Techniques configure a network to relay data from a node to a root device are described herein. In an example, one-hop neighbors of the node are determined and ranked according to link quality. The ranked neighbor nodes may be considered potential “parent nodes” of the node. The ranked nodes may be divided into a plurality of groups according to link quality. A parent node may be selected from among the “best” group of one-hop neighbor nodes and may be used to relay data for the node to and/or from the router or other device. The node continues to use the parent node at least until its ranking removes it from the best group or falls below a threshold value. After the ranking of the parent falls below such a prescribed threshold it may be replaced by selection of a replacement parent from the group of one-hop upstream neighbors having the best link quality.

Techniques configure a network to relay data from a node to a root device are described herein. In an example, one-hop neighbors of the node are determined and ranked according to link quality. The ranked neighbor nodes may be considered potential “parent nodes” of the node. The ranked nodes may be divided into a plurality of groups according to link quality. A parent node may be selected from among the “best” group of one-hop neighbor nodes and may be used to relay data for the node to and/or from the router or other device. The node continues to use the parent node at least until its ranking removes it from the best group or falls below a threshold value. After the ranking of the parent falls below such a prescribed threshold it may be replaced by selection of a replacement parent from the group of one-hop upstream neighbors having the best link quality.

Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Systems and methods are provided for supporting efficient reconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existing routing comprising. An exemplary method can provide, a plurality of switches, the plurality switches comprising at least one leaf switch, wherein each of the one or more switches comprise a plurality of ports, and a plurality of end nodes, wherein the plurality of end nodes are interconnected via the one or more switches. The method can detect, by a subnet manager, a reconfiguration triggering event. The method can compute, by the subnet manager, a new routing for the interconnection network, wherein the computing by the subnet manager of the new routing for the interconnection network takes into consideration the pre-existing routing and selects the new routing for the interconnection network that is closest to the pre-existing routing. The method can reconfigure the interconnection network according to the new routing.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for validating routing table information in a network. A network assurance appliance may be configured to retrieve routing table information from a plurality of nodes in a network fabric. The routing table information includes path information from at least one source node to at least one destination node. A graph representation of the routing table information is constructed with the at least one destination node as a sink vertex for the graph representation. The network assurance appliance determines, for each leaf node in the network fabric, whether the leaf node can reach the sink vertex based on the graph representation and determines that there is a misconfiguration of the network fabric based on whether each leaf node in the fabric can reach the sink vertex.

Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Network apparatus includes a plurality of ports for connection to respective links in a packet communication network, the ports having respective port costs assigned thereto. One or more packet processors are configured to transfer data packets between the ports. A controller is configured to select, using a spanning tree protocol responsively to the port costs, one of the ports as a root port, thereby defining a forwarding topology, to receive data with respect to a quality of packet transmission through the ports over the respective links according to the defined topology, and responsively to a change in the packet transmission quality indicated by the received data, to modify a cost of at least one of the ports so as to cause a modification of the forwarding topology by the spanning tree protocol.

A link state packet transmission method and a routing node are disclosed. The method is applied to a tree topology, where the tree topology includes a leaf routing node, an intermediate routing node, and a root routing node. The method includes: receiving, by the intermediate routing node, a link state packet sent by a child routing node of the intermediate routing node; sending, by the intermediate routing node, the link state packet to the root routing node, where the root routing node is configured to aggregate received link state packets to obtain a link state packet set; receiving, by the intermediate routing node, the link state packet set sent by the root routing node; and sending, by the intermediate routing node, the link state packet set to the child routing node of the intermediate routing node.

Disclosed is a mechanism for implementing link state flooding reduction (LSFR) in an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) network. The mechanism includes receiving data indicating connectivity of a plurality of nodes in the network. A flooding topology is built based on the connectivity. This includes selecting one of the nodes as a root node, and building a tree of links connecting the root node to the nodes in the network. The flooding topology is stored in a memory. The flooding topology may not be to the remaining nodes in the network. Link state messages may then be flooded over the flooding topology.

Approaches for recovering a connectivity failure in a network having multiple cells, each (i) supporting communication among multiple transceiver nodes, (ii) being capable of receiving and transmitting a packet and (iii) being associated with a parent node and one or more child nodes, include assigning a rank number to each of the nodes; upon detecting a connectivity failure of one of the nodes to its parent node, searching for a new parent node based at least in part on the rank numbers assigned to the nodes; and upon identifying the new parent node within a first predetermined time period, reconnecting said one of the nodes to the network by associating it with the new parent node.