Methods, computer program products, and systems are presented. The methods include, for instance: providing a distributed virtual gateway for Network Virtualization over Layer 3 (NVO3) network. A gateway stack having three or more nodes is implemented as a distributed virtual gateway, providing Layer 2 or Layer 3 gateway services in a fail-safe manner. Nodes of the gateway stack are configured to autonomously process and forward inbound NVO3 data packets with known destination addresses without engaging a master of the gateway stack.

Controller(s) in a software defined network (SDN) are able to determine a control path towards each network switch by performing a switch-originated discovery and using an in-band control network that is an overlay on the data network. A topology tree is maintained, where each controller being the root of the tree, and where messages from the root to any switch may pass through neighboring switches to reach that switch (and vice-versa). Each switch in the SDN attempts to connect to the controller when it does not have a readily configured control connection towards the controller. Once the controller learns about the presence of a new switch and at least one or more paths to reach that switch through a novel discovery process, it can select, adjust and even optimize the control path's route towards that switch.

A communication system is disclosed in which a base station manages the transmission of on-demand system information to optimise the trade-off between the additional signalling overhead associated with on-demand transmission and the resource usage inefficiencies associated with the sometimes unnecessary transmission of system information on a periodic basis. The base station manages switching from on-demand transmission to periodic transmission, and vice versa, based on one or more utilisation thresholds.

A method for communication includes receiving and forwarding packets in multiple flows to respective egress interfaces of a switching element for transmission to a network. For each of one or more of the egress interfaces, in each of a succession of arbitration cycles, a respective number of the packets in each of the plurality of the flows that are queued for transmission through the egress interface is assessed, and the flows for which the respective number is zero are assigned to a first group, while the flows for which the respective number is non-zero are assigned to a second group. The received packets that have been forwarded to the egress interface and belong to the flows in the first group are transmitted with a higher priority than the flows in the second group.

Methods and systems for bridging network packets transmitted over heterogeneous media channels are provided. According to one embodiment, a network device maintains translation data structures defining translations among multiple framing media formats used for transmitting or receiving network packets via multiple supported media transmission channels, including (i) between a first framing media format and an intermediate format and (ii) between the intermediate format and a second framing media format. A virtual bridging application representing a single bridging domain for bridging all network traffic traversing the network device translates ingress network packets from the first framing media format to egress network packets of the second framing media format based the translation data structures.

Communication apparatus includes multiple interfaces connected to a packet data network, and a memory coupled to the interfaces and configured as a buffer to contain packets received through ingress interfaces while awaiting transmission to the network via respective egress interfaces. Packet processing logic is configured, upon receipt of a test packet through an ingress interface of the apparatus, to allocate a space in the buffer for storage of a single copy of the test packet, to replicate and transmit sequentially multiple copies of the stored copy of the test packet through a designated egress interface, to receive an indication of a number of copies of the test packet that are to be transmitted, and responsively to the indication, to terminate replication of the test packet and release the allocated space in the buffer.

A method and apparatus of a network element that processes a packet in the network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the network element receives a data packet that includes a destination address. The network element receives a packet, with a packet switch unit, wherein the packet was received by the network element on an ingress interface. The network element further determines if the packet is to be stored in an external queue. In addition, the network element identifies the external queue for the packet based on one or more characteristics of the packet. The network element additionally forwards the packet to a packet storage unit, wherein the packet storage unit includes storage for the external queue. Furthermore, the network element receives the packet from the packet storage unit and forwards the packet to an egress interface corresponding to the external queue.

In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a switch core that has a multi-stage switch fabric. A first set of peripheral processing devices coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric by a set of connections that have a protocol. Each peripheral processing device from the first set of peripheral processing devices is a storage node that has virtualized resources. The virtualized resources of the first set of peripheral processing devices collectively define a virtual storage resource interconnected by the switch core. A second set of peripheral processing devices coupled to the multi-stage switch fabric by a set of connections that have the protocol. Each peripheral processing device from the first set of peripheral processing devices is a compute node that has virtualized resources. The virtualized resources of the second set of peripheral processing devices collectively define a virtual compute resource interconnected by the switch core.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus, and a system for providing a network traversing service. A resource management center sends a network traversing tunnel resource creating instruction to a secure traversing server according to a received network traversing tunnel resource leasing request sent by a management server of a carrier. After the secure traversing server creates a network traversing tunnel resource, the information of the network traversing tunnel resource is sent to the management server of the carrier through the resource management center. The information of the network traversing tunnel resource includes virtual access point information and service channel information. Thus, the management server of the carrier can provide a network traversing service for a terminal according to the virtual access point information and the service channel information. Network expandability of the carrier and reliability of network traversing can be improved by using the method.

Techniques are described for automatic provisioning of virtual local area networks (VLANs) on server-facing ports of access switches included in a data center network. Conventionally, VLANs are pre-configured on all server-facing ports of access switches. The techniques described in this disclosure enable automatic provisioning of VLANs on server-facing ports of access switches triggered by traffic received on the ports. The techniques include a feature in a forwarding plane of an access switch that is configured to detect data packets received for an unknown VLAN on a port, and notify a control plane of the access switch of the unknown VLAN on the port. In response to the notification from the forwarding plane, the control plane may authorize and provision the VLAN on the port. The techniques described in this disclosure include hardware-assisted software provisioning of an unknown VLAN on a given port of an access switch.