A method is disclosed for more efficiently and economically transporting data on a network using network access links between the first switch, which is the entry point of the network, and an end-user device, which is either on a fixed link on a customer premises or is a mobile device. The method includes terminating one or more protocol sessions at the first switch and removing corresponding packet headers. The first switch creates a substitute packet, adding a substitute header that identifies the transport path and the communications connection. Removed headers are not delivered to the end-user device which processes received substitute packets into usable streams based on the substitute header.

A method for controlling a data flow in a domain of an OpenFlow protocol controlled software-defined network (SDN) comprising receiving a request from a network element for instructions to route the data flow through the OpenFlow SDN, determining a route for the data flow through the OpenFlow SDN, transmitting a unified header to the network element in the OpenFlow SDN, wherein the unified header facilitates transmission of data flows through the OpenFlow SDN that are encoded according to a plurality of network abstraction types, and transmitting instructions for forwarding the data flow along the route through the OpenFlow SDN, wherein the instructions for forwarding the data flow along the route through the OpenFlow SDN comprise one or more match fields, one or more mask values corresponding to the match fields, and one or more actions for the network element in the OpenFlow SDN to perform on the data flow.

A system may receive, by a switching component of the system, network traffic to be provided to an I/O component of the network device. The system may route, by the switching component, the network traffic to the I/O component based on whether the I/O component is connected to the switching component via the first connections and/or via second connections. The first connections may be connections via a chassis of the system. The second connections may be connections via a connector component that is removable from the switching component. The network traffic may be routed via the first connections and the second connections when the I/O component is connected via the first connections and the second connections. The network traffic may be routed via the first connections and not via the second connections when the I/O component is connected via the first connections and not via the second connections.

The present disclosure illustrates a routing system with learning functions and a routing method thereof. By detecting a raw packet's packet header and an entry port receiving the raw packet, a routing message is queried from a path table by the packet header and the entry port. When there is not the routing message, the raw packet is routed by a kernel and the routing result is recorded in the path table to be the routing message. When there is the routing message, the packet header of the raw packet is replaced with a modified packet header recorded in the routing message, to form a modified packet, and the modified packet is transmitted from the transmission port recorded in the routing message, to achieve the technical effect of improving the routing performance for the packets with the same packet headers and the same entry ports.

The present disclosure is directed to adaptive networking policy with user defined fields and includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media coupled to the one or more processors and comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause one or more components to perform operations including generating a user defined attribute (UDA) value corresponding to a set of attributes; receiving, at a network device, a packet having one or more packet conditions; determining that the one or more packet conditions of the packet match the set of attributes of the UDA value; assigning a UDA tag to the packet, wherein the UDA tag corresponds to the UDA value and is configured for chaining with one or more other UDA tags; and taking an action on the packet based on the UDA tag.

Embodiments for handling multidestination traffic in a network are described. The multidestination traffic includes packets that are in transit to a multihomed destination in the network. Upon determining the destination is multihomed, a network switch determines a hash value from a selection of header values in the network traffic and uses the hash value to determine if the network switch is a designated forwarder for the multihomed destination. The network switch handles the network traffic according a designated forwarder status.

Packet forwarding methods, apparatuses, devices, and systems are disclosed. An example packet forwarding system includes a target virtual machine, a virtual switch and a network card device, wherein: the target virtual machine is configured to send a first packet to the virtual switch; the virtual switch is configured to add input port information to the first packet to obtain a second packet after receiving the first packet sent by the target virtual machine, and forward the second packet to the network card device; and the network card device is configured to determine a corresponding first forwarding rule based on the input port information included in the second packet in response to receiving the second packet sent by the virtual switch, and perform forwarding processing on the second packet based on the first forwarding rule.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for requesting a cellular IP address by initiating a call with a modem, establishing data packet network connectivity with the cellular IP address, assigning the cellular IP address to a virtual L2-bridge interface, wherein the virtual L2-bridge interface includes a MAC address, mapping a MAC address of a virtual machine with the MAC address of the virtual L2-bridge interface, detecting a change in the cellular IP address, and updating the virtual L2-bridge interface with a different cellular IP address while maintaining the data packet network connectivity.

A method for obtaining a port path and an apparatus to improve a network capacity, where the method includes receiving, by a controller, a request message from a first server, where the request message requests port path information, and the port path information includes a port that a logical link from the first server to a second server passes through, obtaining, by the controller, a first absolute port path (APP) and a second APP according to network topology information, where the first APP includes a port that a logical link from a root node to the first server passes through, and the second APP includes a port that a logical link from the root node to the second server passes through, obtaining, by the controller, the port path information according to the first APP and the second APP, and sending the port path information to the first server.

Some embodiments provide novel methods for performing services for machines operating in one or more datacenters. For instance, for a group of related guest machines (e.g., a group of tenant machines), some embodiments define two different forwarding planes: (1) a guest forwarding plane and (2) a service forwarding plane. The guest forwarding plane connects to the machines in the group and performs L2 and/or L3 forwarding for these machines. The service forwarding plane (1) connects to the service nodes that perform services on data messages sent to and from these machines, and (2) forwards these data messages to the service nodes. In some embodiments, the guest machines do not connect directly with the service forwarding plane. For instance, in some embodiments, each forwarding plane connects to a machine or service node through a port that receives data messages from, or supplies data messages to, the machine or service node. In such embodiments, the service forwarding plane does not have a port that directly receives data messages from, or supplies data messages to, any guest machine. Instead, in some such embodiments, data associated with a guest machine is routed to a port proxy module executing on the same host computer, and this other module has a service plane port. This port proxy module in some embodiments indirectly can connect more than one guest machine on the same host to the service plane (i.e., can serve as the port proxy module for more than one guest machine on the same host).