Provided is a method and apparatus for searching for a Maintenance End Point (MEP), and a storage medium. The method includes that: a chip of the MEP parses an obtained packet; the chip of the MEP determines whether a field of the parsed packet matches a field in a combination of a port and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN); and in a case where the field of the parsed packet matches the field in the combination of the port and the VLAN, the chip of the MEP determines that the MEP is found successfully.

Transferring data in a network is disclosed. Transferring includes receiving a Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) frame, identifying a plurality of location specific identifiers in the PBT frame, mapping the PBT frame to a service based at least in part on the plurality of location specific identifiers, formatting the PBT frame according to the service to obtain a service frame, and transferring the service frame to a network associated with the service.

In order to provide for the extension of either the MAC address or the VLAN identifier as required, a sliding cursor functionality between the MAC address and the VLAN identifier is provided. The MAC address may be extended by borrowing bits conventionally used for representing part of the VLAN identifier. Similarly, VLAN identifier may be extended by borrowing bits conventionally used for representing part of the MAC address.

Provided is a method and apparatus for searching for a Maintenance End Point (MEP), and a storage medium. The method includes that: a chip of the MEP parses an obtained packet; the chip of the MEP determines whether a field of the parsed packet matches a field in a combination of a port and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN); and in a case where the field of the parsed packet matches the field in the combination of the port and the VLAN, the chip of the MEP determines that the MEP is found successfully.

Technologies for enhanced network discovery and configuration include a network with a fabric manager and multiple network devices. A network device requests platform information from a management controller and receives the platform information via a sideband interface. The network device broadcasts a discovery message indicative of the platform information on a link layer network. The fabric manager discovers the network topology with an enhanced link layer discovery protocol and creates a vPOD in the network. The vPOD includes an application network with multiple racks. The fabric manager creates a tagged network domain for the vPOD. The fabric manager sends an out-of-band configuration command to the network device with a tag associated with the vPOD. After receiving the out-of-band configuration command, the network device receives a packet, compares domain metadata of the packet to the tag received from the fabric manager, and routes the packet. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Methods and computer readable medium are disclosed for providing an outer header for a packet. In one embodiment a method includes receiving an outer header creation IE type encoded and containing instructions to create an outer header, an outer header creation description field taking a form of a bitmask, each bit indicating the outer header to be created in the outgoing packet; wherein when the outer header creation packet creation IE requests creation of an IP header, a source IP address is included in an IP header of an outgoing packet; and sending the outgoing packet including a source IP in the newly added outer IP header.

Technologies for enhanced network discovery and configuration include a network with a fabric manager and multiple network devices. A network device requests platform information from a management controller and receives the platform information via a sideband interface. The network device broadcasts a discovery message indicative of the platform information on a link layer network. The fabric manager discovers the network topology with an enhanced link layer discovery protocol and creates a vPOD in the network. The vPOD includes an application network with multiple racks. The fabric manager creates a tagged network domain for the vPOD. The fabric manager sends an out-of-band configuration command to the network device with a tag associated with the vPOD. After receiving the out-of-band configuration command, the network device receives a packet, compares domain metadata of the packet to the tag received from the fabric manager, and routes the packet. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

For use in an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) in which a site including at least one MAC-addressable device is multihomed, via a customer edge device (CE), to at least two provider edge devices (PE1 and PE2), the potential problem of one of the at least two provider edge devices (PE2) dropping or flooding packets designed for a MAC-addressable device of the multihomed site is solved by controlling advertisements of an auto-discovery per EVPN instance (A-D/EVI) route (or an auto-discovery per Ethernet segment identifier (A-D/ESI) route) to a remote provider edge device (PE3), belonging to the EVPN but not directly connected with the CE. Such advertisements may be controlled by: (a) determining, by PE2, whether or not a MAC-learning condition is met; and (b) responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is met, advertising, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route (or an A-D/ESI route) to the remote provider edge device (PE3), and otherwise, responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is not met, suppressing, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route advertisement (or an A-D/ESI route advertisement).

For use in an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) in which a site including at least one MAC-addressable device is multihomed, via a customer edge device (CE), to at least two provider edge devices (PE1 and PE2), the potential problem of one of the at least two provider edge devices (PE2) dropping or flooding packets designed for a MAC-addressable device of the multihomed site is solved by controlling advertisements of an auto-discovery per EVPN instance (A-D/EVI) route (or an auto-discovery per Ethernet segment identifier (A-D/ESI) route) to a remote provider edge device (PE3), belonging to the EVPN but not directly connected with the CE. Such advertisements may be controlled by: (a) determining, by PE2, whether or not a MAC-learning condition is met; and (b) responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is met, advertising, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route (or an A-D/ESI route) to the remote provider edge device (PE3), and otherwise, responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is not met, suppressing, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route advertisement (or an A-D/ESI route advertisement).

For use in an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) in which a site including at least one MAC-addressable device is multihomed, via a customer edge device (CE), to at least two provider edge devices (PE1 and PE2), the potential problem of one of the at least two provider edge devices (PE2) dropping or flooding packets designed for a MAC-addressable device of the multihomed site is solved by controlling advertisements of an auto-discovery per EVPN instance (A-D/EVI) route (or an auto-discovery per Ethernet segment identifier (A-D/ESI) route) to a remote provider edge device (PE3), belonging to the EVPN but not directly connected with the CE. Such advertisements may be controlled by: (a) determining, by PE2, whether or not a MAC-learning condition is met; and (b) responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is met, advertising, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route (or an A-D/ESI route) to the remote provider edge device (PE3), and otherwise, responsive to a determination that the MAC-learning condition is not met, suppressing, by PE2, an A-D/EVI route advertisement (or an A-D/ESI route advertisement).