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.

A computer system can compress or decompress a type-length-value (TLV) component in a message. During operation, the computer can select a compression table associated with a network interface used to send and/or to receive the message, and can search the compression table for an entry that includes a prefix of a value from type-length-value (TLV) component being compressed or decompressed. If compressing the message, the computer may generate a compressed block that corresponds to a compressed version of the TLV component, such that the compressed block includes the compression encoding in place of the prefix in the TLV component's value. The computer can also generate a compressed message that includes the compressed block in place of the TLV component, without a compression table.

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 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 configuring a set of conversation identifiers (IDs) at a network device in a distributed resilient network interconnect (DRNI) of a link aggregation group is disclosed. The method starts with initializing the set of conversation IDs, wherein the initialization includes setting entries of a Boolean vector associated with the set of conversation IDs to be a sequence of zeroes, and wherein the Boolean vector includes values indicating processing the set of conversation IDs through the single gateway or the single aggregator of the network device. The method continues with determining that distribution of the set of conversation IDs needs to be updated, setting values of an operational vector indexed by the conversation IDs, and setting values of the Boolean vector, wherein the Boolean vector lists whether the single gateway or the single aggregator of the network device is associated with each of the conversation IDs.

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 data relaying apparatus includes a first input port, a first output port, and a processor configured to select, based on a destination of a data frame received by the first input port, one of a first process and a second process, the first process including removing first header information of the data frame and transmitting, to the first output port, the data frame from which the first header information is removed, and the second process including adding second header information to the data frame received by the first input port and transmitting, to the first output port, the data frame to which the second header information is added, and perform the selected one of the first process and the second process on the data frame received by the first input port, wherein the first output port outputs the data frame for which the selected process is performed.

The present disclosure describes a wired communication device having media access control (MAC) circuitry and physical layer (PHY) circuitry. The MAC circuitry frames one or more data packets in accordance with a wired communication standard or protocol to provide one or more data frames. The one or more data frames include one or more packets that are separated by interpacket gaps (IPGs). The MAC circuitry selectively choses a duration of the IPGs to maintain an average IPG duration. The PHY circuitry encodes the one or more data frames in accordance with a line coding scheme that is efficiently represents different possible combinations for types of characters present in the one or more data frames.

A method and apparatus for close-proximity communication. The close-proximity communication method performed by a transmitter includes generating a physical layer (PHY) frame including a PHY preamble, a frame header, and a payload field, and transmitting the generated PHY frame to a receiver, in which the frame header may include a media access control (MAC) header, a header check sequence (HCS), and a Reed-Solomon (RS) parity bit.

A method supporting network and intra-portal link (IPL) sharing in a link aggregation group at a network device is disclosed. The method starts with transmitting frames on the IPL at the network device, where the physical link or aggregation link of the link aggregation group is dedicated to the IPL. The network device determines that the network device is configured with a network and IPL sharing method that is consistent with the neighbor network device, the network and IPL sharing method including sharing by at least one of time, tag, and encapsulation, where the network and IPL sharing method indicates sharing of the physical link or link aggregation between frames for the IPL and frames for another IPL or a network link of the link aggregation group. Then the network device transmits the frames between the network device and the neighbor network device using the network and IPL sharing method.