A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

A network apparatus comprising a trunk end point associated with an Ethernet-tree (E-Tree) service in a network domain and configured to forward a frame that comprises a tag according to the tag in the frame, wherein the tag in the frame is a root tag that indicates a root source of the frame or a leaf tag that indicates a leaf source of the frame, and wherein the trunk end point is coupled to a second end point associated with the E-tree service outside the network domain.

Techniques are described for applying double experimental (EXP) quality of service (QoS) markings to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) packets. According to the techniques, an edge router of an MPLS network is configured to map a Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) marking for customer traffic to at least two EXP fields of at least two different labels included in a MPLS packet encapsulating the customer traffic. In this way, the edge router may map the full DSCP marking across the first and second EXP fields to provide full resolution QoS for the customer traffic over the MPLS network. The techniques also include a core router of an MPLS network configured to identify a QoS profile for a received MPLS packet based on a combination of a first EXP field of a first label and a second EXP field of a second label included in the MPLS packet.

A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

In one example, an autonomous system boundary router (ASBR) forms part of a first autonomous system (AS). The ASBR is between a first provider edge (PE) router of the first AS and a second PE router of a second, different AS. The first PE router and the second PE router form a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) path. The ASBR includes an interface communicatively coupled to a routing device external to the first AS, a memory configured to store a forwarding table associated with the interface, and one or more processing units configured to receive a packet via the interface, determine that the packet is encapsulated by an MPLS label, select a forwarding table based on the interface by which the packet was received, and forward the packet according to forwarding information of the forwarding table when the forwarding table includes the MPLS label.

The present general inventive concept relates to systems and method for routing electronic messages depending on message content.

A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

A first customer edge network device receives an encapsulated packet that includes inner headers comprising source address information for a first service running on a first computing apparatus in a first home cloud and destination address information for a second service running on a second computing apparatus in a second home cloud. The customer edge network device inserts a predetermined portion of bits of a virtual domain identifier of the encapsulated packet into a label to form a virtual domain label for label-based routing. The virtual domain label is appended to the encapsulated packet. The encapsulated packet is sent to a first provider edge network device of a provider network. The first provider edge network device appends an virtual private network label to the encapsulated packet, and sends the encapsulated packet to a provider network device for label-based routing in the provider network.

A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

In one embodiment, an access component of a local network edge device receives traffic, and generates a frame for the traffic that includes a remote context label that identifies an access component of the remote network edge device to which the traffic is to be forwarded upon arrival at the remote network edge device, and a virtual circuit label corresponding to a particular virtual service of the traffic. The local network edge device forwards the frame towards the remote network edge device. In another embodiment, the frame may be received at a core component of the remote network edge device, an in response to the remote context label identifying an access component of the remote network edge device, forwarded to the access component, which determines the particular virtual service, and forwards the traffic from the frame out the access component towards an endpoint for the traffic.