Example methods are provided for first host to perform multicast packet handling in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment. The method may comprise: in response to the first host detecting, from a first virtualized computing instance, a request to join a multicast group address, obtaining control information from a network management entity. The control information may include one or more destination addresses associated with one or more second hosts that have joined the multicast group address on behalf of multiple second virtualized computing instances. The method may also comprise: in response to the first host detecting an egress multicast packet that includes an inner header addressed to the multicast group address, generating one or more encapsulated multicast packets based on the control information and sending the one or more encapsulated multicast packets in a unicast manner or multicast manner, or a combination of both.

Disclosed herein is a system comprising a set of wireless communication nodes that are configured to operate as part of a wireless mesh network. Each respective wireless communication node may be directly coupled to at least one other wireless communication node via a respective short-hop wireless link, and at least a first pair of wireless nodes may be both (a) indirectly coupled to one another via a first communication path that comprises one or more intermediary wireless communication nodes and two or more short-hop wireless links and (b) directly coupled to one another via a first long-hop wireless link that provides a second communication path between the first pair of wireless communication nodes having a lesser number of hops than the first communication path. A fiber access point may be directly coupled to a first wireless communication node of the set of wireless communication nodes.

A method and system for a Wireless Resilient Routing Reconfiguration linear program or protocol (WR3LP). The WR3LP provides a routing protection scheme that is (i) congestion-free or reduced congestion under a wide range of failure scenarios in point-to-multipoint networks, (ii) efficient in terms of router processing overhead and memory requirement in wireless and point-to-multipoint networks, (iii) flexible in accommodating diverse performance requirements in wireless and point-to-multipoint networks (e.g., different traffic protection levels), and (iv) robust to traffic variations and topology failures in wireless and point-to-multipoint networks.

Disclosed is a wireless connection method carried out by a network device in a mesh basic service set (MBSS) including N mesh gates. The method includes: when the network device is not one of the N mesh gates and not connected with any of them, allowing the network device to connect with a gate candidate peer in the MBSS and forbidding the network device to connect with a non-gate candidate peer in the MBSS, wherein the gate candidate peer announces that it is or connects with one of the N mesh gates while the non-gate candidate peer does not announce the same thing; and when the network device is one of the N mesh gates or connected with any of them, allowing the network device to connect with any of the gate candidate peer and the non-gate candidate peer.

A node within a network including a plurality of interconnected nodes, and a method for operating a network that includes a plurality of interconnected nodes is provided. The network includes a primary path and an alternate path. Each path is respectively configured to connect a source node to a receiving node. The alternate path may include at least one more intermediate node than the primary path. Both the primary path and the alternate path are stored in a routing table. The data packets may be transmitted, substantially simultaneously, from the source node via the primary path and via the alternate path toward the receiving node. The data packets are accepted and forward by the receiving node. The determination of where to forward the data packets may be done locally by inspecting the incoming data packets.

Disclosed are systems and methods for generating a bit-indexed forwarding table (BIFT) that includes a plurality of entries, each of which corresponds to a bit position of a number of bit positions. Each such bit position represents an egress network node of a plurality of egress network nodes. The BIFT is generated from an existing BIFT that includes a number of existing BIFT entries. Further, the generating configures the BIFT to be used in forwarding a packet to one or more of the egress nodes, based at least in part on a bit string in the packet. In one embodiment, 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, and converting an existing BIFT entry of the plurality of existing BIFT entries to the entry of the plurality of entries.

This disclosure describes a method usable in a network that has a combination of mLDP-capable and BIER-capable devices. The disclosed method includes advertising, by an mLDP-capable multicast source, an indication of a BIER edge router that it has determined is usable as a path between the BIER devices and the mLDP-capable multicast source. A provider edge router can include in a multicast join message both an indication of the mLDP-capable multicast source as well as the indication of the BIER router advertised as being usable as the path to the mLDP-capable multicast source. The BIER devices can communicate with each other to pass a multicast join message to the BIER edge router that is indicated as being usable as the path to the mLDP-capable multicast source.

Techniques for replicating control plane metadata across regions are described. A method for replicating control plane metadata across regions may include receiving a request in a home region of a provider network to make a change to a cross-region service, receiving an event stream by a cross-region replication service, the event stream including the change to the cross-region service, and replicating, by the cross-region replication service, the change to the service in at least one of a plurality of expanded regions of the provider network, based on at least one attribute associated with the change in the event stream.

Disclosed are systems and methods for path planning in a programmable communications network with multipoint nodes. The multipoint nodes include nodes with multiple connections to the programmable communication network. Path planning determines source multipoint nodes and destination multipoint nodes. Paths are planned to avoid redundant delivery of messages to a single interface of the multipoint nodes. A network controller programs network communications devices with the determined paths. Multipoint nodes may include multipoint devices or traditional tie points.

Methods and apparatus for providing access to a service are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one processor, and memory including machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations including, in response to receipt of a first network communication, retrieve a first list identifying multicast group memberships of a device existing at a first time, the first list retrieved from a storage device based on an identifier in the first network communication, the first network communication including a second list identifying multicast group memberships of the device existing at a second time later than the first time. The device is authenticated based on a comparison of the first list to the second list. A second network communication is transmitted indicating the device has been authenticated in response to the authentication.