Receiving, by a network device at a receiving time, one or more packets, each packet being one of a plurality of ordered packets in one of a plurality of streams received at the network device. Determining, by the network device for each received packet, a transmit time based on one timer common to the plurality of streams. Indexing, by the network device in a data store common to the plurality of streams, each packet by the determined transmit time. Transmitting, by the network device at each particular time corresponding to a determined transmit time, all packets in the data store indexed to the particular time.

Receiving, by a network device at a receiving time, one or more packets, each packet being one of a plurality of ordered packets in one of a plurality of streams received at the network device. Determining, by the network device for each received packet, a transmit time based on one timer common to the plurality of streams. Indexing, by the network device in a data store common to the plurality of streams, each packet by the determined transmit time. Transmitting, by the network device at each particular time corresponding to a determined transmit time, all packets in the data store indexed to the particular time.

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes network data using a transformed packet classification list in a network element is described. A network element receives a packet classification list and transforms a first set of the plurality of range sets corresponding to a first one of the two or more types of packet characteristics into a first set of range labels. In addition, the network element transforms a second set of the plurality of range sets corresponding to a second one of the two or more types of packet characteristics into a second set of range labels. The network element may create a set of combination labels. The network element further processes network data by performing a first lookup to derive a first combination packet label, performing a second lookup of at least the first combination packet label, and applying a rule resulting from the second lookup to the network data.

A network element is configured to efficiently load balance packets through a computer network. The network element receives a packet associated with flow attributes and generates a Load Balancing Flow Vector (LBFV) from the flow attributes. The network element partitions the LBFV into a plurality of LBFV blocks and reorders the LBFV blocks to generate a reordered LBFV. The LBFV blocks are reordered based on a reordering sequence that is different from reordering sequences on other network elements in the computer network. The network element hashes the reordered LBFV to generate a hash key for the packet and selects a next hop link based on the hash key. The next hop link connects the network elements to a next hop network element in the computer network.

A network element is configured to efficiently load balance packets through a computer network. The network element receives a packet associated with flow attributes and generates a Load Balancing Flow Vector (LBFV) from the flow attributes. The network element partitions the LBFV into a plurality of LBFV blocks and reorders the LBFV blocks to generate a reordered LBFV. The LBFV blocks are reordered based on a reordering sequence that is different from reordering sequences on other network elements in the computer network. The network element hashes the reordered LBFV to generate a hash key for the packet and selects a next hop link based on the hash key. The next hop link connects the network elements to a next hop network element in the computer network.

A method for determining a designated forwarder (DF) of a multicast flow, a device, and a system are disclosed. In an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) scenario, a customer edge (CE) device is connected to a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices in a dual-homed or multi-homed manner. A first PE device is any one of the plurality of PE devices. After determining that the CE device connected to an Ethernet link joins a multicast group of a multicast flow, the first PE device determines bandwidth occupation statuses of a plurality of Ethernet links included in an Ethernet segment (ES) to which the Ethernet link belongs, and then determines, as a DF of the multicast flow based on the multicast flow bandwidth occupation statuses of the plurality of Ethernet links, a PE device corresponding to an Ethernet link that occupies lowest multicast flow bandwidth.

A traffic monitoring apparatus includes: a header analysis circuit configured to acquire one or more identifiers from a header of a received packet; a rule registration circuit configured to convert a rule table including rules in which one or more rule elements are registered for each of the rules into a predetermined format and register the rule table in a rule matching circuit; and the rule matching circuit configured to search for rules to be matched with the acquired identifiers.

A traffic monitoring apparatus includes: a header analysis circuit configured to acquire one or more identifiers from a header of a received packet; a rule registration circuit configured to convert a rule table including rules in which one or more rule elements are registered for each of the rules into a predetermined format and register the rule table in a rule matching circuit; and the rule matching circuit configured to search for rules to be matched with the acquired identifiers.

A network element includes multiple ports and a packet classifier. The packet classifier is configured to receive rules and Rule Patterns (RPs), each RP corresponding to a subset of the rules and specifies positions of unmasked packet-header bits to be matched by the rules in the subset, to store in a RAM a grouping of the RPs into Extended RPs (ERPs), each ERP defining a superset of the unmasked bits in the RPs associated therewith, to receive packets and match each packet to one or more of the rules by accessing the ERPs in the RAM, to determine counter values, each counter value corresponding to a respective RP and is indicative of a number of the received packets that match the RP, and to adaptively modify grouping of the RPs into the ERPs depending on the counter values.

A network element includes multiple ports and a packet classifier. The packet classifier is configured to receive rules and Rule Patterns (RPs), each RP corresponding to a subset of the rules and specifies positions of unmasked packet-header bits to be matched by the rules in the subset, to store in a RAM a grouping of the RPs into Extended RPs (ERPs), each ERP defining a superset of the unmasked bits in the RPs associated therewith, to receive packets and match each packet to one or more of the rules by accessing the ERPs in the RAM, to determine counter values, each counter value corresponding to a respective RP and is indicative of a number of the received packets that match the RP, and to adaptively modify grouping of the RPs into the ERPs depending on the counter values.