A method in a network element includes processing input packets using a set of two or more functions that are defined over parameters of the input packets. Each function in the set produces respective interim actions applied to the input packets and the entire set produces respective end-to-end actions applied to the input packets. An end-to-end mapping, which maps the parameters of at least some of the input packets directly to the corresponding end-to-end actions, is cached in the network element. The end-to-end mapping is queried with the parameters of a new input packet. Upon finding the parameters of the new input packet in the end-to-end mapping, an end-to-end action mapped to the found parameters is applied to the new input packet, without processing the new input packet using the set of functions.

Mechanisms are provided for tracing a route taken by a packet in a Software Defined Network (SDN). Each switch in the SDN is assigned a first color label, from a set of color labels, such that such that adjacent switches have different color labels. Rules are installed in each switch to forward a received data packet to the SDN controller in response to a second color label of the received data packet not matching the first color label assigned to the switch. A second color label, from the set of color labels, is assigned to a trace data packet. A route of the trace data packet is traced through the SDN based on the second color label and application of the one or more rules to the trace data packet at each of the switches in the SDN as the trace data packet is received by each of the switches in the SDN.

A network switch to support multiple virtual switch instances comprises a control CPU configured to run a plurality of network switch control stacks, wherein each of the network switch control stacks is configured to manage and control operations of one or more virtual switch instances of a switching logic circuitry of the network switch. The network switch further includes said switching logic circuitry partitioned into a plurality of said virtual switch instances, wherein each of the virtual switch instances is provisioned and controlled by one of the network switch control stacks and is dedicated to serve and route data packets for a specific client of the network switch.

A packet processing method executed by a system including a first apparatus and a second apparatus, the first apparatus having a first processor and a plurality of interfaces and a second apparatus having a second processor and a plurality of third processors, the packet processing method includes receiving, by the first processor, a packet via an interface in the plurality of interfaces; storing identification information of the interface into the packet; transmitting the packet to the second apparatus; receiving, by the second processor, the packet transmitted from the first apparatus; selecting a processor from the plurality of third processors based on the identification information included in the received packet; and executing processing of the packet using the selected processor.

A communication method is provided, which is implemented by a routing device in an information-centered communication network. The method includes the following steps to process a request relative to a data segment from a given stream, the request being routed on a link of the routing device: checking that an input bit rate for said link is higher than a threshold, the input bit rate for the link corresponding to that which is necessary for the device to receive, by using the link, a set of data segments corresponding to pending requests; and timing the request to be routed. The threshold may correspond to the bit rate available on this link at the device input, or the input bit rate may be determined for pending requests related to data segments from the given stream, and the threshold may correspond to a fair bit rate, for example.

A method for managing port bandwidth in network devices. The method includes determining a first and a second ingress bandwidth of a first and a second network chip, respectively, determining an egress bandwidth of an egress port of a third network chip, determining a first and a second weight for the first and the second network chip, respectively, where the first and the second weight are determined based on a bandwidth including the first and second ingress bandwidth, processing a first data packet, received by a first ingress port administrated by the first network chip, based on the first weight and the egress bandwidth, and processing a second data packet, received by a second ingress port administrated by the second network chip, based on the second weight, and the egress bandwidth, where the destination of the first and the second data packet is the egress port.

A method for specialized processing of data in a port-extended network comprises receiving, by the control node of the port-extended network, a data frame that includes, at a first field of the data frame, information indicative of an incoming port at which the data frame was received, the first field having been inserted by a satellite node associated with the port. The method also comprises determining that one or more packets of a frame require specialized processing, and replacing the information contained in the first field with information indicative of the specialized processing. The method further comprises replacing information contained in a second field with information indicative of an outgoing port of a second satellite node of the port-extended network. A modified data frame is transmitted onto the port-extended network, the modified data frame that includes the information indicative of the specialized processing in the first field.

A communication device includes: a plurality of output ports; a plurality of queues in which packets are stored so as to be sorted into groups of packets that are output from an identical output port in an identical time period, from among the plurality of output ports; a plurality of first selectors that respectively corresponds to the plurality of output ports, and each of which switches a queue from which packets that are output from the output port are read, between the plurality of queues each time the time period elapses; and a second selector that switches a first selector from which packets are output, between the plurality of first selectors, at time intervals in accordance with output rates of packets of the plurality of output ports.

A method includes a compute node transmitting data to a port of a first switch at a first data transfer rate, monitoring the temperature of the port, and a management node providing an instruction to the compute node in response to the port temperature exceeding a temperature limit, wherein the instruction instructs the compute node to reduce the first data transfer rate to the port. The method further includes the compute node reducing the data transfer rate to the port in response to receiving the instruction. The method is applicable to multiple compute nodes transmitting data to multiple ports of a first switch. The data transfer rate may be reduced by throttling the compute node, renegotiating a link speed between the compute node and the port, or redirecting data to another switch. The methods facilitate thermal control of a switch without its own thermal throttling capability.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a centralized table aging module that efficiently and flexibly utilizes an embedded memory resource, and that enables and facilitates separate network controllers. The centralized table aging module performs aging of tables in parallel using the embedded memory resource. The table aging module performs an age marking process and an age refreshing process. The memory resource includes age mark memory and age mask memory. Age marking is applied to the age mark memory. The age mask memory provides per-entry control granularity regarding the aging of table entries.