Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080240098 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING FLEXIBLE VIRTUAL FORWARDING TABLE - A method and apparatus for providing a flexible virtual forwarding table for packet networks are disclosed. For example, the method receives one or more packets from at least one customer endpoint device, where the one or more packets are destined for a destination node. The method then locates a route for routing the one or more packets by consulting one or more virtual forwarding projection tables, wherein each of the one or more virtual forwarding projection tables contains a subset of the routes that are stored in a virtual route forwarding table. Finally, the method forwards the one or more packets towards said destination node using said route. | 10-02-2008 |
20090164835 | Method and system for survival of data plane through a total control plane failure - A system and method for retaining routes in a control plane learned by an inter-domain routing protocol in the event of a connectivity failure between routers. Routers are classified as either route reflectors or originators. A determination is made whether the connectivity failure occurred between a route reflector and an originator, two originators, or two route reflectors. A determination is then made whether to propagate a withdrawal of learned routes based on whether the connectivity failure occurred between a route reflector and an originator, two originators, or two route reflectors. A withdrawal of learned routes is propagated to neighboring routers if the connectivity failure occurred between two originators, or between a route reflector and an originator that is inaccessible via an intra-domain routing protocol. No withdrawal of learned routes is propagated if the connectivity failure occurred between two route reflectors, or between a route reflector and an originator that is accessible via an intra-domain routing protocol. | 06-25-2009 |
20100061227 | Method to reduce routing convergence at the edge - In a network comprising a provider edge router coupled to each of a mated pair of core routers in a core network, a system and methodology for rerouting upstream traffic destined for the provider edge router in the event of a link failure between one of the core routers and the provider edge router. By detecting a link failure between a first of the mated pair of core routers and the provider edge router, and directing the upstream traffic destined for the provider edge router to a second of the mated pair of core routers, internal gateway protocol (IGP) reconvergence events are not triggered. | 03-11-2010 |
20100061381 | Method to reduce IGP routing information - A system and method for routing traffic from an ingress provider edge router to an egress provider edge router that eliminates the need to share state information between the ingress provider edge router and a plurality of core routers in a core network. The ingress provider edge router and egress provider edge router are each coupled to at least two core routers among the plurality of core routers in the core network, the ingress provider edge router learning routes with a next hop equal to an IP address of the egress provider edge router through an internal border gateway protocol (iBGP). The ingress provider edge router balances traffic flows on uplinks between the ingress provider edge router and the at least two core routers coupled to the ingress provider edge router without knowledge of network topology in the core network. | 03-11-2010 |
20100091781 | MPLS Virtual Private Network Using Dual Network Cores - A multi-protocol label switching system using multiple cores. In establishing a virtual private network in a MPLS system, more than one core is available. Paths are established over each core separately and weights are assigned to the two routes. Thus, the route which is preferred by manually configuring in advance will be chosen. | 04-15-2010 |
20100166001 | Boundary Routers Providing Redistribution and Related Backbone Networks, Computer Program Products, and Methods - A backbone network may include first and second border routers and a route reflector. The first border router may provide data connectivity between the backbone network and a first regional network. The first border router may be configured to receive a notification of a change in status of an edge router of the first regional network, and the notification may be received according to a first routing protocol. The first border router may be further configured to redistribute the notification of the change in status of the edge router from the first routing protocol to a second routing protocol with the first and second routing protocols being different. The second border router may provide data connectivity between the backbone network and a second regional network. The route reflector may be coupled between the first and second border routers, and the route reflector may be configured to transfer the redistributed notification from the first border router to the second border router. Related routers, methods, and computer program products are also discussed. | 07-01-2010 |
20110149979 | COMMUNICATION NETWORKS THAT PROVIDE A COMMON TRANSPORT DOMAIN FOR USE BY MULTIPLE SERVICE DOMAINS AND METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR USING THE SAME - A method of operating a communication network comprises receiving loopback addresses from a plurality of edge networks at a provider router of a core backbone network, the edge networks and the core backbone network being logically distinct from each other, advertising the loopback addresses to a transport route reflector element, propagating the advertisement of the loopback addresses to other provider routers of the core backbone network using a protocol for communicating between autonomous systems, and using the transport route reflector element to advertise at least one of the loopback addresses to a service route reflector element in one of the plurality of edge networks. | 06-23-2011 |
