security (IPsec) data packets. An index is assigned to a Security Parameter Index (SPI) header of the IPsec data packet. The index includes information for routing the data packet to a particular Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) processor. The data packet can be routed using techniques that are analogous to conventional routing protocols such as IPv4 routing protocol. This allows the data packet to be routed using less expensive routing protocols rather than relying solely on more expensive load balancing techniques to route the data packet. This also advantageously allows the data packet to be routed employing routing techniques developed over decades of routing protocol development.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2023
    Publication date: October 31, 2024
    Inventors: William Mark Townsley, Edward Albert Warnicke, Jerome Tollet, Aloys Augustin, Andrew Yourtchenko, Giles Douglas Yorke Heron
  • Patent number: 12081430
    Abstract: Techniques for a hub node to, provisioned in a network site of a hub and spoke overlay network, to receive a network advertisement from the spoke, decode network routing requirements from a border gateway protocol (BGP) large community associated with the network advertisement, and store the network routing requirements in association with a route associated with the spoke. The routing requirements may indicate one or more service(s) to be applied to the packet, a trust level associated with the spoke, and/or a trust zone associated with the spoke. The hub node may receive a packet from the spoke to be transmitted to destination spoke. The hub node may then route the packet to the destination spoke, drop the packet, or send the packet to a service node configured to apply the one or more services to the packet based on the routing requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Hari Shankar, Eui Sun Ahn, Jeffery Rodd Daviss, Rashmi Garg, Jon Langemak, William Mark Townsley
  • Publication number: 20240106679
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2023
    Publication date: March 28, 2024
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Publication number: 20240015091
    Abstract: Techniques for a hub node to, provisioned in a network site of a hub and spoke overlay network, to receive a network advertisement from the spoke, decode network routing requirements from a border gateway protocol (BGP) large community associated with the network advertisement, and store the network routing requirements in association with a route associated with the spoke. The routing requirements may indicate one or more service(s) to be applied to the packet, a trust level associated with the spoke, and/or a trust zone associated with the spoke. The hub node may receive a packet from the spoke to be transmitted to destination spoke. The hub node may then route the packet to the destination spoke, drop the packet, or send the packet to a service node configured to apply the one or more services to the packet based on the routing requirements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2022
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Hari Shankar, Eui Sun Ahn, Jeffery Rodd Daviss, Rashmi Garg, Jon Langemak, William Mark Townsley
  • Patent number: 11855802
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Publication number: 20230403235
    Abstract: Load aware load balancing may be provided. Flow duration data associated with a plurality of flows associated with a plurality of servers may be obtained. Then a plurality of queue lengths respectively associated with the plurality of servers may be obtained. Next, a Shortest Expected Delay (SED) score may be determined for each of the plurality of servers based on the flow duration data and the plurality of queue lengths. A flow may then be assigned to a one of the plurality of servers having the lowest SED score.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2022
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Applicant: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhiyuan Yao, Yoann Louis Simon Desmouceaux, Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley
  • Patent number: 11822443
    Abstract: This disclosure describes techniques for providing a distributed scalable architecture for Network Address Translation (NAT) systems with high availability and mitigations for flow breakage during failover events. The NAT servers may include functionality to serve as fast-path servers and/or slow-path servers. A fast-path server may include a NAT worker that includes a cache of NAT mappings to perform stateful network address translation and to forward packets with minimal latency. A slow-path server may include a mapping server that creates new NAT mappings, depreciates old ones, and answers NAT worker state requests. The NAT system may use virtual mapping servers (VMSs) running on primary physical servers with state duplicated VMSs on different physical failover servers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, Ian James Wells, Kyle Andrew Donald Mestery, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, Guillaume Ruty, Aloys Augustin
  • Publication number: 20230269228
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to managing network traffic in a cloud-based secure access service. In one aspect, a method includes determining, by a controller of a cloud-based secure access service, that data packets from a user device should be dropped, a plurality of user devices, including the user device, being remotely connected to the controller for access to the cloud-based secure access service; determining, by the controller, a type of remote connection through which the user device is connected to the controller, each type of remote connection having a corresponding communication prototype; and transmitting a message, by the controller, to the user device, over a control protocol corresponding to the type of remote connection through which the user device is connected to the controller, the message providing a signal to the user device to drop packets at the user device prior to sending the packets to the controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Publication date: August 24, 2023
    Inventors: Kyle Andrew Donald Mestery, Mark A. Bakke, William Mark Townsley
  • Publication number: 20230269191
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to network traffic management and load balancing at a cloud-based secure access service accessible to remotely connected user devices. In one example, a cloud-based secure service system includes a network controller configured to receive network traffic from one or more user devices remotely connected to the controller; parse the network traffic into flow data and contextual information associated with the network traffic; determine that the network traffic is to be serviced by a target firewall service at the cloud-based secure service system based on the flow data and the contextual information; and direct the network traffic to the target firewall service to be serviced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2022
    Publication date: August 24, 2023
    Inventors: Kyle Andrew Donald Mestery, Mark A. Bakke, William Mark Townsley
  • Publication number: 20230155859
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2023
    Publication date: May 18, 2023
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Patent number: 11588783
    Abstract: A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes, for each of a plurality of individual storage units collectively comprising a virtual storage unit, mapping an internal address of the storage unit to a unique IP address, wherein each of the storage units comprises a block of storage on one of a plurality of physical storage devices and wherein the IP address includes a virtual storage unit number identifying the virtual storage unit; receiving from a client a request to perform an operation on at least one of the data storage units, wherein the request identifies the internal address of the at least one of the data storage units; translating the internal address of the at least one of the data storage unit to the unique IP address of the at least one of the data storage units; and performing the requested operation on the at least one of the data storage units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Seth Mason, William Mark Townsley, Andre Surcouf, Thierry Gruszka, Mohammed Hawari
