Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination device, each routing arc comprising a first network device as a first end of the routing arc, a second network device as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network device configured for routing any network traffic along the routing arc toward the destination device via any one of the first or second ends of the routing arc; and causing the network traffic to be forwarded along at least one of the routing arcs to the destination device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the locations of a plurality of network devices in a low power and lossy network (LLN) are determined along an intelligent wire. One or more neighboring devices for each network device in the plurality are identified based on the locations of the network devices along the intelligent wire. A communication schedule for the network devices is determined that prevents neighboring devices along the intelligent wire from transmitting on the same frequency. The network devices are assigned to communication time slots based on the communication schedule. The network devices are also assigned frequency offsets based on the communication schedule.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a device (e.g., switch or registry) maintains a binding table for all internet protocol (IP) addresses in a particular subnet associated with the device, and in response to receiving a neighbor solicitation (NS) lookup message from a router for a particular address, determines whether the particular address is within the binding table. When the particular address is not within the binding table, the device causes the router to not store the particular address in a neighbor discovery (ND) cache at the router (e.g., by responding to clear the cache, or ignoring to prevent state from being created). In another embodiment, the ND-requesting router ensures that the particular address is not kept in an ND cache at the router in response to the device indicating that the particular address is not within its binding table (e.g., an explicit response to clear, or absence of instruction to store state).

Abstract: A network includes multiple routing arcs for routing network traffic to a destination. Each arc comprising nodes connected in sequence by reversible links oriented away from a node initially holding a cursor toward one of first and second edge nodes through which the network traffic exits the arc. Each node includes a network device. The nodes in the arc detect a first failure in the arc. Responsive to the detecting the first failure, the nodes exchange first management frames over a data plane within the arc in order to transfer the cursor from the node initially holding the cursor to a first node proximate the first failure and reverse links in the arc as appropriate so that the network traffic in the arc is directed away from the first failure toward the first edge node of the arc through which the network traffic is able to exit the arc.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a lower protocol layer in a network device filters packets based on a class and a particular of a destination address prior to sending information from the received packet to a higher protocol layer. For example, certain constrained networks include network nodes that do not have the ability to maintain a multicast distribution entry for each multicast address used in the network. By only forwarding on a portion of a multicast address, packets are often delivered to nodes in addition to the actual multicast subscribers. By filtering these incorrectly delivered packets at a lower protocol layer (e.g., layer-2 or layer-3), processing cycles at higher protocol layers are avoided. Additionally in one embodiment, class and particulars are deterministically determined (e.g., using a same hashing function) such that services can be discovered and used by subscribing to a corresponding multicast group.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises identifying an age of payload data in a data packet by a wireless network node configured for transmitting the data packet to a multi-hop destination via a wireless mesh network; determining by the wireless network node a schedule for the data packet reaching the multi-hop destination; and the wireless network node prioritizing queuing of the data packet for Collision Sense with Multiple Access and Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA) based wireless transmission in the wireless mesh network based on the corresponding age, relative to the schedule and respective ages of other data packets awaiting transmission by the wireless network node to the destination, where a higher-aged data packet relative to the schedule is granted a higher priority than a lower-aged data packet relative to the schedule.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a device (e.g., switch or registry) maintains a binding table for all internet protocol (IP) addresses in a particular subnet associated with the device, and in response to receiving a neighbor solicitation (NS) lookup message from a router for a particular address, determines whether the particular address is within the binding table. When the particular address is not within the binding table, the device causes the router to not store the particular address in a neighbor discovery (ND) cache at the router (e.g., by responding to clear the cache, or ignoring to prevent state from being created). In another embodiment, the ND-requesting router ensures that the particular address is not kept in an ND cache at the router in response to the device indicating that the particular address is not within its binding table (e.g., an explicit response to clear, or absence of instruction to store state).

Abstract: In one embodiment, a network device determines a set of routes to one or more reachable addresses and also a set of no-routes to one or more non-reachable addresses in a computer network. The routes and no-routes may then be aggregated into one or more reachable route prefixes with one or more corresponding non-reachable no-route prefix exceptions. As such, the aggregated combination of route prefixes and no-route prefix exceptions may be utilized by the network device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an initial path is established in a wireless deterministic network between a source and a destination through one or more intermediate nodes, which are typically informed of a required metric between the source and the destination for communicating a packet. The initial path is locally (e.g., without contacting a path computation engine) reconfigured to bypass at least one of the intermediate nodes creating a new path, with the new path meeting the requirement(s) of the metric. Note, “locally reconfiguring” refers to the network nodes themselves determining a replacement path without reliance on a path computation engine or other entity (e.g., network management system, operating support system) in determining the replacement path. In one embodiment, a network node not on the initial path replaces a node on the initial path while using the same receive and send timeslots used in the initial path.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a device both communicates with a network operating a distributed proactive routing protocol, and participates in a centralized path computation protocol. The device communicates routing characteristics of the distributed proactive routing protocol for the network from the network to the centralized path computation protocol, and also communicates one or more computed paths from the centralized path computation protocol to the network, where the computed paths from the centralized path computation protocol are based on the routing characteristics of the distributed proactive routing protocol for the network.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises a path computation device receiving device information from member network devices, each member network device belonging to a directed acyclic graph to a destination in a low power lossy network; and the path computation device classifying each member network device belonging to a directed acyclic graph as belonging to a dominating set, for generation of optimized routes distinct from any directed acyclic graph, for reaching any one of the member network devices of the dominating set.

