Abstract: A system and method for transmitting data from a first site to a second site over a shared Multi-Protocol Label Switched (MPLS) network comprising a plurality of routers, including an ingress router in communication with the first site and an egress router in communication with the second site, includes configuring a plurality of label switching paths between the ingress router and the egress router over a plurality of label switching devices.

Abstract: Packet switching node in a communication system includes apparatus for receiving incoming information packets or frames which contain header portions with formatting control blocks. Information in the frame's header contains frame alteration commands for modifying the information in the frame. The modifications include adding new information, deleting information, and overlaying information. Decoders and control devices in an alteration engine interpret the commands and apply the modifications to the frame data. Common and standard data patterns are stored for insertion or overlaying to conserve data packet space.

Abstract: A multicast processor minimizes the software resource needed to process multicast protocol and broadcast protocol for bridges and routers in a network processor based environment. The multicast forwarding processor receives multicast and broadcast Layer 2/Layer 3/Layer 4 (L2/L3/L4) frames from a network processor. During reception, a frame layer flag, a unicast/multicast flag, and a frame position flag are set. A multitask forwarding table is accessed, and the frame, unicast/multicast, and frame position flags are stored and updated. The frame, unicast/multicast, and frame position flags are then sent to a frame forwarding processor. The L2/L3/L4 frames are routed to an L2 learning processor. The L2/L3/L4 frames are received from the frame forwarding processor, and the L2/L3/L4 frames are sent to an L3/L4 processor for frame header modification. The modified L2/L3/L4 frames are received from said L3/L4 processor, and the modified L2/L3/L4 frames are sent to an L2 filter processor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing network frames by embedding control information achieves an efficient frame processing system within a network processor (NP). The layer type of the frame can be quickly determined by the layer processing components of picocode running on the NP by examining control information that is written by ingress processing layers to produce a modified frame format. The frames are routed to appropriate layer processors and processing for certain layers may be bypassed if the picocode determines that no processing is required at that layer. The frame may also be discarded completely by any of the layer processors.

Abstract: The CRC for the CPS Header of an ATM AAL2 cell is generated by a CRC generator which uses the 8 bits of the CID field to generate partial 5 bits CRCs which are loaded in a first table. The 6 bits LI field and 5 bits UUI field are added to the partial 5 bits CRC to form 16 bits. The CRC generator uses the 216 bits to generate a second CRC table. The CRC for a particular CPS header is generated by correlating bits in the CID field, Li field and UUI field with the two tables.

Abstract: A system and method for providing the ability for a network processor to select from multiple next hop options for a single forwarding entry and provide the ability to weight the probability of which next hop will be chosen.

Abstract: A method and system for reducing the lookup time in packet forwarding on computer networks. A first lookup is performed in a memory tree to find a first protocol forwarding entry in the memory tree. The forwarding entry includes first protocol (e.g., EGP) information and cached associated second protocol (e.g., IGP) information. Both EGP and IGP information are retrievable with the first lookup and used in the determination of an EGP route for the data packet. If the cached IGP information has been invalidated due to address updates, a second lookup can be performed to find an original IGP entry in the memory tree, the information from which can be cached in the EGP forwarding entry if a background maintenance task has finished designating all the EGP entries as having out-of-date caches.

Abstract: A controllable mechanism for by-passing Layer 4 (L4) classification is based on the insertion into a set of Layer 3 (L3) rules in an L3 lookup tree set of Layer 4 (L4) Classification Required Flags. The state of the L4 classification flag is set by comparing the L4 classification rule to an IP (Internet Protocol) lookup rule. Routing is accomplished by selecting which rule to apply to the data packet and reading the state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag. In response to a first state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag, an L4 classification is performed followed by a routing of the data packet. In response to a second state of the corresponding L4 Classification Required Flag performing a routing of said data packet. In a second embodiment, the method inserts into a set of L3 rules in L3 lookup means a set L4 Classification Required Flags and Global Flags.

Abstract: A forwarding table, in a network device such as a router, used to forward packets in a communications network includes indicia whose state determine whether information contained in the forwarding table or information contained in the header portion of a packet is to be used to forward the packet to the next hop (i.e. next point in the route).

