A station of a mesh network comprising a peer table which is configured to list neighboring peers within the mesh network. Each peer comprises a qualification grade and the station comprises a controller which is configured to detect a new peer entering the mesh network and to establish a peer connection with the new peer. The controller is also configured to add the new peer to the peer table and to determine if the peer table is full when the new peer has been added. The controller is further configured to compare the qualification grades of the neighboring peers in the peer table if the peer table is full, and to remove a peer having a high qualification grade in relation to the neighboring peers in the peer table.

A method of setting up a wireless ad hoc network includes constructing an initial network graph by a source device. The network graph represents the source device, at least one intermediate device, and at least one communication path between the source device and the intermediate device. The initial network graph is sent from the source device to the intermediate device along with an update request. The source device receives a second network graph from the intermediate device in response to sending the initial network graph, and determines an updated network graph by performing a union of the initial network graph and the second network graph. The process is performed by each intermediate device required to reach a destination device.

A network device is configured to provide, via an Ethernet segment with a customer network, active-active multi-homing L2 virtual bridge connectivity to the customer network using an EVPN instance (EVI) and L3 routing using an IRB interface that is a L3 routing interface assigned to the EVI; to receive, from a peer PE device of the EVPN instance, an EVPN route comprising an L2-L3 binding for a customer device of the customer network and associating the L2-L3 binding with the Ethernet segment, the L2-L3 binding comprising an L2 and an L3 address assigned to the customer device, wherein the peer PE device provides, with the network device and via the Ethernet segment, active-active multi-homing L2 virtual bridge connectivity to the customer network; and to forward, via the Ethernet segment and based at least on the L2-L3 binding received from the peer PE device, an L3 packet to the customer device.

Techniques are described for automatic discovery of two or more virtual service instances configured to apply a given service to a packet in a software-defined networking (SDN)/network functions virtualization (NFV) environment. Virtual service instances may be deployed as virtual entities hosted on one or more physical devices to offer individual services or chains of services from a service provider. The use of virtual service instances enables automatic scaling of the services on-demand. The techniques of this disclosure enable automatic discovery by a gateway network device of virtual service instances for a given service as load balancing entities. According to the techniques, the gateway network device automatically updates a load balancing group for the given service to include the discovered virtual service instances on which to load balance traffic for the service. In this way, the disclosed techniques provide auto-scaling and auto-discovery of services in an SDN/NFV environment.

A method and system for distributive flow control and bandwidth management in networks is disclosed. The method includes: providing multiple Internet Protocol (IP) Gateways (IPGWs) that each have a maximum send rate and one or more sessions with associated throughput criteria, wherein each IPGW performs flow control by limiting information flows by the respective maximum send rate and throughput criteria; providing multiple Code Rate Organizers (CROs) that each have a bandwidth capacity, wherein each CRO performs bandwidth allocation of its respective bandwidth capacity to one or more IPGWs of the multiple IPGWs; interconnecting the multiple IPGWs with the multiple CROs; and performing bandwidth management across the multiple CROs and IPGWs. In the method, an IPGW of the multiple IPGWs provides flow control across a plurality of the CROs of the multiple CROs, and a CRO of the multiple CROs allocates bandwidth to a plurality of the IPGWs of the multiple IPGWs.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch system. The switch includes a port that couples to a server hosting a number of virtual machines. The switch also includes a link tracking module. During operation, the link tracking module determines that reachability to at least one end host coupled to a virtual cluster switch of which the switch is a member is disrupted. The link tracking module then determines that at least one virtual machine coupled to the port is affected by the disrupted reachability, and communicates to the server hosting the affected virtual machine about the disrupted reachability.

Presented herein are techniques for use in a network environment that includes one or more service zones, each service zone including at least one instance of an in-line application service to be applied to network traffic and one or more routers to direct network traffic to the at least one service, and a route target being assigned to a unique service zone to serve as a community value for route import and export between routers of other service zones, destination networks or source networks via a control protocol. An edge router in each service zone or destination network advertises routes by its destination network prefix tagged with its route target. A service chain is created by importing and exporting of destination network prefixes by way of route targets at edge routers of the service zones or source networks.

A network node in a service function chaining system receives a media stream from an endpoint device. The media stream is associated with a media session between the endpoint and at least one other endpoint. The network node determines a path for the media stream. The path includes an ordered list of functions to process the media stream. The network node determines a session identifier for the media stream and encapsulates the media stream with a header. The header includes an indication of the path and the session identifier.

A method of routing messages includes receiving a request message from an originating device to be forwarded to one of a plurality of target devices, the request message having a first network address as a source address identifying the originating device. The first network address of the request message is dynamically mapped to a second network address of a selected target device, and the first and second network addresses are stored in association with each other as address mapping information. The method also includes forwarding the selected target device using the second network address. The routing device receives from the target device an error message in relation to the request message, and identifies the originating device which originated the request message using the address mapping information and the second network address of the target device which issued the error message.

The presently disclosed subject matter includes a system, a method and a computer program product enabling communication between nodes, by establishing neighborhood relationships between nodes belonging to a network. When an originator node generates an event, data relating to the event is sent to neighboring nodes of the originator node and to the parent node of the originator node for facilitating association of new neighboring nodes to the originator nodes. If a response is received from a receiving node, the receiving node is updated as a new neighboring node to the originator node.