20120069847 | SCALABLE MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING (MPLS) BASED NETWORKS - Example scalable multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) based networks, and methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to implement the same are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes determining at an area border router (ABR) an OSPF metric representing a cost associated with transporting data between a provider edge router (PER) and the ABR within a non-zero OSPF area, replacing at the ABR a first MPLS label included in a BGP message received from the PER with a second MPLS label associated with the PER and assigned by the ABR, replacing at the ABR a next-hop attribute included in the BGP message with a value representing a loopback address of the ABR, updating at the ABR a route cost attribute included in the BGP message to include the OSPF metric, and re-advertising from the ABR the modified BGP message into an OSPF area | 03-22-2012 |
20120093154 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO UTILIZE ROUTE PARAMETER SETS FOR EXCHANGING ROUTES IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK - Methods and apparatus to utilize route parameter sets for exchanging routes in a communication network are disclosed. An example method to exchange routes in a communication network disclosed herein comprises receiving a route comprising a route identifier identifying the route and a plurality of route parameter values characterizing the route, and sending the route identifier and a pointer to forward the route to a recipient in the communication network, the pointer being associated with a route parameter set comprising the plurality of route parameter values. | 04-19-2012 |
20120093166 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO UTILIZE ROUTE AGGREGATION FOR EXCHANGING ROUTES IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK - Methods and apparatus to utilize route aggregation for exchanging routes in a communication network are disclosed. An example method to exchange routes in a communication network disclosed herein comprises aggregating a plurality of individual routes into an aggregate route characterized by an aggregate route identifier and a plurality of aggregate route parameter values, the plurality of individual routes comprising a respective plurality of individual route identifiers and respective pluralities of individual route parameter values, the aggregate route identifier to represent an aggregation of the plurality of individual route identifiers, the plurality of aggregate route parameter values to match at least some of the pluralities of individual route parameter values for at least some of the plurality of individual routes, and sending the aggregate route identifier and the plurality of aggregate route parameter values to a recipient in the communication network to forward the plurality of individual routes to the recipient. | 04-19-2012 |
20120147883 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE IN A NETWORK - Methods and apparatus to determine an alternate route in a network are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to route a data packet to a destination in a network comprises determining multiplicity values for a set of neighbor nodes, a multiplicity value representing a number of times the data packet has been routed to a respective neighbor node in the set of neighbor nodes, and selecting, based on the multiplicity values, a first neighbor node from the set of neighbor nodes to which to send the data packet to route the data packet to the destination. | 06-14-2012 |
20120300634 | MPLS VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK USING MULTIPLE NETWORK CORES - Examples of multi-protocol label switching networking using multiple network cores are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to route data in a multi-protocol label switching network include providing an incoming data packet in parallel to a plurality of network cores of the multi-protocol label switching network to cause a respective plurality of alternative paths in the plurality of network cores to be determined for routing the incoming data packet, each alternative path being associated with a respective network core, each network core including a respective plurality of routers, obtaining a plurality of weights associated with the plurality of alternative paths, and selecting, based on the plurality of weights, a first alternative path in a first network core to route the incoming data packet in the multi-protocol label switching network, the first alternative path being selected from among the respective plurality of alternative paths in the plurality of network cores. | 11-29-2012 |
20130054830 | METHODS, SYSTEMS AND APPARATUS TO ROUTE CLOUD-BASED SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS - Methods, systems and apparatus are disclosed to route cloud-based service communications. An example method includes generating a default route address associated with a selected one of a plurality of candidate transit routers in response to an identification of a virtual private network addition to the cloud-computing network, and assigning the default route address to a cloud service access router to direct a routing request from the cloud service access router to the selected one of the candidate transit routers via the default route address. | 02-28-2013 |
