Described herein are systems and methods for supporting multicast for virtual networks. In some embodiments, a native multicast approach can utilized in which packet replication is performed on a host node of a virtual machine (VM) with a multicast data packet encapsulated in uniquely address unicast packets. In some embodiments, a network virtual appliance can be utilized. A multicast packet sent from the VM can be unicasted to the network virtual appliance. The multicast appliance can then replicate the packet into multiple copies and send the packets to the receivers in the virtual network as unicast data packets encapsulating the multicast packet.

The present invention provides a system and method for ultra reliable low latency communication (URLLC) which can be achieved by redundant transmission with two or more links at one or more RAN nodes. In order to achieve URLLC communication, methods supporting the PDCP packet duplication and/or higher layer packet duplication are applied to various RAN architectures such as CA architecture, DC based architecture with one connection to the core network (CN), DC based architecture with two or more connections to the CN, CA and DC combined architecture, and CU/DU split architecture.

In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for highly-scalable, in-network multicasting of statistics data is disclosed. In an embodiment, a method comprises: receiving, from an underlay controller, a match-and-action table that is indexed using one or more multicast (“MC”) group identifiers and includes one or more special MC headers; detecting a packet carrying statistics data; determining whether the packet includes an MC group identifier; in response to determining that the packet includes the MC group identifier: using the MC group identifier, retrieving a special MC header, of the one or more special MC headers, from the match-and-action table; generating an encapsulated packet by encapsulating the packet with the special MC header; and providing the encapsulated packet to an interface controller for transmitting the encapsulated packet to one or more physical switches.

Techniques are disclosed for session-based routing of multipoint Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model Layer-2 (L2) frames of an L2 network extended over Layer-3 (L3) networks. In one example, L2 networks connect a source device to an ingress router and receiver devices to egress routers. An L3 network connects the ingress and egress routers. The ingress router receives, from the source device, a multipoint L2 frame destined for the receiver devices. The ingress router forms, for each egress router that is connected to at least one multipoint receiver device, a unicast L3 packet for the L2 frame and forwards the unicast L3 packet to the egress router. Each egress router generates, in response to receiving the unicast L3 packet, the multipoint L2 frame and forwards, to the receiver devices, the multipoint L2 frame.

Embodiments include an overlay multicast network. The overlay multicast network may provide a set of features to ensure reliable and timely arrival of multicast data. The embodiments include a congestion control system that may prioritize designated layers of data within a data stream over other layers of the same data stream. Each data stream transmitted over the network may be given an equal share of the bandwidth. Addressing in routing tables maintained by routers may utilize summarized addressing based on the difference in location of the router and destination address. Summarization levels may be adjusted to minimize travel distances for packets in the network. Data from high priority data stream layers may also be retransmitted upon request from a destination machine to ensure reliable delivery of data.

The method of establishing a multicast data channel in a network virtualization system includes: creating, on a controller, a virtual remote logical interface for an external interface of a remote node; generating, a multicast tree tunnel that uses a core node as a root, and obtaining a multicast protocol packet sent by a device outside the network virtualization system; acquiring, a multicast source address and a multicast group address from the multicast protocol packet, and generating a multicast forwarding table; searching, the multicast forwarding table for an external interface of the core node, searching for an outbound interface of the multicast tree tunnel on the core node according to the multicast tree tunnel, and generating a P2MP PW forwarding table of the core node, and sending the P2MP PW forwarding table of the core node to the core node. The method implements a multicast service in a virtual cluster router.

A system and method for information delivery with multiple point transmission are provided. A method for detecting lost packets is provided. The method includes initiating a timer for a received packet at a receiving transmission point, where the timer is set according to a time value associated with the received packet. The method also includes determining that a delivery of the received packet has failed according to the timer elapsing, and transmitting a lost packet report to a primary transmission point that distributed the received packet to the receiving transmission point.

Disclosed is the generation of a bit-indexed forwarding table (BIFT) that can include a plurality of entries, each such entry corresponding to a bit position of a plurality of bit positions, where each such bit position represents an egress network node of a plurality of egress network nodes, and the generating configures the BIFT to be used in forwarding a packet to one or more of the plurality of egress network nodes, based at least in part on a bit string in the packet. The generating includes selecting a bit position of the plurality of bit positions as a selected bit position, creating an entry of the plurality of entries (where the entry corresponds to the selected bit position), identifying a neighbor node associated with the selected bit position, and updating one or more fields of the entry with neighbor information regarding the neighbor node.

A method in a node is disclosed. The method comprises determining (1304) a first route from a first source node (505 A) to a destination (510), the first route comprising one or more relay nodes (515, 615). The method comprises determining (1308) an energy-harvesting routing metric, the energy-harvesting routing metric for use in determining a second route from a second source node (505B) to the destination (510). The method comprises determining (1312) the second route from the second source node (505B) to the destination (510), the determined second route comprising one or more relay nodes (515, 615) selected to maximize the determined energy-harvesting routing metric.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a packet processing method, including: receiving, by a first node, a first packet, where the first packet carries a first bit string, the first bit string includes M bit sets, each bit set corresponds to one node group, a value of the bit set is used to indicate whether one or more target nodes of the first packet include the corresponding node group; and determining, by the first node based on the first bit string and a second bit string, whether to send the first packet to a second node, where the second bit string includes N bit sets, each bit set corresponds to one node group, a value of the bit set is used to indicate whether a node belonging to the corresponding node group exists in one or more related nodes of the first node.