A semiconductor chip for implementing aggregated flow detection and management includes a number of pipes, where each pipe is coupled to a portion of ports on the semiconductor chip that are to receive data packets. A logic is coupled to the pipes and is used to detect and manage an elephant flow. The elephant flow-detection and management logic includes a flow table and a byte counter.

In one embodiment, a method comprises: determining, by a network switching device, whether the network switching device is configured as one of multiple leaf network switching devices, one of multiple Top-of-Fabric (ToF) switching devices, or one of multiple intermediate switching devices in a switched data network having a leaf-spine switching architecture; if configured as a leaf switching device, limiting flooding of an advertisement only to a subset of the intermediate switching devices in response to detecting a mobile destination is reachable; if configured as an intermediate switching device, flooding the advertisement, received from any one of the leaf network switching devices, to connected ToF switching devices without installing any routing information specified within the advertisement; if configured as a ToF switching device, installing from the flooded advertisement the routing information and tunneling a data packet, destined for the mobile destination, to the leaf switching device having transmitted the advertisement.

In one embodiment, a method comprises: determining, by a network switching device, whether the network switching device is configured as one of multiple leaf network switching devices, one of multiple Top-of-Fabric (ToF) switching devices, or one of multiple intermediate switching devices in a switched data network having a leaf-spine switching architecture; if configured as a leaf switching device, limiting flooding of an advertisement only to a subset of the intermediate switching devices in response to detecting a mobile destination is reachable; if configured as an intermediate switching device, flooding the advertisement, received from any one of the leaf network switching devices, to connected ToF switching devices without installing any routing information specified within the advertisement; if configured as a ToF switching device, installing from the flooded advertisement the routing information and tunneling a data packet, destined for the mobile destination, to the leaf switching device having transmitted the advertisement.

A time-division multiplexing (TDM) scheduler determines a service order for serving N packet transmission requesters. The TDM scheduler includes: N current count value generators configured to serve the N packet transmission requesters respectively, and generate N current count values according to parameters of the N packet transmission requesters, a previous scheduling result generated by the EDD scheduler previously, and a predetermined counting rule; and an earliest due date (EDD) scheduler configured to generate a current scheduling result for determining the service order according to the N current count values and a predetermined urgency decision rule, wherein an extremum of the N current count values relates to one of the N packet transmission requesters, and the EDD scheduler selects this requester as the one to be served preferentially.

Disclosed is a time-division multiplexing (TDM) scheduler capable of determining a service order for serving N packet transmission requesters. The TDM scheduler includes: N current count value generators configured to serve the N packet transmission requesters respectively, and generate N current count values according to parameters of the N packet transmission requesters, a previous scheduling result generated by the EDD scheduler previously, and a predetermined counting rule; and an earliest due date (EDD) scheduler configured to generate a current scheduling result for determining the service order according to the N current count values and a predetermined urgency decision rule, wherein an extremum of the N current count values relates to one of the N packet transmission requesters, and the EDD scheduler selects this requester as the one to be served preferentially.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit (“data plane”) to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit (“control plane”) for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples. The data plane also includes an idle-signal injecting circuit that receives from the control plane configuration data that the control plane generates based on the IC's temperature. Based on the received configuration data, the idle-signal injecting circuit generates idle control signals for the data processing stages. Each stage that receives an idle control signal enters an idle state during which the majority of the components of that stage do not perform any operations, which reduces the power consumed and temperature generated by that stage during its idle state.

In an example, a network switch is configured to natively act as a high-speed load balancer. Numerous load-balancing techniques may be used, including one that bases the traffic “bucket” on a source IP address of an incoming packet. This particular technique provides a network administrator a powerful tool for shaping network traffic. For example, by assigning certain classes of computers on the network particular IP addresses, the network administrator can ensure that the traffic is load balanced in a desirable fashion. To further increase flexibility, the network administrator may apply a bit mask to the IP address, and expose only a portion, selected from a desired octet of the address.

In an example, a network switch is configured to natively act as a high-speed load balancer. Numerous load-balancing techniques may be used, including one that bases the traffic “bucket” on a source IP address of an incoming packet. This particular technique provides a network administrator a powerful tool for shaping network traffic. For example, by assigning certain classes of computers on the network particular IP addresses, the network administrator can ensure that the traffic is load balanced in a desirable fashion. To further increase flexibility, the network administrator may apply a bit mask to the IP address, and expose only a portion, selected from a desired octet of the address.

Graded throttling for network-on-chip traffic, including: calculating, by an agent of a network-on-chip, a number of outstanding transactions issued by the agent; determining that the number of outstanding transactions meets a threshold; and implementing, by the agent, in response to the number of outstanding transactions meeting the threshold, a traffic throttling policy.

Some embodiments of the invention provide a network forwarding element that can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust its data message processing to stay within a desired operating temperature or power consumption range. In some embodiments, the network forwarding element includes (1) a data-plane forwarding circuit (“data plane”) to process data tuples associated with data messages received by the IC, and (2) a control-plane circuit (“control plane”) for configuring the data plane forwarding circuit. The data plane includes several data processing stages to process the data tuples. The data plane also includes an idle-signal injecting circuit that receives from the control plane configuration data that the control plane generates based on the IC's temperature. Based on the received configuration data, the idle-signal injecting circuit generates idle control signals for the data processing stages. Each stage that receives an idle control signal enters an idle state during which the majority of the components of that stage do not perform any operations, which reduces the power consumed and temperature generated by that stage during its idle state.