Abstract: In one embodiment, a system, apparatus, and method are described for providing limited data connectivity for devices connected to a switch when the switch enters bootloader mode. The switch has a central processing unit (CPU), the CPU comprising a reload handler and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the ASIC comprising ASIC forwarding logic. The ASIC is instructed, by the reload handler, to store an ASIC database, the ASIC database for storing the ASIC forwarding logic. The reload handler maintains a physical layer (PHY) state of the switch. Use of spanning tree protocol (STP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) keepalive is disabled in the switch. A state of stack hardware is retained in switch memory. New ports of the switch are prevented from becoming active, and the ASIC forwarding logic is, in response to receiving the instruction, stored in the ASIC database. Related systems, apparatuses, and methods are also described.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system, apparatus, and method are described for providing limited data connectivity for devices connected to a switch when the switch enters bootloader mode. The switch has a central processing unit (CPU), the CPU comprising a reload handler and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the ASIC comprising ASIC forwarding logic. The ASIC is instructed, by the reload handler, to store an ASIC database, the ASIC database for storing the ASIC forwarding logic. The reload handler maintains a physical layer (PHY) state of the switch. Use of spanning tree protocol (STP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) keepalive is disabled in the switch. A state of stack hardware is retained in switch memory. New ports of the switch are prevented from becoming active, and the ASIC forwarding logic is, in response to receiving the instruction, stored in the ASIC database. Related systems, apparatuses, and methods are also described.

Abstract: A method and system for selecting ring paths in service provisioning on optical networks including a plurality of interconnected rings. The method includes: receiving a request to provision a service between a first end point and a second end point in the optical network; identifying a plurality of possible ring paths between the first and second end points; validating a bandwidth of each ring path, including validating bandwidths of bandwidth bottlenecks in each ring path; selecting a path from the validated ring paths; and provisioning the service on the selected path. The system utilizes a path engine on a network management server that knows about the bandwidth allocation in the entire network and implements the method. The resources of the optical network used by the provisioned service is thus minimized.

Abstract: A method and system for synchronizing data between a management system (MS) and network elements (NE) in an optical network utilizes a table counter and row counters for each row in a NE table, and a table counter and row counter for each row in a MS table. The NE table counter increments when a change in the NE table occurs. Each NE row counter increments when its row is changed. The MS table counter increments when a change in the MS table occurs. Each MS row counter is incremented when its row is changed. The MS polls the NE table counter and compares it with its MS table counter. If they are different, then the MS compares each NE row counter with the corresponding MS row counter. For any of the row counters that do not match, the rows between the MS table and the NE table are synchronized.