Some embodiments of the invention provide a forwarding element that can be configured through in-band data-plane messages from a remote controller that is a physically separate machine from the forwarding element. The forwarding element of some embodiments has data plane circuits that include several configurable message-processing stages, several storage queues, and a data-plane configurator. A set of one or more message-processing stages of the data plane are configured (1) to process configuration messages received by the data plane from the remote controller and (2) to store the configuration messages in a set of one or more storage queues. The data-plane configurator receives the configuration messages stored in the set of storage queues and configures one or more of the configurable message-processing stages based on configuration data in the configuration messages.

A system and method for protocol independent multi-flow table routing includes a first flow table, a second flow table, and a shared hash table accessible by both the first flow table and the second flow table. Upon receipt of a packet, a first secure signature of a first lookup key is generated for the first flow table, and a second secure signature of a second lookup key is generated for the second flow table. The shared hash table stores both the first secure signature in association with a first value corresponding to the first secure signature, and the second secure signature along with a second value corresponding to the second secure signature. The first and second values indicate destination information for the packet.

In an embodiment, a method monitors a plurality of data streams passing through a router in the connectivity service provider environment, and for each of the data streams, periodically samples packets at the router. The method further generates a stream signature based at least on the payload of the sampled packets. The method further includes, for each generated stream signature, attaching information to the stream signature. Such information may, for example, include time-stamp information for the stream signature, or an identification of the router. The method may further comprise storing the stream signatures corresponding to the data streams in a database. The stored stream signatures may be compared to determine matching stream signatures. Matching signatures may identify data streams that carry identical or similar content.

In an embodiment, a method monitors a plurality of data streams passing through a router in the connectivity service provider environment, and for each of the data streams, periodically samples packets at the router. The method further generates a stream signature based at least on the payload of the sampled packets. The method further includes, for each generated stream signature, attaching information to the stream signature. Such information may, for example, include time-stamp information for the stream signature, or an identification of the router. The method may further comprise storing the stream signatures corresponding to the data streams in a database. The stored stream signatures may be compared to determine matching stream signatures. Matching signatures may identify data streams that carry identical or similar content.

Optimizing transaction traffic on a System on a Chip (SoC) by using procedures such as expanding transactions and consolidating responses at nodes of an interconnect fabric for broadcasts, multi-casts, any-casts, source based routing type transactions, intra-streaming two or more transactions over a stream defined by a paired virtual channel-transaction class, trunking physical resources sharing common logical identifier, and using hashing to select among multiple physical resources sharing a common logical identifier.

Approaches, techniques, and mechanisms are disclosed for maintaining efficient representations of prefix tables for utilization by network switches and other devices. In an embodiment, the performance of a network device is greatly enhanced using a working representation of a prefix table that includes multiple stages of prefix entries. Higher-stage prefixes are stored in slotted pools. Mapping logic, such as a hash function, determines the slots in which a given higher-stage prefix may be stored. When trying to find a longest-matching higher-stage prefix for an input key, only the slots that map to that input key need be read. Higher-stage prefixes may further point to arrays of lower-stage prefixes. Hence, once a longest-matching higher-stage prefix is found for an input key, the longest prefix match in the table may be found simply by comparing the input key to lower-stage prefixes in the array that the longest-matching higher-stage prefix points to.

Approaches, techniques, and mechanisms are disclosed for maintaining efficient representations of prefix tables for utilization by network switches and other devices. In an embodiment, the performance of a network device is greatly enhanced using a working representation of a prefix table that includes multiple stages of prefix entries. Higher-stage prefixes are stored in slotted pools. Mapping logic, such as a hash function, determines the slots in which a given higher-stage prefix may be stored. When trying to find a longest-matching higher-stage prefix for an input key, only the slots that map to that input key need be read. Higher-stage prefixes may further point to arrays of lower-stage prefixes. Hence, once a longest-matching higher-stage prefix is found for an input key, the longest prefix match in the table may be found simply by comparing the input key to lower-stage prefixes in the array that the longest-matching higher-stage prefix points to.

A method for alleviating flow congestion at forwarding elements is provided. The method receives traffic related data from a plurality of forwarding elements of a network, and based on the traffic related data, determines congestion at a first forwarding element of the plurality of forwarding elements caused by at least one flow passing through the first forwarding element at a first rate. The method calculates, based on a burst size of the at least one flow, a second rate for the at least one flow such that when the at least one flow passes through the first forwarding element at the second rate the congestion at the first forwarding element is alleviated. The method rate limits the at least one flow by passing the at least one flow through a flow rate manager at the calculated second rate before transmitting the at least one flow to the first forwarding element.

ECMP routing is carried out in fabric of network entities by representing valid destinations and invalid destinations in a group of the entities by a member vector. The order of the elements in the member vector is permuted and fanned out. A portion of the elements in the fanned out vector is pseudo-randomly masked. A flow of packets is transmitted to the first valid destination in the masked member vector.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses for a memory device (e.g., DRAM) including an error check and scrub (ECS) procedure in conjunction with refresh operations are described. The ECS procedure may include read/modify-write cycles when errors are detected in code words. In some embodiments, the memory device may complete the ECS procedure over multiple refresh commands, namely by performing a read (or read/modify) portion of the ECS procedure while a first refresh command is executed, and by performing a write portion of the ECS procedure while a second refresh command is executed. The ECS procedure described herein may facilitate avoiding signaling conflicts or interferences that may occur between the ECS procedure and other memory operations.