Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100150159 | MULTI-PROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING IN A NETWORK DEVICE - A network device for processing data packets includes input logic, a register, route lookup logic and output processing logic. The input logic receives a data packet having at least one multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) tag, stores the packet and forwards a portion of the packet including the MPLS tag. The route lookup logic receives the portion of the packet, generates next hop information based on the MPLS tag and determines whether at least one MPLS tag is to be removed from the packet before the packet is to be output by the network device. The route lookup logic also modifies a start offset value in the register for each MPLS tag that is to be removed and forwards the start offset. The output processing logic receives the start offset and begins processing the data packet for output at a location identified by the start offset. | 06-17-2010 |
20100177638 | HIGH PERFORMANCE PROBABILISTIC RATE POLICER - A data flow rate policer enforces data flow policies for a number of data flows using a probabilistic policy enforcement mechanism. The policer includes a memory that stores the state of each data flow in a compact data structure. Additionally, the policer includes one or more policing engines that implement the actual data flow policies based on information derived from the data structures. The policing engines may be implemented in hardware to increase performance. | 07-15-2010 |
20100246584 | MAINTAINING PACKET ORDER USING HASH-BASED LINKED-LIST QUEUES - Ordering logic ensures that data items being processed by a number of parallel processing units are unloaded from the processing units in the original per-flow order that the data items were loaded into the parallel processing units. The ordering logic includes a pointer memory, a tail vector, and a head vector. Through these three elements, the ordering logic keeps track of a number of “virtual queues” corresponding to the data flows. A round robin arbiter unloads data items from the processing units only when a data item is at the head of its virtual queue. | 09-30-2010 |
20100284271 | PACKET SPRAYING FOR LOAD BALANCING ACROSS MULTIPLE PACKET PROCESSORS - A network device includes multiple packet processing engines implemented in parallel with one another. A spraying component distributes incoming packets to the packet processing engines using a spraying technique that load balances the packet processing engines. In particular, the spraying component distributes the incoming packets based on queue lengths associated with the packet processing engines and based on a random component. In one implementation, the random component is a random selection from all the candidate processing engines. In another implementation, the random component is a weighted random selection in which the weights are inversely proportional to the queue lengths. | 11-11-2010 |
20100290342 | HIERARCHICAL POLICERS FOR ENFORCING DIFFERENTIATED TRAFFIC BEHAVIOR - A hierarchical traffic policer may include a first policer configured to pass first packets when a first condition is met. The first policer also may alter selection information within the passed first packets. A second policer may be configured to pass second packets when a second condition is met. The second policer may be further configured to pass all of the passed first packets from the first policer based on the altered selection information within the passed first packets. | 11-18-2010 |
20110235643 | REDIRECT CHECKING IN A NETWORK DEVICE - A network device for performing redirect checking includes an input device and processing logic. The input device receives a data packet on a first one of a number of interfaces. The data packet includes source and destination addresses. The processing logic assigns an incoming interface to the data packet and generates forwarding information identifying a next hop for the data packet. The processing logic also identifies an outgoing interface based on the next hop and determines whether the incoming interface index is equal to the outgoing interface index. The processing logic also determines whether the data packet originated from a station that is part of the same subnet as the next hop. When both of these conditions are met, the processing logic generates a redirect message. | 09-29-2011 |
20110264822 | FILTERING AND ROUTE LOOKUP IN A SWITCHING DEVICE - Methods and devices for processing packets are provided. The processing device may Include an input interface for receiving data units containing header information of respective packets; a first module configurable to perform packet filtering based on the received data units; a second module configurable to perform traffic analysis based on the received data units; a third module configurable to perform load balancing based on the received data units; and a fourth module configurable to perform route lookups based on the received data | 10-27-2011 |
20120027019 | MAINTAINING PACKET ORDER USING HASH-BASED LINKED-LIST QUEUES - Ordering logic ensures that data items being processed by a number of parallel processing units are unloaded from the processing units in the original per-flow order that the data items were loaded into the parallel processing units. The ordering logic includes a pointer memory, a tail vector, and a head vector. Through these three elements, the ordering logic keeps track of a number of “virtual queues” corresponding to the data flows. A round robin arbiter unloads data items from the processing units only when a data item is at the head of its virtual queue. | 02-02-2012 |
20120297083 | FILTERING AND ROUTE LOOKUP IN A SWITCHING DEVICE - Methods and devices for processing packets are provided. The processing device may Include an input interface for receiving data units containing header information of respective packets; a first module configurable to perform packet filtering based on the received data units; a second module configurable to perform traffic analysis based on the received data units; a third module configurable to perform load balancing based on the received data units; and a fourth module configurable to perform route lookups based on the received data units. | 11-22-2012 |
20130223224 | PACKET SPRAYING FOR LOAD BALANCING ACROSS MULTIPLE PACKET PROCESSORS - A network device includes multiple packet processing engines implemented in parallel with one another. A spraying component distributes incoming packets to the packet processing engines using a spraying technique that load balances the packet processing engines. In particular, the spraying component distributes the incoming packets based on queue lengths associated with the packet processing engines and based on a random component. In one implementation, the random component is a random selection from all the candidate processing engines. In another implementation, the random component is a weighted random selection in which the weights are inversely proportional to the queue lengths. | 08-29-2013 |
20130308644 | FILTERING AND ROUTE LOOKUP IN A SWITCHING DEVICE - Methods and devices for processing packets are provided. The processing device may Include an input interface for receiving data units containing header information of respective packets; a first module configurable to perform packet filtering based on the received data units; a second module configurable to perform traffic analysis based on the received data units; a third module configurable to perform load balancing based on the received data units; and a fourth module configurable to perform route lookups based on the received data | 11-21-2013 |
20140181235 | SEPARATION OF DATA AND CONTROL IN A SWITCHING DEVICE - A method and apparatus for switching a data packet between a source and destination in a network. The data packet includes a header portion and a data portion. The header portion includes routing information for the data packet. The method includes defining a data path in the router comprising a path through the router along which the data portion of the data packet travels and defining a control path comprising a path through the router along which routing information from the header portion travels. The method includes separating the data path and control path in the router such that the routing information can be separated from the data portion allowing for the separate processing of each in the router. The data portion can be stored in a global memory while routing decisions are made on the routing information in the control path. | 06-26-2014 |
20140347995 | PROCESSING PACKETS BY A NETWORK DEVICE - A method and apparatus for performing a lookup in a switching device of a packet switched network where the lookup includes a plurality of distinct operations each of which returns a result that includes a pointer to a next operation in a sequence of operations for the lookup. The method includes determining a first lookup operation to be executed, executing the first lookup operation including returning a result and determining if the result includes a pointer to another lookup operation in the sequence of operations. If the result includes a pointer to another lookup operation, the lookup operation indicated by the result is executed. Else, the lookup is terminated. | 11-27-2014 |
20150019938 | IN-LINE PACKET PROCESSING - A method and apparatus for in-line processing a data packet while routing the packet through a router in a system transmitting data packets between a source and a destination over a network including the router. The method includes receiving the data packet and pre-processing layer header data for the data packet as the data packet is received and prior to transferring any portion of the data packet to packet memory. The data packet is thereafter stored in the packet memory. A routing through the router is determined including a next hop index describing the next connection in the network. The data packet is retrieved from the packet memory and a new layer header for the data packet is constructed from the next hop index while the data packet is being retrieved from memory. The new layer header is coupled to the data packet prior to transfer from the router. | 01-15-2015 |