The invention presented herein is a system and method for automatically discovering communication capabilities for direct communication between endpoints across one or more unknown networks, the system comprising: a plurality of network enabled endpoints configured with a module in wireless communication with a management database, the module configured to establish a communication path for direct communication between the network-enabled endpoints, independent of a NAT router. Also disclosed is a system and method for indirect connectionless bi-directional messaging over an unknown network infrastructure for communicating a message communication between a querying device and a database, wherein communication is enabled without the requirement for direct access to the database for either obtaining or placing information; and where the message communication comprises an unlimited amount of discreet and selectable information elements; and without requiring or issuing a direct acknowledgement of a receipt from the database of the communication message received.

The invention presented herein is a system and method for automatically discovering communication capabilities for direct communication between endpoints across one or more unknown networks, the system comprising: a plurality of network enabled endpoints configured with a module in wireless communication with a management database, the module configured to establish a communication path for direct communication between the network-enabled endpoints, independent of a NAT router. Also disclosed is a system and method for indirect connectionless bi-directional messaging over an unknown network infrastructure for communicating a message communication between a querying device and a database, wherein communication is enabled without the requirement for direct access to the database for either obtaining or placing information; and where the message communication comprises an unlimited amount of discreet and selectable information elements; and without requiring or issuing a direct acknowledgement of a receipt from the database of the communication message received.

A network element (NE) configured as a local cloud switch point (CSP) comprises a memory configured to store remote virtual routing information in association with an identifier (ID) of a remote CSP in a mapping table, wherein the remote virtual routing information is associated with a remote virtual network associated with the remote CSP, and wherein the remote virtual routing information comprises a virtual extensible network (VXN) type identifier (ID), an address family ID (AFI), and a subsequent AFI (SAFI). The NE further comprises a processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform encapsulation on a data packet to generate a encapsulated data packet by adding an outer header to the data packet based on the AFI, adding a virtualization header to the data packet based on the VXN type ID, and adding an inner header to the data packet based on the SAFI. The NE further comprises a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the encapsulated data packet to the remote CSP.

A system that enables end-user devices that operate within different enterprise networks to exchange data with one another. In particular, the disclosed system uses unique IP addresses that are dedicated solely to supporting a predefined communication service between enterprise computer networks, in order to identify and route each data packet according to the communications service. As part of the communications service, the data packets are transmitted, for example, from a first local service provider network hosting a first enterprise network, through a participating backbone service provider network on the public Internet and based on deterministic routing, and to a second local service provider network hosting a second enterprise network. In handling the data packets in this way, the disclosed system creates an Internet wide-area-network (WAN): the data packets are transmitted over the Internet and conceivably over a large geographic distance between enterprise networks.

Compute nodes can execute virtual routers to implement a forwarding plane for one or more virtual networks having virtual network destinations hosted by the compute nodes. In one example, a method includes generating, by a software-defined networking (SDN) controller that manages a plurality of compute nodes, based on a unique identifier of a virtual network, a route target value for the virtual network, wherein the virtual network comprises virtual network endpoints executing on the compute nodes; and outputting, by the SDN controller and to a routing protocol peer device, a virtual private network (VPN) route that includes the route target value for the virtual network and a virtual network prefix associated with the virtual network, the VPN route for routing to the plurality of compute nodes executing the virtual network endpoints of the virtual network.

Embodiments of this application provide a method and an apparatus for obtaining a network slice identifier. In the method, a wireless access device receives a first service packet sent by a terminal; the wireless access device obtains a second service packet based on the first service packet, where the second service packet includes the first service packet and a network slice identifier; and the wireless access device sends the second service packet to a forwarding device.

A network element upgrade method and a device are provided, which relate to the field of communications technologies, so as to resolve a problem that in an existing upgrade process, after a network element switches all services to a new version, an overall situation may be affected once a problem occurs during the upgrade to the new version. The network element upgrade method provided in the present invention includes: receiving a distribution policy; forwarding, to a first network element according to the distribution policy, some of a plurality of received service messages sent by an external network element, and forwarding remaining service messages to a second network element according to the distribution policy; forwarding, to the second network element according to the distribution policy, all of a plurality of subsequently received service messages sent by the external network element.

The invention presented herein is a system and method for automatically discovering communication capabilities for direct communication between endpoints across one or more unknown networks, the system comprising: a plurality of network enabled endpoints configured with a module in wireless communication with a management database, the module configured to establish a communication path for direct communication between the network-enabled endpoints, independent of a NAT router. Also disclosed is a system and method for indirect connectionless bi-directional messaging over an unknown network infrastructure for communicating a message communication between a querying device and a database, wherein communication is enabled without the requirement for direct access to the database for either obtaining or placing information; and where the message communication comprises an unlimited amount of discreet and selectable information elements; and without requiring or issuing a direct acknowledgement of a receipt from the database of the communication message received.

A network element (NE) configured as a local cloud switch point (CSP) comprises a memory configured to store remote virtual routing information in association with an identifier (ID) of a remote CSP in a mapping table, wherein the remote virtual routing information is associated with a remote virtual network associated with the remote CSP, and wherein the remote virtual routing information comprises a virtual extensible network (VXN) type identifier (ID), an address family ID (AFI), and a subsequent AFI (SAFI). The NE further comprises a processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform encapsulation on a data packet to generate a encapsulated data packet by adding an outer header to the data packet based on the AFI, adding a virtualization header to the data packet based on the VXN type ID, and adding an inner header to the data packet based on the SAFI. The NE further comprises a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the encapsulated data packet to the remote CSP.

The invention presented herein permits split-routing to occur without any changes, modifications, or configuration of the requesting host, network stacks, network architectures and routing and forwarding behavior. The invention is carried out by way of a Module that intercepts the normal and standard DHCP communication between a requesting device and a DHCP server, and substitutes the elements within the server response with the Module's own predefined elements. These substitute elements leverage the behavior of standard protocols to gain desired device network behavior.