One embodiment includes receiving a notification at a communications network node; determining a lowest cost path for implementing a next hop for the notification; determining a best alternate path for the next hop; comparing a cost of the best alternate path with a value stored in a notification header field; updating the header field value to equal the cost of the best alternate path if the cost of the best alternate path is less than the header field value; and forwarding the notification along the lowest cost path. Some embodiments include receiving a NACK at the node; comparing a cost of the best alternate path with a NACK header field value; and retransmitting the notification along the best alternate path if the NACK header field value is greater than or equal to the cost of the best alternate path.

A multiple channel data transfer system (10) includes a source (12) that generates data packets with sequence numbers for transfer over multiple request channels (14). Data packets are transferred over the multiple request channels (14) through a network (16) to a destination (18). The destination (18) re-orders the data packets received over the multiple request channels (14) into a proper sequence in response to the sequence numbers to facilitate data processing. The destination (18) provides appropriate reply packets to the source (12) over multiple response channels (20) to control the flow of data packets from the source (12).

The invention relates to a method, by a diameter routing unit (110), to route diameter commands of a data packet session using a diameter protocol in a mobile communications network, the diameter routing unit comprising a storage unit (111) storing information which policy and charging control unit is handling which data packet session and storing information about a presence of at least one additional diameter routing unit (100) which routes diameter commands of the diameter protocol to the same pool of policy and charging control units (31, 32) as the diameter routing unit. The method comprises the steps of receiving a diameter command for a data packet session; checking whether information is present in the storage unit (111) which policy and charging control unit is handling the session to which the received diameter command belongs, wherein, if information is present in the storage unit (111), the received diameter command is forwarded to one of the policy and charging control units (31, 32) in accordance with the stored information, wherein, if no information can be found in the storage unit (101) for the received diameter command, the diameter command is forwarded to the at least one additional diameter routing unit.

Disclosed is a fast recovery method for a Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) based backup port, and the method includes: it is detected that a failure occurs on a port of an STP-based device; and it is determined whether there is a backup port taking a failed port as a master port, and when it is determined that there is such a backup port, said backup port is changed to a master port; further disclosed is a fast recovery device for an STP based backup port. By means of the technical solutions of the disclosure, it is possible to shorten significantly recovery time of a backup port, and improve greatly performance of link recovery.

A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing a best route selection rule is presented. A determination is made at a first edge router, whether a second edge router in a network advertises a first BMAC address and at least one other BMAC address When the second edge router advertises only a first BMAC address, then the first BMAC address is used in a routing table for a Layer 3 (L3) next hop for a route. When the second edge router advertises more than one BMAC address, at least one other BMAC address is used in the routing table for said L3 next hop for the route.

Techniques for multi-path routing of packets to a destination node based on multiple routing tables of a router device. In an embodiment, a router device includes port groups which each correspond to a different respective network path to the same destination node. In another embodiment, each routing engine of multiple routing engines in a router device routes packets to the destination node based on a different respective one of multiple routing tables. The routing tables may include respective entry sets which, at least with respect to routing packets to the destination node, dedicate each routing engine to a respective one of the port groups.

Provided is a linear protection switching method of a node, wherein the method includes selecting a local request based on a priority of at least one local request, determining a global request based on a priority between the selected local request and a remote message, and performing a state transition based on the global request.

A network element includes circuitry and one or more interfaces. The interfaces are configured to connect to a communication network. The circuitry is configured to assign multiple egress interfaces corresponding to respective different paths via the communication network for routing packets to a given destination-address group, to hold, for the given destination-address group, respective state information for each of multiple sets of hash results, to receive via an ingress interface a packet destined to the given destination-address group, to calculate a given hash result for the packet and identify a given set of hash results in which the given hash result falls, and to forward the packet via one of the multiple egress interfaces in accordance with the state information corresponding to the given destination-address group and the given set of hash results.

A system includes a gateway that is configured to receive a message from a source for transmission to a destination and multiple communication channels on which to transmit the message to the destination, where the communication channels include different types of communication channels. The system includes a decision engine that is operably coupled to the gateway and the communication channels. The decision engine is configured to select a first communication channel from the communication channels to route the message for transmission to the destination. The decision engine is configured to select a second communication channel from the communication channels to route the message for transmission to the destination in response to a period of time expiring without receiving an acknowledgement from the destination via the first communication channel, where the second communication channel is a different type of communication channel than the first communication channel.

In one embodiment, a network controller receives data indicative of one or more traffic requirements for network traffic. The network controller maps the data indicative of the one or more traffic requirements into a network policy. The network controller causes installation of the network policy onto one or more networking devices. The one or more networking devices are configured to route the network traffic based on the network policy. The network controller receives feedback regarding the installed network policy. The network controller adjusts the network policy based on the received feedback.