Some embodiments provide a method for a managed forwarding element that processes packets through a set of packet processing tables by matching rules in the tables. The method receives an update that requires modification to at least one of the packet processing tables. Each rule in the packet processing tables is assigned a range of packet processing table versions in which the rule is valid for processing packets. The method modifies the packet processing tables according to the received update by at least one of (i) modifying the range of packet processing table versions in which an existing rule is valid to end after a current packet processing table version and (ii) adding a new rule with a range of valid packet processing table versions that begins with a next packet processing table version. The method increments the current version of the packet processing tables to commit the modifications.

Examples disclosed herein relate to reducing flooding of route updates of a dynamic routing protocol. In an example, number of route updates received by a router from each neighbor router may be determined, wherein the router may be present in a network using a dynamic routing protocol. Each neighbor router may be classified into one of a plurality of groups of neighbor routers in such a manner that number of route updates originating from each group of neighbor routers is approximately same. A first route update interval may be determined for each group of neighbor routers for sending a respective first set of future route updates therefrom to the router. The respective first route update interval for sending the respective first set of future route updates may be notified to the respective member routers of each group of neighbor routers.

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes network data in an equal cost multi-path (ECMP) group is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives the network data, where the network data is part of network data flow. In addition, the network element detects that the network data flow is a new network data flow and selects a transmitting nexthop from a plurality of nexthops of the ECMP group. The network element further maps the new network flow to a slot of a table in an ECMP group and transmits the network data using the transmitting nexthop.

An apparatus which transfers information addressed to a master node, comprises a generation unit configured to generate an assessment value representing logical proximity to the master node; a transmit unit that sends/receives the assessment value to/from other apparatuses; and a communication unit that, when this apparatus is an apparatus that is logically closest to the master node within a communication range, receive information addressed to the master node from other apparatuses, otherwise, transmit information addressed to the master node to the logically closest apparatus, wherein the communication unit is configured to generate a delay time based on the assessment value when transferring the information received from the other apparatuses to yet another apparatus.

A method is implemented by a network device to optimize the operation of a virtual private network (VPN) route refresh for border gateway protocol (BGP). The method reduces a span of VPN databases to be traversed to perform a route target constraint (RTC) update at the network device. The method includes receiving an RTC add or delete from a BGP peer, looking up each route target (RT) in a route target-route distinguisher (RT-RD) map to get a set of route distinguishers (RDs), and generating a VPN update for each VPN Address Family (AF) and each RD in the RD cache and sending the VPN update to a respective BGP peer.

Some embodiments provide a method for a managed forwarding element that processes packets through a set of packet processing tables by matching rules in the tables. The method receives an update that requires modification to at least one of the packet processing tables. Each rule in the packet processing tables is assigned a range of packet processing table versions in which the rule is valid for processing packets. The method modifies the packet processing tables according to the received update by at least one of (i) modifying the range of packet processing table versions in which an existing rule is valid to end after a current packet processing table version and (ii) adding a new rule with a range of valid packet processing table versions that begins with a next packet processing table version. The method increments the current version of the packet processing tables to commit the modifications.

In one implementation, a method for tap traffic redirection can include identification of a request protocol and a source network element, selection of a redirector protocol based on a list of device capabilities, instruction of the source network element to send a first copy of network traffic to an intermediary network element using the redirector protocol, and instruction of the intermediary network element to forward a second copy of the network traffic using the request protocol.

A first device may determine an Internet Protocol version R (IPvR) interface address associated with a second device, where R is greater than or equal to four. The first device and the second device may be associated with an external border gateway protocol peering session. The first device may generate an Internet Protocol version S (IPvS) interface address based on the IPvR interface address associated with the second device, where S is greater than or equal to six and different than R. The first device may store the IPvS interface address in a routing table. The first device may receive, from the second device, a service route that includes the IPvS interface address, and may provide the service route to a third device. The first device may provide a labeled route to the third device. The labeled route may include a label associated with the IPvS interface address.

The present invention provides a method for rapidly synchronizing a medium access control (MAC) address table. The method includes: initializing a forwarding plane and a control plane, and starting a forwarding plane timer when determining that the forwarding plane and the control plane are initialized successfully (101); when determining that a MAC address table synchronization condition is met, the forwarding plane acquiring a memory operation authority (102); acquiring a MAC address table entry to be synchronized, and synchronizing the MAC address table entry to be synchronized to a designated location in a memory area according to changed content of the MAC address table entry to be synchronized (103). The present invention further provides a device for rapidly synchronizing a MAC address table, and a storage medium.

A method and system for sending a flow table in a Software Defined Network (SDN) are described in the present disclosure, an OpenFlow (OF) controller, and an OF switch. The method includes that an OF switch receives a flow table entry modification message sent from an OF controller, wherein the message includes a table number, a flow table entry, and a cache label; and the OF switch stores, in a control module of the OF switch, the table number and the flow table entry in the flow table entry modification message according to an indication of the cache label.