A method implemented by a network element (NE) comprises generating, by a processor, an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) packet comprising an IPv4 header, a plurality of extension headers, and upper layer data, wherein the IPv4 packet indicates a total length of the IPv4 packet and a total length of the plurality of extension headers, indicating, by the processor, a protocol number associated with a first extension header of the plurality of extension headers in a protocol field of the IPv4 header, indicating, by the processor, a protocol used to encode the upper layer data of the IPv4 packet in a last protocol field of a last extension header of the plurality of extension headers, and transmitting, by a transmitter, the IPv4 packet to another NE.

In one embodiment, a method according to the present disclosure includes receiving a topology change message at a core edge node and performing a network address information removal operation. The core edge node participates in network communications with one or more access network nodes of an access network using an access network protocol. The topology change message indicates that a topology change has occurred in the access network, and the topology change message conforms to the access network protocol. The network address information removal operation removes network address information stored by the core edge node, and the network address information is used by the core edge node in participating in the network communications.

A server-based environment for management of widget programs distributable to remote execution and display devices is provided. Embodiments of the present invention provide a set of tools for operator development of widget programs, operator provisioning of the widget programs and user selection of programs or parameters for the widget programs. Embodiments of the present invention further provide for operator-determined widget program or widget program functionality distribution.

A system and approach that may provide a protocol independent environment to configure an ASC (application specific control) device in, for example, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. By using this system and approach, a user may reuse a device configuration already done for a device of one protocol in a device of another protocol without being required to reconfigure the latter device from scratch. This way may help a user to reduce the total setup time required to fully configure a device. The reduction may be done by simply exporting the configuration information from the first device and then importing the configuration information into the second device, where the internal protocol specific details can be handled internally by a tool. Thus, a user need not bother with the details that are in the background of the moving a configuration among devices of different protocols.

A network host such as a caching device is disclosed that greatly increases the speed with which a server reads and writes data for clients. The host may include a specialized network interface that not only processes TCP but also parses received network file system headers, identifying those headers within the TCP data stream, separating them from any corresponding network file system data, and providing them separately from that data to the network file system of the host for processing as a batch, all without any interrupt to the host. Similarly, the network file system of the host may communicate directly with the network interface by writing network file system headers directly to a register of the network interface to transmit data.

This disclosure describes techniques for performing communications between devices using various aspects of Ethernet standards. As further described herein, a protocol is disclosed that may be used for communications between devices, where the communications take place over a physical connection complying with Ethernet standards. Such a protocol may enable reliable and in-order delivery of frames between devices, while following Ethernet physical layer rules, Ethernet symbol encoding, Ethernet lane alignment, and/or Ethernet frame formats.

A method of encoding data packet by encoding type information and size information of the data packet into the same field. The data packet comprises a header part and a message part. The header part comprises at least one bit for indicating the type of the data packet, where the method includes obtaining the size information of the data packet based on the at least one bit.

A method for achieving reliable information transmission in a communications network includes using a signal conditioning unit to receive a primary signal over at least one transmission channel, using the signal conditioning unit to generate a secondary signal from the primary signal and using the signal conditioning unit to transmit the secondary signal to a signal processing unit via two different protocol layers. A communications network includes a signal conditioning unit and a signal processing unit. The signal conditioning unit is configured to receive a primary signal over at least one transmission channel, to generate a secondary signal from the primary signal and to transmit the secondary signal to the signal processing unit via two different protocol layers.

A method for transmitting unicast messages includes: obtaining, by a first node configured to communicate on a primary time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) network, a media access control (MAC) address of a second node configured to communicate on the primary TSCH network; determining whether the first node and the second node are also configured to communicate on a secondary TSCH network; and in response to determining that the first node and the second node are also configured to communicate on the secondary TSCH network: offsetting transmission of a unicast message until a second portion of a timeslot for the primary TSCH network; synchronizing to a channel hopping sequence and frequency of the secondary TSCH network for the second node, and transmitting, by the first node, the unicast message to the second node on the secondary TSCH network during the second portion of the timeslot.

A method for transmitting unicast messages includes: obtaining, by a first node configured to communicate on a primary time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) network, a media access control (MAC) address of a second node configured to communicate on the primary TSCH network; determining whether the first node and the second node are also configured to communicate on a secondary TSCH network; and in response to determining that the first node and the second node are also configured to communicate on the secondary TSCH network: offsetting transmission of a unicast message until a second portion of a timeslot for the primary TSCH network; synchronizing to a channel hopping sequence and frequency of the secondary TSCH network for the second node, and transmitting, by the first node, the unicast message to the second node on the secondary TSCH network during the second portion of the timeslot.