The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods of service chain load balancing. A controller intermediary to a client and computing infrastructure identifies a plurality of service chains. Each of the plurality of service chains include a path having an instance of a first service provided by the computing infrastructure and an instance of a second service provided by the computing infrastructure. The controller determines a path weight for each of the plurality of service chains. The path weight indicates a level of efficiency of delivering services in accordance with the service chain. The controller selects, based on a load balancing function and the path weight for each of the plurality of service chains, a service chain from the plurality of service chains to direct network traffic from a client.

A device for communication includes a processor and a transmitter. The processor is configured to determine a target quality of service (QoS). The processor is also configured to determine, based on the target QoS, a transmission schedule identifying one or more transmission time-blocks. The transmitter is configured to transmit data to at least one device during a transmission time-block of the one or more transmission time-blocks.

A versioning system for network state of a network includes: a server, configured to execute a versioning controller, the versioning controller being configured to communicate with a plurality of data plane devices of the network and store a plurality of network states in a local non-transitory memory corresponding to the server, wherein the plurality of network states stored in the local non-transitory memory include a current authoritative network state and a plurality of previous network states each corresponding to a modification of a flow within the network; and the plurality of data plane devices, configured to notify the server of flow modifications made by respective data plane devices and to receive the current authoritative network state from the server.

Systems and methods for improved received network traffic distribution in a multi-core computing device are presented. A hardware classification engine of the computing device receives a data packet comprising a portion of a received network traffic data flow. Packet information from the data packet is identified. Based in part on the packet information, the classification engine determines whether a core of a multi-core processor subsystem is assigned to the data flow of which the packet is a part. In embodiments, this determination may be made based on one or more criteria, such as a work load of the core(s) of the processor subsystem, a priority level of the data flow, etc. Responsive to the determination that a core is not assigned to the data flow, a core of the multi-core processor is assigned to the data flow and the data packet is sent to the first core for processing.

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller that manages a flow-based managed forwarding element (MFE). The method receives multiple sets of service rules for implementation by the MFE. The sets of service rules have a priority order and the rules in each set of service rules have separate priority orders. The method organizes the service rules in all of the sets of service rules into a single ordered list of service rules. The method assigns priority values within a space-constrained set of priority values to the service rules in the list in a manner designed to minimize re-assignment when changes to the sets of service rules are received. The method uses the assigned priority values to generate flow entries for the MFE to use to implement the service rules.

Methods, apparatuses and systems for performing hierarchical traffic differentiation and/or employing hierarchical traffic differentiation are provided. These methods, apparatuses and systems may be implemented to, for example, handle congestion and/or to manage user quality of experience (QoE). Performing the hierarchical traffic differentiation may include differentiating or otherwise classifying (collectively “differentiating”) traffic mapped to, or within, a bearer formed in accordance with a QoS class into multiple traffic sub-classes. Employing the hierarchical traffic differentiation may include scheduling and/or policing (e.g., filtering) the differentiated traffic for transmission based on a prioritization of, and/or policy for managing, the multiple traffic sub-classes.

A wireless communication device providing a node in an industrial wireless network investigates if there is more than one data packet with process control data from the same data originating device destined for a process control device in a transmission queue, where the data originating device is an interface to the process being controlled and transmits data packets in the transmission queue. If there is more than one such data packet, the wireless communication device further compares time stamps of the data packets, where a time stamp reflects the time of generation of a corresponding data packet, keeps the newest data packet and discards older data packets, so that only the most recent data packets from a data originating device are sent to the process control device from the node.

The present disclosure provides a method, apparatus and machine readable medium for traffic engineering in a communications network having Quality of Service (QoS) flows and Best Effort (BE) flows. Traffic engineering in a mixed traffic scenario is a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem having a solution which involves trade-offs between QoS performance objectives and BE performance objectives. In one embodiment of the method, jointly optimized paths and respective flow allocations for each of the QoS flows and BE flows are determined. At least one network component in the communications network are notified of the jointly optimized paths and respective flow allocations for each of the QoS flows and BE flows.

An embodiment may include circuitry to be included, at least in part, in at least one node in a network. The circuitry may generate, at least in part, and/or receive, at least in part, at least one packet. The packet may be received, at least in part, by at least one switch node in the network. The switch node may designate, in response at least in part to the packet, at least one port of the switch node to be used to facilitate, at least in part, establishment, at least in part, of at least one path for propagation of at least one flow between at least two other nodes in the network. The packet may be generated based at least in part upon (1) at least one application classification, (2) at least one allocation request, and (3) network resource availability information.

The disclosed embodiments provide a system for operating a switch fabric. During operation, the system identifies network traffic for transmission between two access switches in a switch fabric. Next, the system selects a subset of the network traffic for forwarding on an expedited fabric path comprising a physical link between the two access switches that isolated from other physical links in the switch fabric. Next, the system forwards the subset of the network traffic on the expedited fabric path.