A method and system for improving responsiveness in exchanging management and control frames in a wireless local area network are disclosed. An initiator sends a frame (action frame, management frame, CSI frame, control frame, or data frame) to a responder. Upon correctly receiving the frame, the responder sends a response frame to the initiator instead of directly sending an acknowledgement (ACK) packet. The responder preferably accesses the wireless medium to send the response frame in a short inter-frame spacing (SIFS). With this scheme, a long delay associated with having to contend for the wireless medium to send the response frame is avoided and therefore, the responsiveness and timeliness of the feedback mechanism is significantly enhanced. The response frame may be piggybacked on or aggregated with another packet.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a storage device, one or more line cards, and a control card. A respective line card includes one or more ports and forwarding hardware. The control card determines routing and forwarding tables for the switch, and comprises processing circuitry and a management module. The management module manage a tunnel or virtual network at the switch. During operation, the control card determine an event associated with layer-2 operations of the switch. The control card refrains from notifying the management module regarding the event and notifies a first line card in the one or more line cards regarding the event. The first line card then updates a layer-3 forwarding entry in the corresponding forwarding hardware based on the notification.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a storage device, one or more line cards, and a control card. A respective line card includes one or more ports and forwarding hardware. The control card determines routing and forwarding tables for the switch, and comprises processing circuitry and a management module. The management module manage a tunnel or virtual network at the switch. During operation, the control card determine an event associated with layer-2 operations of the switch. The control card refrains from notifying the management module regarding the event and notifies a first line card in the one or more line cards regarding the event. The first line card then updates a layer-3 forwarding entry in the corresponding forwarding hardware based on the notification.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker configured to monitor, e.g., via filters, for certain protocol state transitions/changes or host hardware resource transitions/changes when a host processor in the control plane that performs such monitoring functions is unavailable or overloaded. The filters, in some embodiments, are pre-computed/computed by the host processor and transmitted to the protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker. The protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker may be used to implement a fast upgrade operation as well as load sharing and or load balancing operation with control plane associated components.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker configured to monitor, e.g., via filters, for certain protocol state transitions/changes or host hardware resource transitions/changes when a host processor in the control plane that performs such monitoring functions is unavailable or overloaded. The filters, in some embodiments, are pre-computed/computed by the host processor and transmitted to the protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker. The protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker may be used to implement a fast upgrade operation as well as load sharing and or load balancing operation with control plane associated components.

A computer-implemented method for repurposing one or more software configurable layer 2 switches in an IP (Internet Protocal) computer network to function as a layer 1 switch. Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM) is reconfigured in each of the one or more layer 2 switches and one or more pipeline engines are routed to emulate layer 1 switching functionality in each of the one or more layer 2 switches.

Some embodiments provide a method for a computing device that implements a first logical network gateway in a first datacenter to process data messages between data compute nodes (DCNs) belonging to the logical network and operating in the first datacenter and DCNs belonging to the logical network and operating in a second datacenter. From a host computer in the first datacenter, the method receives a logical network data message encapsulated with a first tunnel header including a first virtual network identifier corresponding to a logical forwarding element of the logical network. The method removes the first tunnel header and encapsulates the logical network data message with a second tunnel header include a second virtual network identifier corresponding to the logical forwarding element. The method transmits the logical network data message encapsulated with the second tunnel header to a second logical network gateway in the second datacenter.

Some embodiments provide a method for a computing device that implements a first logical network gateway in a first datacenter to process data messages between data compute nodes (DCNs) belonging to the logical network and operating in the first datacenter and DCNs belonging to the logical network and operating in a second datacenter. From a host computer in the first datacenter, the method receives a logical network data message encapsulated with a first tunnel header including a first virtual network identifier corresponding to a logical forwarding element of the logical network. The method removes the first tunnel header and encapsulates the logical network data message with a second tunnel header include a second virtual network identifier corresponding to the logical forwarding element. The method transmits the logical network data message encapsulated with the second tunnel header to a second logical network gateway in the second datacenter.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker configured to monitor, e.g., via filters, for certain protocol state transitions/changes or host hardware resource transitions/changes when a host processor in the control plane that performs such monitoring functions is unavailable or overloaded. The filters, in some embodiments, are pre-computed/computed by the host processor and transmitted to the protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker. The protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker may be used to implement a fast upgrade operation as well as load sharing and or load balancing operation with control plane associated components.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker configured to monitor, e.g., via filters, for certain protocol state transitions/changes or host hardware resource transitions/changes when a host processor in the control plane that performs such monitoring functions is unavailable or overloaded. The filters, in some embodiments, are pre-computed/computed by the host processor and transmitted to the protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker. The protocol state transition and/or resource state transition tracker may be used to implement a fast upgrade operation as well as load sharing and or load balancing operation with control plane associated components.