Presented herein are techniques for dynamic optical network programming using Segment Routing (SR) using an Optical Provisioning SR Label (OPSL). In one form, a method is provided that is performed by a network element that has received an OPSL from another network element to create an optical circuit. In another form, a method is provided that is performed by a network element that sends an OPSL to another network element to cause that other network element to create an optical circuit.

A packet transmission method includes that a host obtains a packet, and when a transmission path of the packet is to be pass through a wide area network, the host determines whether to perform optimization on the packet for transmission in the wide area network and performs optimization on the packet for transmission in the wide area network.

A method provides an information centric network with a software defined network based on an information centric networking protocol on top of a physical network based on an internet protocol. A controller in the software defined network receives a first packet of an object request in the information centric network. The controller encodes a message ID indicating an object source of the object request into a header of the first packet. The controller installs forwarding rules on forwarding elements in the physical network such that further packets of the object request are forwarded according to the installed forwarding rules by the forwarding elements rewriting headers of the further packets.

Methods and apparatus to provide a consumer services cloud in a communications network are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a processor; and a computer readable storage medium including computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations include identifying which of multiple possible users associated with a communications network customer is a current user of a client device based on authentication information included in a request for access from the client device to a communication network. The network communication containing the request is diverted to the apparatus by a software-defined networking switch. The operations also include, in response to identifying the current user, accessing a first profile corresponding to the identified current user to determine a rule to be used to handle network communications within the communications network. Further operations include configuring the software-defined networking switch.

The invention relates to a data transmission system for a data exchange between a field bus system that comprises at least one field device, and device access software that is installed on a host and by means of which components of the field bus system can be accessed. The data transmission system comprises a coupler device that is connected to the field bus system, and a generic communication driver, which is integrated in the device access software. In addition, at least one device driver is integrated in the device access software. The data transmission system further comprises a central data transmission path, which can be built between the generic communication driver and the coupler device, and via which primary data traffic can be transmitted. The generic communication driver is configured to exchange data with at least one of the device drivers that is integrated in the device access software, and to transmit data received from the at least one device driver as part of the primary data traffic to the coupler device via the central data transmission path, and to forward data of the primary data traffic received by the coupler device via the central data transmission path to the respective device driver for which the data are intended. The coupler device is configured to convert the primary data traffic received from the generic communication driver via the central data transmission path into secondary data traffic while adding routing information and to send it to the field bus system, and to convert data received from at least one of the field devices to the primary data traffic, and to transmit it to the generic communication driver via the central data transmission path.

A method of calculating a new route for a media data traffic flow on a computer network when a device is connected to the network, the network comprising a first and a second network switch connected by a link, the method comprising: determining whether media data traffic already flows between the first and second network switch over the link; applying a weighting to the link whose value is based on whether media data traffic already flows over the link; and determining the new route for media data traffic by using a least cost path generation algorithm using the weighting.

A network device includes processing circuitry and multiple ports. The multiple ports are configured to connect to a communication network. The processing circuitry is configured to select a first port among the multiple ports to serve as an egress port for a packet, and to forward the packet to the first port, irrespective of whether or not the first port is usable as the egress port. The processing circuitry is further configured to, when the first port is usable as the egress port, transmit the packet to the communication network via the first port, and when the first port is unusable as the egress port, forward the packet from the first port to a second port among the multiple ports and transmit the packet to the communication network via the second port.

A method and apparatus are provided. The method includes: a first network device sends route information of a destination network device, where the route information includes a destination address of the destination network device, a primary next-hop address, and a backup next-hop address, the primary next-hop address includes a common address of the first network device and a second network device, for example, a loopback address, and the backup next-hop address includes an address of the first network device, for example, an IP address of the first network device. By using this method, when a fault occurs in a connection between the second network device and the destination network device, another network device may directly send a packet to the first network device according to the backup next-hop address, to ensure normal packet forwarding.

Various example embodiments for supporting stateful explicit paths are presented herein. Various example embodiments for supporting stateful explicit paths may be configured to support communication of a packet along a path in an Internet Protocol (IP) network from a first node to a second node, wherein the path includes a set of hops, wherein the packet includes a tuple configured to identify the path, wherein the tuple includes a first IP address of the first node, a second IP address of the second node, and a path identifier of the path, wherein the path identifier of the path is a unique identifier assigned to the path, wherein the communication of the packet along the path from the first node to the second node is supported based on state information configured to map the tuple to a next hop in the set of hops of the path.

A software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) environment that leverages network virtualization management deployment is provided. Edge security services managed by the network virtualization management deployment are made available in the SD-WAN environment. Cloud gateways forward SD-WAN traffic to managed service nodes to apply security services. Network traffic is encapsulated with corresponding metadata to ensure that services can be performed according to the desired policy. Point-to-point tunnels are established between cloud gateways and the managed service nodes to transport the metadata to the managed service nodes using an overlay logical network. Virtual network identifiers (VNIs) in the metadata are used by the managed service nodes to identify tenants/policies. A managed service node receiving a packet uses provider service routers (T0-SR) and tenant service routers (T1-SRs) based on the VNI to apply the prescribed services for the tenant, and the resulting traffic is returned to the cloud gateway that originated the traffic.