In various embodiments, an apparatus, a non-transitory computer-readable media, and a method are provided, involving a technique to: receive, from at least one other node in a network, a plurality of segment identifiers, utilizing at least one of a link state protocol, a distance vector protocol, or a path vector protocol, store, in a data structure, the plurality of segment identifiers associated with nodes represented in a topology of at least a portion of a network, select, from the plurality of segment identifiers in the data structure and based on a specified policy, a first sequence of segment identifiers that identify a first sequence of at least one of: one or more nodes, one or more network interfaces, or one or more network regions, at least partially in a first path segment that communicatively couples the transmitting node with a receiving node in the network and that includes at least one particular node which is not predetermined by the first sequence of segment identifiers such that the at least one particular node is determined during routing of data between the transmitting node and the receiving node, identify, based on a segment identifier in a first subsequence, of the first sequence of segment identifiers, that precedes a second subsequence of the first sequence of segment identifiers, a first network interface of the transmitting node in the first path segment, store at least the second subsequence of the first sequence of segment identifiers in a header associated with a first packet, and transmit, via the first network interface, the first packet for delivering the data in a payload of the first packet to the receiving node in the network.

Packet data corresponding to a multicast (MC) packet received by a network device is stored in a packet memory. A header of the MC packet is analyzed to determine two or more ports via which the MC packet is to be transmitted. It is determined that two or more pending read requests are to read packet data from a particular memory location in the packet memory. In response to determining that the two or more pending read requests are to read packet data from the particular memory location, the packet data is read a single time from the particular memory location. Respective instances of the packet data read from the particular memory location are provided to respective two or more read client devices for subsequent transmission of the packet data via the two or more ports determined by the packet processor.

A system for processing messages of a high rate data stream and an apparatus including: a message processor including a plurality of processor sub-modules and configured to read an input data stream, process the input data stream, and to output an output data stream; at least one payload memory storing data related to the input data stream and accessible to the message processor; at least one instruction memory accessible to the message processor and storing computer program instructions configuring the message processor to process the input data stream; and an application processor configured to rewrite the at least one instruction memory.

A network path selection method and a network node device using the same are disclosed. The network path selection method includes: determining whether a first uplink time parameter table is received from the first relay node device and whether a second uplink time parameter table is received from the second relay node device; when the first uplink time parameter table is received from the first relay node device and the second uplink time parameter table is received from the second relay node device, calculating a first estimated uplink time parameter according to the first uplink time parameter table and a second estimated uplink time parameter according to the second uplink time parameter table; and determining to connect to a gateway via one of the first relay node device and the second relay node device according to the first estimated uplink time parameter and the second estimated uplink time parameter.

A method for identifying a first hop router (“FHR”) in a distributed virtualized network is presented. In an embodiment, a method comprises receiving a multicast message on an incoming interface. In response to receiving the multicast message, the router determines whether the router is a FHR for the multicast message, i.e., whether, in response to generating and transmitting a hello multicast message, the router does not receive a response on the incoming interface; or whether an interface to a RP for the multicast message is different than the incoming interface. If the router is the FHR for the multicast message, then the router determines an IP address of a RP for the multicast message. The router also encapsulates the multicast message into a unicast message, includes in the unicast message the IP address of the RP as a destination address, and transmits the unicast message to the RP.

Various example embodiments for supporting multicast in communication systems are presented. In at least some example embodiments, supporting multicast in communication systems may include supporting use of multicast domain information of a penultimate hop router of the multicast domain by an egress leaf router associated with the multicast domain for multicast service signaling to a root router of the multicast domain. In at least some example embodiments, in which the multicast domain is based on Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER), supporting multicast in communication systems may include supporting use of BIER domain information (e.g., a BIER Forwarding Router Identifier (BFR-ID) or the like) of a PH BIER router by an egress leaf router associated with the BIER domain for multicast service signaling to a root BIER router of the BIER domain.

Techniques for identifying service paths for satisfying a service demand in a data communication network are disclosed. Aspects include identifying a plurality of vertices in a communications route cycle, the communications route cycle alternating through the plurality of vertices and a plurality of edges in a sequence; identifying a plurality of internal paths in the communications route cycle, each of the plurality of internal paths is disjoint to the plurality of edges; identifying a first internal path and a second internal path among the plurality of internal paths as a crossing pair of internal paths; detecting a failure of at least two edges among the plurality of edges; and identifying, based on the communications route cycle and the identified crossing pair of internal paths, a service path that satisfies the service demand in response to detecting the failure of the at least two edges.

Various example embodiments for supporting multicast in communication systems are presented. In at least some example embodiments, supporting multicast in communication systems may include supporting use of multicast domain information of a penultimate hop router of the multicast domain by an egress leaf router associated with the multicast domain for multicast service signaling to a root router of the multicast domain. In at least some example embodiments, in which the multicast domain is based on Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER), supporting multicast in communication systems may include supporting use of BIER domain information (e.g., a BIER Forwarding Router Identifier (BFR-ID) or the like) of a PH BIER router by an egress leaf router associated with the BIER domain for multicast service signaling to a root BIER router of the BIER domain.

Systems and methods provide for enabling multicast-based performance routing and policy controls for software-defined networking in a wide area network deployment including a multicast application-route policy based on sources, groups, receivers, dynamic application-route policy path selection from multicast replicators, and application-route SLA switchover across paths and multicast replicators based on SD-WAN multicast routing architecture; and dynamically selecting SD-WAN multicast replicators based on policies for replication including allowed multicast groups, geographic location, bandwidth indications, system load, and performance, and switching over dynamically across multicast replicators based real-time multicast replicator status updates.

Described herein are systems and methods for preventing switch loops in a layer 2 network. A method can provide, at a computer including a microprocessor, two or more virtual local area networks (VLANs), each VLAN comprising a number of bridges, a plurality of end nodes connected to the two or more VLANs via a plurality of network interface cards (NICs). The method can connect two of the plurality of nodes to two of the VLANs via two or more tunnels. The method can receive a first instance of a broadcast packet at a bridge of a VLAN, and then receive a second instance of the broadcast packet is the bridge of the VLAN. Upon the second instance of the broadcast packet being received within a configured time period, the method can drop the second instance of the broadcast packet.