Abstract: The Internet data defining destinations accessible by a router are partitioned into a portion containing the address search information and a portion containing forwarding option data. The address search information is stored in fast memory in a tree search format and the set of possible next destinations are stored as forwarding option data in slower memory at addresses derived algorithmically from the tree search address information. Internet data packets are received and data therein is compared to determine the best match address in the fast memory to the set of possible best next destinations. The multiple accesses necessary to determine the best match address are confined to high speed memory. An algorithm receives option data from an Internet packet and option threshold data from the best match address of the high speed memory and determines which address of the slower memory has the desired forwarding data using one access.

Abstract: In a distributed networking environment employing several general purpose processors (i.e., control point processors) for controlling one or more network processor devices, a mechanism for distributing processing across several general purpose processors and interface for configuring a network processor so that specific general purpose processors handle specific operations in a large networking environment, thus, reducing requirement for provisioning a plurality of protocol stacks on each general purpose processor.

Abstract: In a network processor-based device, there is provided a single routing table for network routers and an efficient routing algorithm implemented by the routing device. The routing table includes packet forwarding information including a subnet address associated with a destination address location, an ISO layer three (3) network protocol address, e.g., IP address, of a router interface that can route packets to the subnet address, and an identifier indicating whether that router is an exit BGP router that may or may not be directly attached to the packet forwarding router. A table look-up mechanism is provided to determine next hop information and determine associated BGP status of the next hop. At such time it is determined that a router is not a BGP router (i.e., is directly attached to the forwarding router), the packet will be transmitted to that router.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for preventing at least in part overloading of a control processor. A network device may comprise at least one network processor and at least one control processor. The control processor may be configured to process slow path packets that are redirected from a network processor to the control processor. The control processor may configure control blocks to determine if the bandwidth for the control processor will be exceeded by the network processor transferring another slow path packet to the control processor. If the control block determines that transmitting the slow path packet would exceed the processing capacity of the control processor, then the control block may generate a result indicating for the network processor to discard the received packet. By discarding packets that exceed the processing capacity of the control processor, overloading of the control processor may at least in part be prevented.

Abstract: A controllable mechanism for by-passing Layer 4 (L4) classification is based on the insertion into a set of MAC rules in SA MAC lookup means a set of Layer 4 (L4) Skip Classification Flags. Routing is accomplished by selecting which rule to apply to the packet and reading the state of the corresponding L4 Skip Classification Flag. In response to a first state of said corresponding L4 Skip Classification Flag, performing an L4 classification followed by a routing of the data packet. In response to a second state of said corresponding L4 Skip Classification Flag, reading the state of a Global Classification Flag. In response to a first state of said Global Classification Flag, performing an L4 classification followed by a routing of said data packet. In response to a second state of said Global Classification Flag performing a routing of the data packet.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for routing packets. A network device, e.g., router, may comprise a switch fabric coupled to a plurality of blades where each blade may comprise one or more network processors coupled to one or more physical ports. The physical ports may be connected to another one or more network devices. A plurality of physical ports across one or more blades connected to the same network device may be logically mapped into a logical interface to that network device. By logically grouping a plurality of physical ports into a logical interface to a network device, a network processor may be able to transmit packets of data to that network device across multiple ports instead of one physical port.

Abstract: In a network environment including one or more network processing (NP) devices implementing for communicating packets, each NP device supporting a forwarding table comprising entries to enable forwarding of received data packets from a source device to a destination device according to a routing protocol via a network connection, the network device routing receiving updated forwarding table entries from one or more network control devices executing routing protocol applications, a system and method for updating forwarding table entries comprises: generating for each forwarding table entry update, a data structure indicating identification of the routing protocol application and a version of a particular routing protocol application instance generating the entry update, the data structure received by the forwarding table and incorporated within a respective forwarding table entry; identifying for deletion forwarding table entries having data structures matching a designated selection criteria; and, deleting th

Abstract: In a networking environment including one or more network processing (NP) devices and implementing a routing protocol for routing data packets from a source NP devices to destination NP devices via a switch fabric, with each network processing device supporting a number of interface ports, a system and method for enabling a routing system to recover more quickly that the routing protocol so as to significantly reduce the occurrence of lost data packets to a failed target interface/blade. The routing system is enabled to track the operational status of each network processor device and operational status of destination ports supported by each network processor device in the system, and maintains the operational status as a data structure at each network processing device.