Techniques are described for supporting multiple virtual networks over an underlay network. The techniques may provide support for network slicing and enhanced virtual private networks (VPNs) over an underlay network. In general, the techniques include allocating a subset of resources (e.g., nodes and/or links) of the underlay network to a particular virtual network, and advertising the subset of resources to provider edge (PE) routers that are participating in the virtual network. A network controller device may advertise the subset of resources for the virtual network to the respective PE routers using BGP-LS (Border Gateway Protocol-Link State). Based on the advertisements, each of the PE routers generates a restricted view of the full underlay network topology for the virtual network and, thus, only uses the subset of resources in the restricted view to generate routing and forwarding tables for the virtual network.

A method and network device for embedded area abstraction. Specifically, the method and network device described herein implement the abstraction of one or more subareas of an area within a network implementing a link state protocol. Abstraction of a given subarea of a given area within a network may provide for routing using network devices in the given subarea without requiring that the network devices, in the complement of the given subarea within the given area, maintain link state information respective to the entire network topology of the given subarea.

Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.

There are disclosed devices, system and methods for mapping relationships between macro-clusters of a network object topology of a computer communication network. A remote network object of the network is selected that has a relationship with one macro-cluster that has a relationship with another macro-cluster. Flow log data, metric data and configuration data are gathered from at least the selected network object. Configuration data and time data are generated for the sets network objects of the two macro-clusters using the gathered flow log data, metric data and configuration data. Network topology information is created using the configuration data and time data. The network topology information includes topology information for the relationship between the macro-clusters, for each macro-cluster and for the sets of network objects of the macro-clusters. The topology information can be stored and used to determine whether performance issues occur in the macro-clusters or relationship over time.

Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.

Examples disclosed herein relate to a method comprising detecting, by a bi-directional forwarding detection (BFD) protocol, a link failure of a link associated with a network device on a network. The method may include notifying, by the BFD protocol, a routing protocol and a hardware plugin about the link failure and identifying, by the routing protocol, an updated route for the network that does not include the network device. The method may also include deleting, by the hardware plugin, any routes programmed into a forwarding information base (FIB) including the first network device upon receiving the notification from the BFD protocol and installing, by the hardware plugin, the updated route into the FIB to be used for forwarding network traffic on the network.

Device, method, medium and computer program product for voice data transmission. The device includes a processor that executes instructions in memory to: establish a call connection for voice data transmission with another device, wherein the said device parses and identifies the number of the said another device to determine whether the voice data transmission is associated with an international call, and when the voice data transmission is determined to be associated with an international call, the determine hop limit value for the voice data transmission as a first value greater than the default hop limit value; or when the voice data transmission is determined to not be associated with an international call, the hop limit value for the voice data transmission is determined as the default value; and generate packets for sending voice data based on the hop limit value determined when the call connection is established.

A method and apparatus for managing network status information in a network, such as a satellite mesh network. A network node receives a network status update, indicative of a change in network conditions, from another node, e.g. via flooding. Based on a direction of travel of the update, content of at least one counter field of the network status update is adjusted. The update is then propagated, or not, based on the counter fields. A counter field may be increased in response to the update travelling in one direction and decreased in response to the update travelling in an opposite direction. Different counter fields may be adjusted in response to the update travelling in different, e.g. orthogonal, directions. The direction can be determined based on which of plural directional communication interfaces received the update.

A method is implemented by a network device to optimize the operation of a virtual private network (VPN) route refresh for border gateway protocol (BGP). The method reduces a span of VPN databases to be traversed to perform a route target constraint (RTC) update at the network device. The method includes receiving an RTC add or delete from a BGP peer, looking up each route target (RT) in a route target-route distinguisher (RT-RD) map to get a set of route distinguishers (RDs), and generating a VPN update for each VPN Address Family (AF) and each RD in the RD cache and sending the VPN update to a respective BGP peer.

Techniques for deploying and using a wide-area mesh network are disclosed. A method includes: receiving, by an access point in a wide-area mesh network, a connection request from a user device; responsive to the connection request, presenting a messaging interface in a captive portal to the user device; receiving, by the access point via the messaging interface in the captive portal, a message to be transmitted over the wide-area mesh network; transmitting the message from the access point to an endpoint in the wide-area mesh network, via one or more wide-area repeaters in the wide-area mesh network; and subsequent to transmitting the message from the access point to the endpoint in the wide-area mesh network, presenting the message in a message reporting interface.