  • Patent number: 11575540
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Publication number: 20220413975
    Abstract: This disclosure describes techniques for providing a distributed scalable architecture for Network Address Translation (NAT) systems with high availability and mitigations for flow breakage during failover events. The NAT servers may include functionality to serve as fast-path servers and/or slow-path servers. A fast-path server may include a NAT worker that includes a cache of NAT mappings to perform stateful network address translation and to forward packets with minimal latency. A slow-path server may include a mapping server that creates new NAT mappings, depreciates old ones, and answers NAT worker state requests. The NAT system may use virtual mapping servers (VMSs) running on primary physical servers with state duplicated VMSs on different physical failover servers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 2, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, Ian James Wells, Kyle Andrew Donald Mestery, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, Guillaume Ruty, Aloys Augustin
  • Publication number: 20220407736
    Abstract: Methods, network devices and computer readable media are disclosed relating to a communication network. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a message comprising a message bit array. The message bit array identifies egress nodes for the message within a bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) domain of a communications network. A first bit position in the message bit array represents a first one or more of the egress nodes, and a bit value at the first bit position indicates that the message is to be forwarded to one of the first one or more of the egress nodes. The method further includes accessing a first forwarding table entry corresponding to the first bit position, determining whether the first bit position is an anycast bit position having multiple corresponding forwarding table entries, and forwarding the message to one of the first one or more of the egress nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2022
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Inventors: Ijsbrand Wijnands, Pierre Pfister, Neale D.R Ranns, W. Mark Townsley, Gregory J. Shepherd
  • Patent number: 11470176
    Abstract: The present technology provides a system, method and computer readable medium for steering a content request among plurality of cache servers based on multi-level assessment of content popularity. In some embodiments a three levels of popularity may be determined comprising popular, semi-popular and unpopular designations for the queried content. The processing of the query and delivery of the requested content depends on the aforementioned popularity level designation and comprises a acceptance of the query at the edge cache server to which the query was originally directed, rejection of the query and re-direction to a second edge cache server or redirection of the query to origin server to thereby deliver the requested content. The proposed technology results in higher hit ratio for edge cache clusters by steering requests for semi-popular content to one or more additional cache servers while forwarding request for unpopular content to origin server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Marcel Paul Sosthène Enguehard, Yoann Desmouceaux, Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Eric Vyncke
  • Patent number: 11436111
    Abstract: This disclosure describes techniques for providing a distributed scalable architecture for Network Address Translation (NAT) systems with high availability and mitigations for flow breakage during failover events. The NAT servers may include functionality to serve as fast-path servers and/or slow-path servers. A fast-path server may include a NAT worker that includes a cache of NAT mappings to perform stateful network address translation and to forward packets with minimal latency. A slow-path server may include a mapping server that creates new NAT mappings, depreciates old ones, and answers NAT worker state requests. The NAT system may use virtual mapping servers (VMSs) running on primary physical servers with state duplicated VMSs on different physical failover servers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, Ian James Wells, Kyle Andrew Donald Mestery, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, Guillaume Ruty, Aloys Augustin
  • Patent number: 11438186
    Abstract: Methods, network devices and computer readable media are disclosed relating to a communication network. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a message comprising a message bit array. The message bit array identifies egress nodes for the message within a bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) domain of a communications network. A first bit position in the message bit array represents a first one or more of the egress nodes, and a bit value at the first bit position indicates that the message is to be forwarded to one of the first one or more of the egress nodes. The method further includes accessing a first forwarding table entry corresponding to the first bit position, determining whether the first bit position is an anycast bit position having multiple corresponding forwarding table entries, and forwarding the message to one of the first one or more of the egress nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Ijsbrand Wijnands, Pierre Pfister, Neale D. R. Ranns, W. Mark Townsley, Gregory J. Shepherd
  • Patent number: 11405236
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Publication number: 20220166646
    Abstract: This disclosure describes methods and systems to externally manage network-to-network interconnect configuration data in conjunction with a centralized database subsystem. An example of the methods includes receiving and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, data indicative of user intent to interconnect at least a first network and a second network. The example method further includes, based at least in part on the data indicative of user intent, determining and storing, in the centralized database subsystem, a network intent that corresponds to the user intent. The example method further includes providing data indicative of the network intent from the centralized database subsystem to a first data plane adaptor, associated with the first network, and a second data plane adaptor, associated with the second network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2022
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Pierre Pfister, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux, David Delano Ward
  • Patent number: 11283707
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide for segment routing (SR) with fast reroute in a container network. An SR ingress can receive a packet from a first container destined for a container service. The ingress can generate an SR packet including a segment list comprising a first segment to a first container service host, a second segment to a second service host, and a third segment to the service. The ingress can forward the SR packet to a first SR egress corresponding to the first host using the first segment. The first egress can determine whether the first service and/or host is reachable. If so, the first egress can forward the SR packet to the first host or the packet to the service. If not, the first egress can perform a fast reroute and forward the SR packet to a second SR egress corresponding to the second host using the second segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Giles Douglas Yorke Heron, Edward A. Warnicke, William Mark Townsley, Yoann Desmouceaux