A computer network includes a server computer having communication ports that are wired to switch ports of two separate network switches. The network switches receive link aggregation control packets from the server computer, and automatically aggregate corresponding switch ports into a single logical port channel based on contents of the control packets.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including electrical circuitry, are described for auto-negotiation. Active cables, active backplanes, and line cards may include one or more instances of electrical circuitry and/or integrated circuits that intercept advertisements of standard auto-negotiation protocol signaling from an initiating device for establishment of communication links with a receiving device. Auto negotiation information in the intercepted signaling may be translated and encoded into signaling in accordance with the capabilities of the receiving device. Active cables and active backplanes may also include one or more connection components between instances of electrical circuitry and/or integrated circuits to provide high-speed transmission of data packets encapsulating the auto-negotiation information in a format that differs from the standard auto-negotiation protocol.

Provided are a method and device for synchronizing an interface parameter. According to the method, related information, sent by a remote Terminating Provider Edge (TPE) of a first Pseudo-Wire (PW) in a first segment of PW of a Switching Provider Edge (SPE), of the first PW is received or recorded, wherein the related information of the first PW carries an interface parameter of the remote TPE of the first PW, and the interface parameter is used for establishing a Label Switch Path (LSP); and the related information of the first PW is sent to a remote TPE of a second segment of PW of the SPE. By the solution, a problem caused by incapability of opposite equipment in timely perceiving updating of an interface parameter of local equipment is solved, and the opposite equipment can use a correct interface parameter value for negotiation and PW establishment.

Adjustable data rate data communications may be provided. First, a plurality of remote data rates at which a remote device is configured to operate may be received. Then, a plurality of local data rates at which a local device is configured to operate may be received. A greatest one of the plurality of local data rates may comprise a cable data rate comprising a greatest rate supported by a length of cable connecting the local device and the remote device. Next, an operating data rate may be determined. The operating data rate may comprise a highest one of the plurality of local data rates that has a corresponding equivalent within the plurality of remote data rates. The local device may then be operated at the operating data rate.

An optical switching control method and apparatus. The method includes generating an optical switching path corresponding to a destination node of service traffic flowing from an external service network, generating an optical frame corresponding to the generated optical switching path, transmitting, to a control server, a request message for requesting an allocation of a time slot to transmit the generated optical frame, generating an optical signal having a predetermined wavelength to transmit the optical frame in response to an admission message being received as a result of admission with respect to the request message, and transferring the optical frame to the destination node based on the optical switching path using the generated optical signal.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a data transmission method and apparatus for a terminal. The terminal exchanges data of an application with a server through a first port by using a first access node; when one port in a second port set is in an enabled state, the terminal accesses one access node in a candidate access node set through the enabled port in the second port set, and exchanges, based on the Multipath TCP, the data of the application with the server by using an access node corresponding to the enabled port.

Methods and apparatus for Ethernet auto-negotiation (AN) with parallel detect for 10G DAC or other non-auto-negotiated modes. AN base pages are transmitted from an Ethernet apparatus to advertise the ability to support at least one Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 Ethernet specification supporting AN. A receiver and associated processing circuitry is configured to perform two detection modes in parallel, including a first detection mode that looks for a valid signal transmitted from an Ethernet link peer that does not support AN and a second detection mode looking for AN pages from an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet link peer that supports AN. If the link peer does not support AN, an Ethernet link is set up to use signaling in accordance with the Ethernet specification that does not support AN. If the link peer supports AN, an Ethernet link is set up using a corresponding IEEE 802.3 Ethernet link supporting AN. Supported non-AN Ethernet links include 10G DAC links.

Ethernet link extension methods and devices provide, in one illustrative embodiment, an Ethernet link extender with physical medium attachment (PMA) circuits each having a transmitter and receiver that communicate with a respective node in a sequence of communication phases. The sequence includes at least an auto-negotiation phase and a subsequent training phase, the phases occurring simultaneously for both PMA circuits. In the auto-negotiation phase, the PMA circuits operate in a pass-through mode, rendering the extender transparent to the two nodes. In the training phase, the PMA circuits operate independently, sending training frames to their respective nodes based in part on received back-channel information and locally-determined training status information. The training phases may be prolonged if needed to provide a simultaneous transition to a frame-forwarding phase of the sequence.

Technologies for autonegotiation of communications operational modes over copper cable include a network port logic having a communication link coupled to a remote link partner. The network port logic may start an autonegotiation protocol upon reset, when the link is broken, or upon manual renegotiation. The network port logic transmits an autonegotiation page to the remote link partner that indicates single-lane communications ability over copper cable. The network port logic receives an autonegotiation page from the link partner indicating single-lane communications ability over copper cable. If the network port logic and link partner have a common single-lane communication ability, the link may be activated. The autonegotiation pages may be base pages or next pages. The single-lane communication ability may be indicated by one or more bits of the autonegotation pages. The link may be established at 1 gigabit or 10 gigabits per second. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

A network switch to support scalable and flexible wildcard matching (WCM) comprises a packet processing pipeline including a plurality of packet processing units each configured to generate a master key for a WCM request to a memory pool and process a packet based on looked up WCM rules. The memory pool includes a plurality of memory groups each configured to maintain a plurality of WCM tables to be searched in one or more SRAM memory tiles of the memory group, format the master key generated by the packet processing unit into a compact key based on a bitmap per user configuration, hash the formatted compact key and perform wildcard matching with the WCM tables stored in the one or more SRAM memory tiles of the memory group using the formatted compact key, process and provide the WCM rules from the wildcard matching to the requesting packet processing unit.