An environment includes at least two network devices and a plurality of downstream devices or networks. The downstream devices or networks are communicatively coupled to network interfaces of the network devices using a plurality of data cables. The data cables each comprise a switch device configured to switch communication paths to the coupled network devices. Each of the data cables communicatively couple each of the network devices to one of the plurality of downstream devices or networks so that each of the downstream devices or networks has a communications path to each of the network devices and a switchable communications path from each of the network devices. The network devices do not arbitrate active/passive status via direct communication. Based on data contained in a reply packet indicating that a request packet sent by the first network device was acknowledged, the first network device determines that the first network device is an active network device.

Systems and methods are provided for generating audit log entries for data packet transactions. One example computer-implemented method includes, in response to a request to share data about a user with a first party, retrieving data identified in the request and generating a transaction ID for the request where the transaction ID is unique to the request to share the data. The method also includes compiling a data packet including at least the transaction ID and the identified data, and generating a signature value for the data packet. The method then further includes transmitting, by the computing device, the data packet to the first party as a transaction and appending an entry to an audit log, which includes the transaction ID and the signature value, but not the identified data.

This disclosure describes techniques for implementing centralized path computation for routing in hybrid information-centric networking protocols implemented as a virtual network overlay. A method includes receiving an interest packet header from a forwarding router node of a network overlay. The method further includes determining an interest path of the interest packet and one or more destination router nodes of the network overlay. The method further includes computing one or more paths over the network overlay. The method further includes determining an addressing method for the one or more computed paths over the network overlay. The method further includes performing at least one of encoding each computed path in a data packet header, and encoding each computed path as state entries of each router node of the network overlay on each respective path. The method further includes returning the computed path information to the forwarding router node.

A management device (10) includes: a management table acquisition unit (132) that acquires at least a first management table in which an MPLS tunnel and a first label for in-network delivery are associated with each other, and a second management table in which an MPLS tunnel, a second label for specifying a CE router that is an output destination from an egress PE router, and identification information of a VPN to which the CE router that is the output destination belongs are associated with each other, the first management table being included in a node that is a copy source in an MPLS network, the second management table being included in an egress PE router as an output destination of a packet; and a VPN identification unit (133) that collates the first label of the copied packet with the first management table to identify an MPLS tunnel through which the packet passes, identifies the egress PE router to which the packed is output based on the MPLS tunnel, and identifies the VPN of the packet by collating the second management table of the egress PE router with the second label attached to the packet.

A segment routing (SR) policy issuing method applied to an SR network. The SR network includes a path computation node (PCN), a first node, and a second node, a first path and a second path between the first node and the second node. The first node is a source node of the first path and the second path. The second node is a destination node of the first path and the second path. The method includes the PCN generating an SR policy and sending the SR policy to the first node. The SR policy indicates to the first node to generate a first packet flow and a second packet flow based on an original packet flow, send the first packet flow through the first path, and send the second packet flow through the second path.

A communication method and apparatus are provided for transmitting packets of a data stream between user equipment. After receiving a first packet from a first user equipment, a user plane function (UPF) forwards the first packet to a second user equipment at a first moment, so that the first packet that arrives at the UPF before the first moment is not forwarded to the second user equipment until the first moment, to support deterministic sending and ensure that a time sensitive communication (TSC) packet is sent at a determined moment, so as to provide deterministic delay assurance for applications such as industrial control and telemedicine.

Disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are a packet forwarding method, apparatus and system, a network device and a storage medium. The method includes: carrying, according to Deterministic Networking (DetNet) requirements for a multicast packet based on Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER), corresponding DetNet configuration information in BIER header information of the multicast packet; and sending the multicast packet carrying the BIER header information.

The present disclosure provides a packet encapsulation method, including: determining a segment routing-traffic engineering (SR-TE) path; generating, according to a segment identifier (SID) of each node in the SR-TE path, an SID list, where each node supports a plurality of unified-SID encapsulation types (UETs) corresponding to SIDs of different lengths, and in the SID list, the SID of at least a node serving as an intermediate node of the SR-TE path is the SID having the non-longest length in the plurality of SIDs corresponding to the node; forming a segment routing header (SRH) from the SID list; and encapsulating an initial packet with the SRH to obtain a final packet. The present disclosure further provides a packet forwarding method, a UET announcement method, an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium. The final packet obtained by the packet encapsulation method has a higher load rate.

Distributed computing systems, devices, and associated methods of packet processing are disclosed herein. One example method includes receiving a packet having a header with a protocol field, a source address field, a source port field, a destination address field, and a destination port field individually containing a corresponding value. The method also includes extracting the values of the protocol field, the source address field, the source port field, the destination field, and the destination port field, determining whether a first match action table (“MAT”) contains an entry indexed to the extracted values, and in response to determining that the first MAT does not contain an entry indexed to the extracted values, using a subset of the extracted values to identify an entry in a second MAT.

Presented herein are techniques for dynamic optical network programming using Segment Routing (SR) using an Optical Provisioning SR Label (OPSL). In one form, a method is provided that is performed by a network element that has received an OPSL from another network element to create an optical circuit. In another form, a method is provided that is performed by a network element that sends an OPSL to another network element to cause that other network element to create an optical circuit.