A switch access module, a cell encapsulation method, a switching network system and a computer storage medium are described. The method includes that: the switch access module determines accumulated unsent data corresponding to a destination address according to the destination address of a received data packet, the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address including the data packet received by the switch access module and unsent data cached by the switch access module and corresponding to the destination address; and the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address is filled into at least one cell according to a preset cell minimum length and a length of the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address.

A switch access module, a cell encapsulation method, a switching network system and a computer storage medium are described. The method includes that: the switch access module determines accumulated unsent data corresponding to a destination address according to the destination address of a received data packet, the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address including the data packet received by the switch access module and unsent data cached by the switch access module and corresponding to the destination address; and the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address is filled into at least one cell according to a preset cell minimum length and a length of the accumulated unsent data corresponding to the destination address.

An apparatus and method for allocating a data flow based on selection criteria including receiving at least one policy including at least one indication for selecting an access from two or more of available accesses; determining a selection criterion based on the data flow; and selecting the access based on the determined selection criterion and the at least one indication. In one example, the selection criterion is one of the following: a bandwidth requirement for the data flow, an application generating the data flow, a protocol used to carry the data flow, a file size, an application name/ID, a role ID, or a throughput of the data flow. In one example, the policy is a management object (MO) received from an Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) module and the selected access is for a wireless local area network (WLAN), a LTE network or for a 3GPP service.

A system and method for selecting a data delivery network. A determination is made of user information associated with a communication from a user. A determination is made of performance information for multiple data delivery networks. The data delivery network is selected for the communication from the multiple data delivery networks.

A transition protocol is provided herein in which a first rule set for routing packets received by a group of switches during a first time period is to be updated to a second rule set. During a transition period, at least some switches in the group of switches route packets to a controller, while other switches in the group of switches route packets to a next hop that is unchanged by the change in the rule set. The controller forwards packets that are received from at least some of the switches in the group to a destination node each of the packets, as determined from the updated rule set.

Exemplary methods include a first network device participating in an election process to determine a designated bit forwarding router (D-BFR). The methods include in response to determining the first network device is elected to be the D-BFR, performing D-BFR operations comprising determining an elected bitmask (BM) length of a BM based on maximum local BM lengths advertised by other BFRs in the network, wherein each bit of the BM will correspond to a bit forwarding egress router (BFER), and advertising the determined elected BM length to other BFRs. The methods may further include one or more of determining an elected tree type based on supported tree types advertised by other BFRs in the network, assigning one or more BM positions (BMPs) to one or more BFERs, and advertising the elected determined tree type and/or the assigned one or more BMPs.

Methods and computing systems for tunneling in a carrier transport network are described. An Internet Protocol (IP) packet having a destination IP address of a destination cellular site of a cellular cluster is received. A frame is formed with the IP packet placed into a payload portion of the frame. An outer Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag that identifies a network of the cellular cluster to a first carrier network is added to the frame, and an inner VLAN tag that identifies the network of the cellular cluster to a second carrier is added. The first carrier network and the second carrier network are coupled via at least one network-to-network interface. The frame, including the IP packet, is forwarded to a provider edge switch of the first carrier network.

A method and apparatus are provided for dynamic resource allocation, scheduling and signaling for variable data real time services (RTS) in long term evolution (LTE) systems. Preferably, changes in data rate for uplink RTS traffic are reported to an evolved Node B (eNB) by a UE using layer 1, 2 or 3 signaling. The eNB dynamically allocates physical resources in response to a change in data rate by adding or removing radio blocks currently assigned to the data flow, and the eNB signals the new resource assignment to the UE. In an alternate embodiment, tables stored at the eNB and the UE describe mappings of RTS data rates to physical resources under certain channel conditions, such that the UE uses the table to locally assign physical resources according to changes in UL data rates. Additionally, a method and apparatus for high level configuration of RTS data flows is also presented.

There is provided a method comprising estimating bit rate information for first traffic if said first traffic were to be routed between a user equipment which is attached to a first network and a network access point of a second network and determining if said first traffic is to be routed between said user equipment and said network access point in dependence on said estimated bit rate information.

Through the identification of different packet-types, packets can be handled based on an assigned packet handling identifier. This identifier can, for example, enable forwarding of latency-sensitive packets without delay and allow error-sensitive packets to be stored for possible retransmission. In another embodiment, and optionally in conjunction with retransmission protocols including a packet handling identifier, a memory used for retransmission of packets can be shared with other transceiver functionality such as, coding, decoding, interleaving, deinterleaving, error correction, and the like.