Tightly-coupled, loosely connected distributed systems can be implemented more energy efficient and optimized for computational overhead via multi-protocol heterogeneous packet-based transport. When receiving a plurality of packets from a root complex where contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, a sequence number is added to each packet and a packet type is identified. Every packet in the first plurality of packets is encapsulated into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol to form a second plurality of packets organized in accordance with the second protocol. All the packets from the second plurality of packets can be handled via Direct Memory Access. A write-only communication scheme can be implemented using doorbell and command registers for more efficient data reading and writing in distributed systems.

A method supporting distributed resilient network interconnect (DRNI) in a link aggregation group at a network device is disclosed. The method starts with encapsulating a distributed relay control protocol data unit (DRCPDU) in a frame, wherein the DRCPDU includes a protocol data unit (PDU) structure. The PDU structure includes a type field indicating that the DRCPDU is for DRCP, a version field indicating a version number of the DRCP, and a set of type/length/values (TLVs) including: a terminator TLV indicating an end of the PDU structure, a portal information TLV indicating characteristics of the first portal, a portal configuration information TLV indicating configuration information of the first portal, a DRCP state TLV indicating variables associated with an intra-portal link (IPP), a home ports information TLV and a neighbor ports information TLV. The method continues with transmitting the frame encapsulating the DRCPDU from the network device to a neighbor network device.

A method of managing transport of packets transmitted over a time division multiplexed, TDM, link in a network. The method performed at a second network node comprises: receiving (102) blocks of data from a first network node. Data from one packet is received in a plurality of blocks and a first block from a packet has a time-stamp indicating arrival time of the packet at the first network node. The blocks are multiplexed for transmission over the TDM link. The method also comprises: queuing (106) the received blocks and if a block from the top of the queue (108, 110) has a time-stamp (110yes) and a maximum allowed latency has been exceeded (112) the method discards (116) blocks containing data from the same packet as the block with said time-stamp if there is at least one block containing data from another packet in the queue (114yes). An apparatus is also disclosed.

Deadlocks in a multi-protocol heterogeneous packet-based transport system are avoided while maintaining real-time aspects. When receiving a plurality of packets from a root complex where contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, a sequence number is added to each packet and a packet type is identified. Every packet in the first plurality of packets is encapsulated into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol to form a second plurality of packets organized in accordance with the second protocol. All the packets from the second plurality of packets are sent via a plurality of connections so that each connection from the plurality of connections only transports packets from the second plurality of packets that encapsulate packets from the first plurality that have a same packet type.

For secure transport, when receiving a plurality of packets from a root complex where contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, a sequence number is added to each packet and a packet type is identified. Every packet in the first plurality of packets is encrypted and encapsulated into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol to form a second plurality of packets organized in accordance with the second protocol. All the packets from the second plurality of packets are sent via a plurality of connections so that each connection from the plurality of connections only transports packets from the second plurality of packets that encapsulate packets from the first plurality that have a same packet type.

For secure transport, when receiving a plurality of packets from a root complex where contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, a sequence number is added to each packet and a packet type is identified. Every packet in the first plurality of packets is encrypted and encapsulated into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol to form a second plurality of packets organized in accordance with the second protocol. All the packets from the second plurality of packets are sent via a plurality of connections so that each connection from the plurality of connections only transports packets from the second plurality of packets that encapsulate packets from the first plurality that have a same packet type.

A method and technique for communications over multiple protocol interfaces in a computing environment includes identifying a first communications protocol of a network interface for ingress data packet communications. Responsive to the identified first communications protocol of the network interface differing from a second communications protocol used for the data packet communications, fragmentation data according to a data packet fragmentation protocol corresponding to the second communications protocol is derived from an application layer header of the data packet communications. A logical packet is re-assembled from the data packet communications using the data packet fragmentation protocol and the fragmentation data.

Deadlocks in a heterogeneous packet-based transport system are avoided. When receiving a plurality of packets from a root complex where contents of each packet from the plurality of packets organized in accordance with a first protocol, a sequence number is added to each packet and a packet type is identified. Every packet in the first plurality of packets is encapsulated into at least one packet organized in accordance with a second protocol to form a second plurality of packets organized in accordance with the second protocol. All the packets from the second plurality of packets are sent via a plurality of connections so that each connection from the plurality of connections only transports packets from the second plurality of packets that encapsulate packets from the first plurality that have a same packet type.

A method for measuring quality of a service running on a terminal includes sending, by the terminal, a measurement request message to a network management device, where the measurement request message requests the network management device to measure the quality of the service, receiving, by the terminal, measurement configuration information from the network management device in response to the measurement request message, coloring a packet of a service stream within a preset measurement period according to the measurement configuration information to obtain a colored packet, and sending, by the terminal, at least one of quantity information or time stamp information of the colored packet to the network management device. Hence, the quality of the service running on the terminal is comprehensively measured.

A method for performing in-band operations, administration, and management (OAM) using fixed bytes. According to one aspect, data packets are selected from a packet flow according to a sampling rate. A network device's OAM information is inserted into a fixed length field of each selected packet as a selected packet is processed by the network device.