Techniques are described for reusing downstream-assigned labels when establishing a new instance of a label switched path (LSP) prior to tearing down an existing instance of the LSP using make-before-break (MBB) procedures for RSVP. The techniques enable a routing engine of any non-ingress router along a path of the new LSP instance to reuse a previously allocated label for the existing LSP instance as the downstream assigned label for the new LSP instance when the paths of the existing LSP instance and the new LSP instance overlap. In this way, the non-ingress router does not need to update a label route in its forwarding plane for the reused label. When the new LSP instance completely overlaps the existing LSP instance, an ingress router of the LSP may avoid updating an ingress route in its forwarding plane for applications that use the LSP.

In one embodiment, a method includes computing at a controller, a primary path and a backup path for transmittal of multicast data from service nodes in communication with the controller and a multicast source to access nodes in communication with multicast receivers, and transmitting from the controller, information for the primary path and the backup path to the access nodes for use by the access nodes in receiving the multicast data on the primary path and the backup path, and switching transmittal of the multicast data to the multicast receivers from the primary path to the backup path upon identifying a failure in the primary path to provide fast reroute at the access nodes. A multicast control plane runs in the controller without operating in the access nodes. An apparatus is also disclosed herein.

A method of measuring system integrity and robustness to link failure for use with a wireless signaling system is described. The measuring system can calculate the number of unique communication routs available for message transfer between an initiating device and a target device wherein unique routes are non-converging and defined by message source and signal strength data derived from a plurality of system devices.

A method and an apparatus for obtaining information about a forwarding path of a data packet in segment routing (SR) include, when a first path indicated by a plurality of path identifiers in initial information is a unique shortest path from a start node on the first path to an end node on the first path, the first path is indicated using a node-segment identifier (SID) of the end node on the first path instead of the path identifiers.

A system, and corresponding method, is described for finding the optimal or the best set of routes from a master to each of its connected slaves, for all the masters and slaves using an interconnect, such as a network-on-chip (NoC). Some embodiments of the invention apply to a class of interconnects that utilize a two-dimensional mesh topology, wherein a set of switches are arranged on a two-dimensional grid. Masters (initiators or sources) inject data packets or traffic into the interconnect. Slaves (targets or destinations) service the data packets or traffic traveling through the interconnect. The interconnect includes switches and links that are part of a path. Additionally, one or more optimal routes, which is defined by the system, move the traffic in a way that avoids deadlock scenarios.

A system, and corresponding method, is described for finding the optimal or the best set of routes from a master to each of its connected slaves, for all the masters and slaves using an interconnect, such as a network-on-chip (NoC). Some embodiments of the invention apply to a class of interconnects that utilize a two-dimensional mesh topology, wherein a set of switches are arranged on a two-dimensional grid. Masters (initiators or sources) inject data packets or traffic into the interconnect. Slaves (targets or destinations) service the data packets or traffic traveling through the interconnect. The interconnect includes switches and links that are part of a path. Additionally, one or more optimal routes, which is defined by the system, move the traffic in a way that avoids deadlock scenarios.

In one embodiment, a method comprises creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination network node, each routing arc comprising a first network node as a first end of the routing arc, a second network node as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network node configured for routing any network traffic along the routing arc toward the destination node via any one of the first or second ends of the routing arc, the loop-free routing topology providing first and second non-congruent paths; and forwarding bicasting data, comprising a data packet in a first direction from a network node and a bicasted copy of the data packet in a second direction from the network node, concurrently to the destination node respectively via the first and second non-congruent paths.

Implementations are directed to designing a redundant configuration for a virtualized network function with cost efficiency while improving reliability of entire service chain. A service chain design apparatus includes a redundancy target VNF determining unit that defines, as importance of each VNF, at least one of the number of service chains using the VNF or the number of accommodated users in the service chains using the VNF, and determines a VNF having high importance as a redundancy target VNF, and a redundancy determining unit that determines, when importance of the redundancy target VNF determined by the redundancy target VNF determining unit exceeds a predetermined threshold, the redundancy target VNF having the importance exceeding the predetermined threshold as a redundancy execution VNF.

A path discovery process is provided for discovering a lowest cost combination of a plurality of paths from the source node to the destination node via links between pairs of nodes along the paths. A path discovery messages from a source node is forwarded through the network. Prior to forwarding the path discovery message a node tests one or more conditions for disabling the forwarding. Upon receiving an instance of the path discovery message, this may include testing whether no other instance of the path discovery message has both smaller cost and a previous path that contains only nodes that occur also in the path of the received instance. Furthermore, this may include testing whether a destination of the path discovery message was also a node to which a preceding node along the path has a further link, and a cost of the path from the preceding node to the next node via said further link is not larger than the cost of the path from the preceding node to the next node. Furthermore, this may include testing whether the node has a further link to the destination node and the cost associated with the link to the next node is not less than the cost associated with the further link to the destination node.

A method may include identifying paths from a user equipment (UE) device to an anchor station, determining that a first path corresponds to a direct wireless link to the anchor station and determining, in response to determining that the first path corresponds to a direct wireless link, a signal quality and a congestion associated with the direct wireless link. The method may also include selecting, in response to determining that the signal quality satisfies a signal quality threshold and the congestion satisfies a congestion threshold, the first path for the UE device to use when communicating with the anchor station. The method may further include identifying, in response to determining that the signal quality does not satisfy the signal quality threshold or the congestion does not satisfy the throughput threshold, another path for the UE device to use when communicating with the anchor station.