A communication system for transmitting data packets includes: at least one Access Node (AN) connectable to a user equipment (UE); a User Plane Function (UPF) component; and a data network (DN). The UPF component is a distributed component and comprises: at least one User Plane Function Edge (UPF-E) component and a User Plane Function Core (UPF-C) component, the UPF-E component being connected between the at least one AN and the UPF-C component, and the UPF-C component being connected between the UPF-E component and the data network (DN) or another UPF-C; and a UPF Management (UPF-M) component configured to terminate an N4 interface.

In general, embodiments of the invention relate to routing packets between hosts or virtual machines in different layer 2 domains. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to using overlay routing mechanisms in an Internet Protocol (IP) fabric to enable communication between hosts or virtual machines in different layer 2 domains to communication. The overlay routing mechanisms may include direct routing, indirect routing, naked routing, or a combination thereof (e.g., hybrid routing).

Methods and systems for facilitating an equitable bandwidth distribution across downstream devices in asymmetrical switch topologies, and in particular asymmetrical PCIe switch topologies. The equitable distribution of bandwidth is achieved in asymmetrical topologies using virtual switch partitioning. An upstream switch that is connected to the root complex via an upstream port and that receives bandwidth B from the upstream port, is virtualized into two or more virtual switches. Each virtual switch equally shares the bandwidth. Each virtual switch is allocated to downstream devices that are connected to the upstream switch as well as to one or more downstream switches that are connected to the upstream switch. Each downstream switch may be connected to one or more additional downstream devices.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to dynamic shadow operations configured to dynamically shadow data-plane resources in a network device. In some embodiments, the dynamic resource shadow operations are used to locally maintain a shadow copy of data plane resources to avoid having to read them through a bus interconnect. In other embodiments, the dynamic shadow framework is used to provide memory protection for hardware resources against SEU failures. The dynamic shadow framework may operate in conjunction with adaptive memory scrubbing operations. In other embodiments, the dynamic shadow infrastructure is used to facilitate fast boot-up and fast upgrade operations.

Methods and systems for implementing private allocated networks in a virtual infrastructure are presented. One method operation creates virtual switches in one or more hosts in the virtual infrastructure. Each port in the virtual switches is associated with a private allocated network (PAN) from a group of possible PANs. In one embodiment, one or more PANs share the same physical media for data transmission. The intranet traffic within each PAN is not visible to nodes that are not connected to the each PAN. In another operation, the method defines addressing mode tables for the intranet traffic within each PAN. The entries in the addressing mode tables define addressing functions for routing the intranet traffic between the virtual switches, and different types of addressing functions are supported by the virtual switches.

Some embodiments provide a method for implementing a logical router in a logical network. In some embodiments, the method receives a configuration of a static route for the logical router, which includes several routing components with separate routing tables. The method identifies which of the routing components require addition of a route to a corresponding routing table to implement the configuration of the static route. The method adds the routes to the corresponding separate routing tables of the identified routing components.

Systems and methods for supporting efficient virtualization in a lossless interconnection network. An exemplary method can provide, one or more switches, including at least a leaf switch, a plurality of host channel adapters, wherein each of the host channel adapters comprise at least one virtual function, at least one virtual switch, and at least one physical function, a plurality of hypervisors, and a plurality of virtual machines, wherein each of the plurality of virtual machines are associated with at least one virtual function. The method can arrange the plurality of host channel adapters with one or more of a virtual switch with prepopulated local identifiers (LIDs) architecture or a virtual switch with dynamic LID assignment architecture. The method can assign each virtual switch with a LID. The method can calculate one or more linear forwarding tables based at least upon the LIDs assigned to each of the virtual switches.

Systems and methods described herein provide a high availability DHCP server capable of serving multiple tenants in a data center. The DHCP server may use a different logical DHCP server instance for each tenant, and may be implemented as one process without the use of namespaces. A DHCP server is executed on a gateway virtual machine (VM) that is capable of hosting a plurality of logical DHCP servers. For each tenant in a data center, a logical network and a corresponding logical DHCP server instance are implemented. The DHCP server may service requests for DHCP services from VMs via their physical host by determining the tenant that the VM originates from and leasing a DHCP resource from that tenant's corresponding logical DHCP server instance.

A Self-Describing Packet block (SDPB) is defined that allows concurrent processing of various fixed headers in a packet block defined to take advantage of multiple cores in a networking node forwarding path architecture. SPDB allows concurrent processing of various pieces of header data, metadata, and conditional commands carried in the same data packet by checking a serialization flag set upon creation of the data packet, without needing to serialize the processing or even parsing of the packet. When one or h more commands in one or more sub-blocks may be processed concurrently, the one or more commands are distributed to multiple processing resources for processing the commands in parallel. This architecture allows multiple unique functionalities each with their own separate outcome (execution of commands, doing service chaining, performing telemetry, allows virtualization and path steering) to be performed concurrently with simplified packet architecture without incurring additional encapsulation overhead.

Some embodiments relate to a link monitor for a switch having a PCIe-compliant interface. Some embodiments relate to an apparatus including a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe)-compliant interface provided at a PCIe domain of a switch. The apparatus may also include a link monitor provided at a switching fabric of the switch that supports the PCIe domain of the switch. The link monitor to observe a factor-changing event of a state of a fabric link and obtain a value at least partially responsive to a weight computation, the weight computation for a factor associated with the factor-changing event. Related devices, systems and methods are also disclosed.