20130151445 | Method and System for Survival of Data Plane Through a Total Control Plane Failure - A system and method for retaining routes in a control plane learned by an inter-domain routing protocol in the event of a connectivity failure between routers. Routers are classified as either route reflectors or originators. A determination is made whether the connectivity failure occurred between a route reflector and an originator, two originators, or two route reflectors. A determination is then made whether to propagate a withdrawal of learned routes based on whether the connectivity failure occurred between a route reflector and an originator, two originators, or two route reflectors. A withdrawal of learned routes is propagated to neighboring routers if the connectivity failure occurred between two originators, or between a route reflector and an originator that is inaccessible via an intra-domain routing protocol. No withdrawal of learned routes is propagated if the connectivity failure occurred between two route reflectors, or between a route reflector and an originator that is accessible via an intra-domain routing protocol. | 06-13-2013 |
20130329737 | METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE IN A NETWORK - Methods and apparatus to determine an alternate route in a network are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein include processing a label stack of a data packet at a first node to determine whether the data packet is undergoing alternative routing to a destination. Such example methods also include, in response to determining that the data packet is undergoing alternative routing, processing the label stack to determine multiplicity values for neighbor nodes of the first node, respective ones of the multiplicity values representing respective numbers of times the data packet has been routed to respective ones of the neighbor nodes while undergoing alternative routing to the destination. Such example methods further include updating the label stack to increase a respective multiplicity value associated with the first node prior to routing the data packet from the first node to a first one of the neighbor nodes selected based on the multiplicity values. | 12-12-2013 |
20140023065 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A WIDE AREA NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE - A method and apparatus for providing a wide area network infrastructure for providing services on IP networks such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks are disclosed. For example, an enterprise customer may subscribe to a service for obtaining a reliable wide area network infrastructure for communicating among two or more customer locations. The network service provider creates a virtual private network in the public domain and another virtual private network in the private domain to interconnect the customer locations. It then connects each customer edge router to two provider edge routers one in each domain and/or instances of provider edge functionality in each domain. Routes are then advertised via two control planes to both virtual private networks. | 01-23-2014 |
20140140350 | Virtualization Of Control Plane Network Elements - A system includes a first regional network including a first network element; a second regional network including a virtualized control plane network element, the virtualized control plane network element supporting a routing protocol at the first regional network, the routing protocol employing a location-based cost model; and a network connection connecting the virtualized control plane network element to the first regional network, the network connection having a network connection cost, the network connection cost applied in the location-based cost model to support the routing protocol at the first regional network. | 05-22-2014 |
20140156848 | INTER-PROVIDER NETWORK ARCHITECTURE - An inter-provider network architecture system is disclosed. In particular, the system may enable a service provider network and a partner network to take advantage of each other's network cores, such that the resources of the service provider network and the partner network may be more effectively utilized to service customers of both networks. By doing so, not only can the service provider network and the partner network take advantage of each other's network resources, but they can also give each other's customers broader network reach into regions that are not typically serviced by their own networks. The service provider network may effectively accomplish this by providing a limited view of the service provider network to the partner network, or vice versa, so that traffic and data can flow between the networks without each network having to be fully aware of each other's entire network topologies. | 06-05-2014 |
20140269730 | COMMUNICATION NETWORKS THAT PROVIDE A COMMON TRANSPORT DOMAIN FOR USE BY MULTIPLE SERVICE DOMAINS AND METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR USING THE SAME - A method of operating a communication network comprises receiving loopback addresses from a plurality of edge networks at a provider router of a core backbone network, the edge networks and the core backbone network being logically distinct from each other, advertising the loopback addresses to a transport route reflector element, propagating the advertisement of the loopback addresses to other provider routers of the core backbone network using a protocol for communicating between autonomous systems, and using the transport route reflector element to advertise at least one of the loopback addresses to a service route reflector element in one of the plurality of edge networks. | 09-18-2014 |