Abstract: In one embodiment, sensor data is transported in a network to a rendezvous point network node, which consolidates the information into a consolidated result which is communicated to the destination. Such consolidation by a network node reduces the number of paths required in the network between the sensors and the destination. One embodiment includes acquiring, by each of a plurality of originating nodes in a wireless deterministic network, external data related to a same physical event; communicating through the network said external data from each of the plurality of originating nodes to a rendezvous point network node (RP) within the network; processing, by the RP, said external data from each of the plurality of originating nodes to produce a consolidated result; and communicating the consolidated result to a destination node of the network. In one embodiment, the network is a low power lossy network (LLN).

Abstract: In one embodiment, a node (e.g., a router) performs reservations for data flows, each on a corresponding selected (reserved) path having adequate reservation availability. Also, the node forwards data from data flows, each over a corresponding selected (forwarded) path having adequate load availability, wherein forwarded paths are decoupled from reserved paths for the data flows.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination device, each routing arc comprising a first network device as a first end of the routing arc, a second network device as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network device configured for routing any network traffic along the routing arc toward the destination device via any one of the first or second ends of the routing arc; and load balancing the network traffic along the routing arcs based on traffic metrics obtained at the first and second ends of the routing arcs, including selectively sending a backpressure command to a first one of the routing arcs supplying at least a portion of the network traffic to a congested one of the routing arcs.

Abstract: One embodiment includes: determining, by a particular networked device, sending and receiving time slots for progressively communicating a particular packet among nodes of an arc of an Available Routing Construct (ARC) chain topology network in both directions on the arc to reach each edge node of the arc; and determining, by the particular networked device, for each edge node of the arc a predetermined respective time slot for communicating the particular packet to a respective child node on a second arc of the ARC chain topology network. One embodiment includes respectively installing said determined time slots in said nodes of the arc. In one embodiment, the network is a wireless deterministic network. In one embodiment, the predetermined respective time slot for each particular edge node is after all time slots in which the particular packet could be received by said particular edge node.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a network of nodes is configured to communicate according to a configuration of Available Routing Construct (ARC) chains as well as monitoring communication in the network, and/or selectively controls whether or not provisioned particular links will be used. One embodiment colors nodes of the network (e.g., a wireless deterministic network) along different paths through the network and marks packets with the color of each traversed node to track a path taken by a packet. One embodiment sends a particular packet through the network and marks over which links the packet traverses and aggregates these traversed links of other copies of the particular packet. One embodiment controls whether or not the provisioned time slots are used based on flooding a control packet through the network with enable or disable information for each of these links.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a first node in a wireless deterministic network communicates to a second node configuration information identifying a destination-facing path portion of a particular one-way path traversing from a source node to a destination node within the wireless deterministic network. The destination-facing portion includes a path traversing from the second node over one or more additional nodes to the destination node over which to forward packets received over a first portion of the particular one-way path from the source node to the second node. The configuration information includes a particular time slot for the second node to receive packets being sent over the particular one-way path. In one embodiment, the first node receives from the second node an acknowledgement message in the particular time slot that the destination-facing portion of the particular one-way path was configured and activated.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a device (e.g., path computation device) informs a network management device of a plurality of possible probing profiles, where nodes of a computer network receive the plurality of possible probing profiles from the network management device. Based on determining that particular information is desired from one or more particular nodes of the nodes of the computer network, the device may then select one or more particular probing profiles of the plurality of possible probing profiles based on the particular information, and instructs the one or more particular nodes to probe one or more particular destination nodes according to the one or more particular probing profiles.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an agent device discovers a set of path computation elements (PCEs) and corresponding available capabilities and resources, and determines particular capabilities and resources of interest in a particular computer network. Upon building a simplified view of the available capabilities and resources of the set of PCEs based on the particular capabilities and resources of interest, the agent device advertises the simplified view of the available capabilities and resources into the particular computer network.

Abstract: One embodiment allocates and uses exclusive and overlapping transmission units in a network. One embodiment includes sending information, from a first network node in a network, during an exclusive transmission unit, wherein the exclusive transmission unit includes one or more wireless time slot-frequency pairings assigned to the first network node to send info nation without another assigned network transmission unit providing overlapping time slot-frequency interference from another network node communicating in the network. One embodiment includes sending information, from the first network node, during an overlapping transmission unit, wherein the overlapping transmission unit includes one or more wireless time slot-frequency pairings assigned to the first network node to send information, with the overlapping transmission unit overlapping in time slot-frequency with one or more other assigned network transmission units that will cause interference if simultaneously used.