There are provided methods and apparatuses for switching frames. A method includes receiving a frame from a source host node, wherein the frame includes a Layer 2 broadcast address for retrieving a MAC address of a destination host node and the frame further includes an original source MAC address of the source host node; generating a new MMSP MAC address which is associated with said original source MAC address; generating an individual MMSP unicast address including an individual switch ID; replacing the destination MAC address indicated in the frame with the individual MMSP unicast address; replacing the original MAC address indicated in the frame with said new MMSP MAC address to generate, a new frame including the individual MMSP unicast address and the new MMSP MAC address of the source the host node; and forwarding each new generated frame to every switch.

An example first server host includes processor circuitry to: connect a virtual network interface card (vNIC) of the first server host to a first physical network interface card (pNIC) and a second pNIC of the first server host; establish an inter-switch link between first and second switches, the first switch and the first server host in a first network fabric, the second switch and a second server host in a second network fabric; and cause transmission of a first and second network packets from the vNIC of the first server host, the first and second network packets to be delivered to the second server host via the inter-switch link, the first network packet to be transmitted via the first pNIC when utilization of the first pNIC does not satisfy a threshold, the second network packet to be transmitted via the second pNIC when the utilization satisfies the threshold.

An apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface communicates with a network including network elements interconnected in a Cartesian topology. The processor defines first and second groups of turns, each turn includes a hop from a previous network element to a current network element and a hop from the current network element to a next network element. Based on the turns, the processor specifies rules that when applied to packets traversing respective network elements, guarantee that no deadlock conditions occur in the network. The rules for a given network element include (i) forwarding rules to reach a given target without traversing the turns of the second group, and (ii) Virtual Lane (VL) modification rules for reassigning packets, which traverse turns of the first group and which are assigned to a first VL, to a different second VL. The processor configures the given network element with the rules.

A device and method that implements a multi-stage electrical interconnection network is provided. The electronic device includes a plurality of computing devices and a plurality of switches grouped into a plurality of groups. Switches, of the plurality of switches, in a same group are configured to be fully connected to computing devices in the same group, each of switches of the plurality of switches included in a first group among the plurality of groups is configured to have a ono-to-one connection with any one of switches included in a second group, and a connection between the computing devices in the same group and the switches in the same group and a connection between switches in in the plurality of groups are electrical connections.

A device and method that implements a multi-stage electrical interconnection network is provided. The electronic device includes a plurality of computing devices and a plurality of switches grouped into a plurality of groups. Switches, of the plurality of switches, in a same group are configured to be fully connected to computing devices in the same group, each of switches of the plurality of switches included in a first group among the plurality of groups is configured to have a ono-to-one connection with any one of switches included in a second group, and a connection between the computing devices in the same group and the switches in the same group and a connection between switches in in the plurality of groups are electrical connections.

An example data center system includes server devices hosting data of a first tenant and a second tenant of the data center, network devices of an interconnected topology coupling the server devices including respective service virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) tables, and one or more service devices that communicatively couple the network devices, wherein the service devices include respective service VRF tables for the first set of server devices and the second set of server devices, and wherein the service devices apply services to network traffic flowing between the first set of server devices and the second set of server devices using the first service VRF table and the second service VRF table.

In general, techniques are described for facilitating balanced cell handling by fabric cores of a fabric plane for an internal device switch fabric. In some examples, a routing system includes a plurality of fabric endpoints and a switching fabric comprising a fabric plane to switch cells among the fabric endpoints. The fabric plane includes two fabric cores and one or more inter-core links connecting the fabric cores. Each fabric core selects an output port of the fabric core to which to route a received cell of the cells based on (i) an input port of the fabric core on which the received cell was received and (ii) a destination fabric endpoint for the received cell, at least a portion of the selected output ports being connected to the inter-core links, and switches the received cell to the selected output port.

This application discloses a method for forwarding a packet in a data center network. A first device obtains an original packet, and adds a first source label to the original packet to obtain a first packet. The first source label includes a forwarding type, an indication field, and an interface sequence. The forwarding type indicates that the first packet supports source label forwarding, the interface sequence indicates a first source label forwarding path of the original packet, and the indication field indicates information that is about an outbound interface and that should be read from the interface sequence. The first device sends the first packet to a next-hop switch through the outbound interface corresponding to the first source label forwarding path. The next-hop switch receives the first packet, and forwards the first packet based on the first source label.

In one embodiment, a computer network system, includes a plurality of mesh networks, each mesh network including at least three interconnected respective internal switches with each respective internal switch being connected to each other one of the respective internal switches via a respective internal network connection, and Clos topology network connections connecting the mesh networks in a Clos topology arrangement.

There may be provided a non-uniform Benes network, that may include a first Benes network portion that has a first number (k) of first inputs and k first outputs; a second Benes network portion that has a second number (j) of second inputs and j second outputs; wherein j is smaller than k; and a set of multiplexers that are coupled between a set of switches of an intermediate layer of the first Benes network portion and a first layer of the second Benes network layer.