| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20080198755 | PROBING-BASED MECHANISM TO REDUCE PREEMPTION PERTURBATION CAUSED BY HIGHER PRIORITY TUNNEL ESTABLISHMENT IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, a routing node (e.g., a head-end node) determines a desire to route a selected tunnel (e.g., reroute), and computes a path for the selected tunnel. The routing node probes the path to discover information about tunnels that would be displaced by the selected tunnel if routed over the path (e.g., a number of tunnels), and correspondingly determines whether to establish the selected tunnel based on the information about the tunnels to be displaced. In another embodiment, intermediate nodes along the probed path of the selected tunnel may receive a probe (e.g., signaling message) requesting information about the tunnels that would be displaced by the selected tunnel. In response, each intermediate node inserts the information about the tunnels to be displaced at the intermediate node into the probe, and forwards the probe (e.g., toward the routing node initiating the probe). | 08-21-2008 |
| 20080198849 | SCALING VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS USING SERVICE INSERTION ARCHITECTURE - In one embodiment, service routers may register their serviced VPNs with a service directory/broker (SDB), and edge routers may register their attached VPNs. The SDB may then return service headers, each corresponding to a particular VPN, and also returns an address of a service router corresponding to each service header to the edge routers. An edge router may then push an appropriate service header onto a received packet, and forward the packet to the corresponding service router, which forwards the packet based on a maintained VRF for a VPN according to the service header (e.g., thus the edge routers need only maintain limited/reduced VRFs). Also, services provided by the service routers may be distinguished using service headers accordingly. In this manner, the edge routers may forward packets requiring one or more desired services to service routers configured to perform such services. | 08-21-2008 |
| 20080205272 | SLICED TUNNELS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, a sliced tunnel is signaled between a head-end node and a tail-end node. One or more fork nodes along the sliced tunnel are configured to furcate the sliced tunnel into a plurality of child tunnels of the sliced tunnel. Also, one or more merge nodes along the sliced tunnel are configured to merge a plurality of child tunnels of the sliced tunnel that intersect at the merge node. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080219272 | INTER-DOMAIN POINT-TO-MULTIPOINT PATH COMPUTATION IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, distributed path computation elements (PCEs) collaboratively build local portions of an inter-domain P2MP path to each path destination or to each ingress border router of one or more respective successor domains based on a cost associated with using one or more local ingress border routers received from each predecessor domain. Once a furthest destination is reached, each PCE may recursively return a list of local ingress border routers used in the P2MP path to each predecessor domain, where each PCE receiving the list correspondingly prunes segments of its computed local portion of the P2MP path that lead to unused successor ingress border routers, and sends a prune message to its predecessor domains accordingly. A root PCE receives the final prune message(s) and a representation of each locally computed portion of the inter-domain P2MP path, and combines the portions into a final inter-domain P2MP path. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080225711 | DYNAMIC RESPONSE TO TRAFFIC BURSTS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, a node receives traffic sent from one or more sources toward one or more destinations (e.g., Multipoint-to-Point, MP2P traffic). The node may detect a burst of received traffic based on one or more characteristics of the burst traffic, and, in response, may dynamically apply traffic shaping to the burst traffic. The traffic shaping is adapted to forward burst traffic received below a configurable threshold at a configurable pace and to drop burst traffic received above the configurable threshold. In addition, the node may also store the burst traffic dropped by traffic shaping, and forwards the stored burst traffic toward its destination after a configurable delay. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080225852 | Methods and apparatus providing two stage tunneling - A system receives a packet at a first node. The packet is destined for a second node. The system identifies a full routing node from a plurality of network devices. The full routing node is capable of providing routing information for each of the nodes within the plurality of network devices. The plurality of network devices comprises a subset of nodes, and a subset of full routing nodes. The subset of nodes is not capable of providing routing information for each of the nodes within the plurality of network devices. The system transmits the packet to the full routing node for future transmission to the second node. | 09-18-2008 |
| 20080320166 | AUTOMATIC PRIORITIZATION OF BGP NEXT-HOP IN IGP CONVERGENCE - In one embodiment, an inter-domain routing protocol stores an inter-domain routing protocol route having an associated next-hop address. A routing table is searched for an for an intra-domain routing protocol route that may be used to reach the next-hop address of the inter-domain routing protocol route. Such route is marked as an important route for convergence. Later, in response to a change in the network requiring a routing table update, the intra-domain routing protocol route marked as an important route for convergence is processed by an intra domain routing protocol before any other intra-domain routing protocol routes are processed that are not marked as important routes for convergence. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20090086663 | Selecting Aggregation Nodes in a Network - In one embodiment, a method includes determining, at a local node in a network of multiple nodes, a first neighbor node of one or more neighbor nodes with which the local node is in direct communication based on a first number of nodes with which the first neighbor node is in direct communication. The first neighbor node is selected as an aggregation node for information about the local node. The aggregation node outputs data that is a combination of data received from multiple different nodes. The method allows wireless routers in mobile ad hoc networks to automatically determine their own aggregation nodes for routing information and thus automatically enables routing protocols to scale for many thousands of mobile wireless nodes. | 04-02-2009 |
