A public network links a plurality of nodes, each associated with at least one network address. A transport network connects a plurality of routers, each of which is also connected to the public network. A database holds geographical location information associated with respective network addresses on the public network. The database is used to determine which of the routers is closest to geographical locations associated with the network addresses. Information is stored that identifies these closest routers. The information is suitable for use in a routing protocol for routing data packets through the transport network to a destination outside the transport network.

A method in a source node establishing independent network paths including a first and second router nodes connected to the source node over a first and second mutually independent networks. The source node includes a first interface towards the first network, associated with a path identifier for a first network path; a second interface towards a second network associated with a path identifier for a second network path, and is configured to select which of the first and second router nodes should be used for sending data from the source node to the destination node via the first and second network paths, wherein the source node is configured to select different router nodes for the first and second network paths.

A sticky order routing system may include multiple order routers in communication with an electronic exchange for communicating transaction messages. Each of the order routers communicates transaction messages between multiple associated trading sessions and the electronic exchange, where of the associated trading sessions is assigned to the order router in communication with the electronic exchange. Transaction message traffic between the order routers and the electronic exchange is monitored, such as randomly, based on round-robin assignment, and/or trading data. In response to transaction message traffic exceeding a threshold, the trading session may be assigned to a new order router.

This application discloses a packet processing method and a Label Switching Router (LSR). The method includes receiving, by an Ingress LSR of a first Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) tunnel, a first notification packet that is based on an IGP, where the first notification packet includes an Entropy Label Capability (ELC) flag indicating that the first Egress LSR has ELC. The method further includes, after learning from the first notification packet that the first Egress LSR has ELC, inserting a label into a first packet, to generate a second packet. The label forms an MPLS label stack, which includes, from bottom to top, a first EL, a first ELI, and a first TL. The method further includes sending the second packet to the first Egress LSR through the first MPLS tunnel.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for enforcing policy for upstream (e.g., traffic from an endpoint to the physical network layer or hardware fabric of a data center) flood traffic (e.g., broadcast, unknown unicast, or multicast traffic) originating from a virtual endpoint via a network fabric. In one embodiment, upstream flood traffic can be transmitted using a special multicast group to which only elements of the data center fabric (e.g., physical switches, routers) are subscribed. That is, upstream flood traffic is assigned to the special multicast group, resulting in unintended endpoints not receiving the flood traffic. However, the hardware fabric receives the flood traffic and will then enforce applicable policies to route the packets to intended endpoints.

Some embodiments provide a method for configuring a logical router to exchange routing data with a neighboring router through a dynamic routing protocol. The logical router is implemented as multiple routing components. The method receives identification data for the neighboring router with which to peer the logical router. Based on the identification data, the method identifies a subset of the routing components to peer with the neighboring router. The method generates configuration data for each routing component in the identified subset. Each identified routing component uses the configuration data to exchange routing data with the neighboring router through the dynamic routing protocol.

A distributed caching hierarchy that includes multiple edge routing servers, at least some of which receiving content requests from client computing systems via a load balancer. When receiving a content request, an edge routing server identifies which of the edge caching servers the requested content would be in if the requested content were to be cached within the edge caching servers, and distributes the content request to the identified edge caching server in a deterministic and predictable manner to increase the likelihood of increasing a cache-hit ratio.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, for automatically changing a network system. A method includes receiving a set of first intents that describe a state of a first switch fabric; receiving a set of second intents that describe a state of a second switch fabric; computing a set of network operations to perform on the first switch fabric to achieve the second switch fabric, the set of operations also defining an order in which the operations are to be executed, and the set of operations determined based on the set of first intents, the set of second intents, and migration logic that defines a ruleset for selecting the operations based on the set of first intents and the second intents; and executing the set of network operations according to the order, to apply changes to elements within the first switch fabric to achieve the state of the second switch fabric.

A method is provided in one example and includes assigning a virtual switch identifier to a group of a plurality of switches in which each of the plurality of switches is configured with a redundancy protocol. The method further includes configuring a redundancy protocol priority value for each the plurality of switches, and generating at least one link-state routing protocol message including priority information indicative of the redundancy protocol priority value associated with one or more of the plurality of switches. The method further includes distributing the at least one link-state routing protocol message to one or more of the plurality of switches.

A provider edge (PE) router and methods for establishing a pseudowire using open shortest path first (OSPF) link state advertisement (LSA) messages. The pseudowire links the PE router with a remote PE router through a packet switched network (PSN), and emulates other communications protocols to provide customer edge (CE) equipment connected to the PE routers the appearance of a dedicated private circuit.