A packet transmission method includes generating, by a first router, a first routing information update packet; generating, by the first router, a first source-tracing packet, where the first source-tracing packet is used to indicate that the first router is a source router generating the first routing information update packet; and determining, by the first router, that a second router adjacent to the first router has a source-tracing capability, and sending the first source-tracing packet to the second router.

According to an implementation, a method for signaling that a first network node exists in a network is following entry of the first network node into a reduced power mode includes receiving, in a second network node, an indication that the first network node will enter into the reduced-power mode. The method also includes generating information that signals the existence of the first network node and that the first network node is reachable in the network and communicating the information to the network such that the second network node operates as a proxy advertiser for the first network node following entry of the first network node into the reduced-power mode.

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a current bandwidth characteristic for a link, where the current bandwidth characteristic is determined under fading conditions associated with signal propagation on the link. The method can also include calculating a new cost for the link that is different from a nominal cost associated with a nominal bandwidth of the link without the fading conditions. The method could also include routing at least a portion of a plurality of flows that are to traverse the link away from the link based, at least in part, on the new cost. Another example method includes receiving the current bandwidth characteristic for the link, comparing the current bandwidth characteristic with a preconfigured low watermark corresponding to a class-specific MTR topology associated with a class of traffic traversing the link, and removing the link from the MTR topology based on the current bandwidth characteristic.

A method is provided in one example and includes assigning a virtual switch identifier to a group of a plurality of switches in which each of the plurality of switches is configured with a redundancy protocol. The method further includes configuring a redundancy protocol priority value for each the plurality of switches, and generating at least one link-state routing protocol message including priority information indicative of the redundancy protocol priority value associated with one or more of the plurality of switches. The method further includes distributing the at least one link-state routing protocol message to one or more of the plurality of switches.

In general, techniques are described by which a path through a network may be selected based on security information. For example, a network device may include one or more interfaces and a control unit. The interfaces may receive security information that describes a security service provided by a network security device. The network security device may couple to another network device. The control unit then determines, based on the security information, a path through the network that includes the other network device. The interfaces may forward at least a portion of the network traffic along the determined path to the other network device such that the network security device coupled to the other network device applies the security service to the portion of the network traffic forwarded via the path. As a result, the network device secures traffic by perform security path selection to forward traffic to network security devices.

A method is applied to a network comprising a first area and a second area. A first node in the first area obtains aggregated routing information, where the aggregated routing information is obtained by aggregating a plurality of pieces of original routing information, the plurality of pieces of original routing information correspond to N nodes in a network segment, the N nodes in the network segment have a same flexible algorithm flex-algo, and the aggregated routing information carries an algorithm identifier used to indicate the flex-algo and a network segment identifier used to indicate the network segment. The first node sends the aggregated routing information to the second area, where the aggregated routing information is used to indicate a node in the second area to send a packet to the N nodes in the network segment based on the aggregated routing information.

This application provides a method for updating a route in a network. The first network device sends a first LSA packet to a third network device, so that the third network device generates a first route whose destination address is a second IP address, where a next-hop IP address of the first route is the IP address of the first network device, and the second IP address belongs to the IP network segment corresponding to the first IP address which is an IP address of the first network device. The first network device sends a second LSA packet to the third network device when determining that switching needs to be performed on a next hop of a route in the third network device, whose destination address belongs to the IP network segment, and whose next-hop IP address is the first IP address.

Systems and methods for establishing routing information between software containers or other virtualized environments within a network, and providing inter-container routing between the software services operating on the network, are disclosed herein. The system utilizes an existing routing protocol such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and establishes an overlay network that provides end-to-end connectivity between services of a customer operating in an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) network, while maintaining isolation from the traffic of other customers of the IaaS network. The system uses OSPF to learn aspects of the routes between containers in the network, and further builds a customer-specific overlay network based on IP-to-IP encapsulation of the OSPF messages.

Systems and methods provide for provisioning a dynamic intent-based firewall. A network controller can generate a master route table for network segments reachable from edge network devices managed by the controller. The controller can receive zone definition information mapping the network segments into zones and Zone-based Firewall (ZFW) policies to apply to traffic between a source and destination zone specified by each ZFW policy. The controller can evaluate a ZFW policy to determine first edge network devices that can reach first network segments mapped to the source zone specified by the ZFW policy, second edge network devices that can reach second network segments mapped to the destination zone specified by the ZFW policy, and routing information (from the route table) between the first network segments, the first and second edge network devices, and the second network segments. The controller can transmit the routing information to the edge network devices.

Provided is an intermediate system to intermediate system routing protocol based notification method. The method includes: within a delay period since an intermediate system (IS) establishes a new neighbor, notifying the outside through a link state protocol (LSP) data packet that a METRIC for traffic of the IS reaching the new neighbor is a preset value; after the delay period expires, restoring the METRIC to a normal value, where the preset value is greater than the normal value. Further provided are an intermediate system to intermediate system routing protocol based notification apparatus, a storage medium and a processor.