| 20090122797 | ROUTING OPERATIONS USING SENSOR DATA - In one embodiment, a method comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) router receiving sensor data from at least one of a second IP router or an attached host sensor node, the sensor data distinct from link data of a network link; the IP router generating sensor information based on storing the sensor data with metadata describing reception of the sensor data by the IP router in a routing information base; and the IP router executing a routing operation based on the sensor information stored in the routing information base. | 05-14-2009 |
| 20090135841 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RETRIEVING COMPUTED PATHS FROM A PATH COMPUTATION ELEMENT USING ENCRYPTED OBJECTS - In one embodiment, a path computation client (PCC) generates a path computation request and transmits the path computation request to a path computation element (PCE). The PCC receives from the PCE a response including path segments defining a path, at least one of the path segments being an encrypted path segment that has been encrypted according to an encryption algorithm associated with a remote domain. The PCC then generates a path reservation message that includes the encrypted path segment. This is done without decrypting the encrypted path segment at the PCC. The PCC transmits the path reservation message to one or more nodes along the path, which may be capable of decrypting the encrypted path segment. | 05-28-2009 |
| 20090144443 | DIFFERENTIATED ROUTING USING TUNNELS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, one or more tunnel mesh groups may be established in at least a portion of a computer network, where each tunnel mesh group corresponds to a differentiated routing profile. Traffic may then be received at the portion of the computer network, the traffic indicating a particular differentiated routing profile (e.g., based on a received label corresponding to the differentiated routing profile as advertised by the portion of the computer network). Accordingly, the traffic may be routed through the portion of the computer network along a tunnel of a particular tunnel mesh group corresponding to the particular differentiated routing profile traffic. | 06-04-2009 |
| 20090162060 | Optimization mechanism for use with an optical control plane in a DWDM network - Methods and apparatus for efficiently utilizing an optical control plane distinct from an electronic control plane to facilitate the setup of paths in a dense wave division multiplexing network are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method includes receiving a probe arranged determine the optical feasibility of a first path, and determining a probability of success associated with the probe. The probability of success indicates a likelihood that the probe will be successfully routed on the first path to the destination, and is associated with a particular wavelength. A second path on which to route the probe is dynamically identified if the probability indicates a low likelihood of successful routing on the first path. Finally, the method includes determining if a notification associated with the probe has been received, and altering the probability of success based on the notification if the notification has been received. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20090182894 | DYNAMIC PATH COMPUTATION ELEMENT LOAD BALANCING WITH BACKUP PATH COMPUTATION ELEMENTS - In one embodiment, a first path computation element (PCE) operates between first and second network domains, and is adapted to service requests from path computation clients (PCCs) in at least the first domain. In response to a backup event (e.g., failure of a second PCE), a backup PCE in the second domain may be informed of path computation information for the first domain used by the first PCE, and tunnels may be bi-directionally established between the first PCE and the backup PCE. Once the tunnels are established, the backup PCE may be advertised into the first domain, and the backup PCE may operate to load balance service requests for the first domain through the bi-directionally established tunnels. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20090232003 | OAM TOOLS FOR MESHED TUNNELS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, a tunnel mesh probe, initiated for a computer network having a tunnel mesh, may be received at a first tail-end node of a probed tunnel. In response, the first tail-end node processes the probe, and forwards the probe to another tail-end node of a non-probed tunnel selected from a plurality of tunnels of the tunnel mesh for which the first tail-end node is a head-end node. Illustratively, once the probe is received at its initiating node, and in response to determining that the initiating node is a head-end node for only probed tunnels, the tunnel mesh probe is completed, having probed all tunnels of the tunnel mesh. | 09-17-2009 |
| 20090232031 | RECEIVER-BASED CONSTRUCTION OF POINT-TO-MULTIPOINT TREES USING PATH COMPUTATION ELEMENTS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK - In one embodiment, a trigger to add a leaf node to a multicast group of a computer network is detected, and the leaf node may determine a root node of the multicast group to request a path between a tunnel tree and the leaf node of the multicast group. In response to the multicast group having an existing tree, a reply is received from the root node with a computed path to add the leaf node to the tree at a selected node of the tree. The leaf node may then be added to the multicast group tunnel tree over the computed path at the selected node. | 09-17-2009 |
| 20090245259 | FAST REROUTE (FRR) PROTECTION AT THE EDGE OF A RFC 2547 NETWORK - In one embodiment, an edge device in a first routing domain is configured to communicate with a second routing domain via a data link. The edge device receives a data packet containing a destination address that is reachable via the second routing domain and an indication that the data packet is a protected packet that was previously rerouted from another edge device in the first routing domain via a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Fast Reroute (FRR) backup path. The edge device determines if communication with the second routing domain is still available via the data link, and if so, removes the indication that the data packet is a protected packet and forwards the data packet to the second routing domain, and, if not, drops the data packet to prevent the data packet from being rerouted a second time in the first routing domain on another MPLS FRR backup path. | 10-01-2009 |
