US 11,146,476 B2 · MSDC scaling through on-demand path update

Abstract

In one embodiment, a copy of an original packet of a traffic flow is created at an ingress leaf node of a cloud switch. The ingress leaf node forwards the original packet along a less-specific path through the cloud switch, the less-specific path based on a domain index of an egress domain for the original packet. The copy of the original packet is modified to create a more specific path learn request packet. The ingress leaf node forwards the more specific path learn request packet along the less-specific path through the cloud switch. The ingress leaf node received back a more specific path learn request reply packet that includes an indication of a fabric system port. The ingress leaf node then programs a forwarding table based on the indication of the fabric system port, to have subsequent packets of the traffic flow forwarded along a more-specific path.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

redirecting packets of a traffic flow from a first network path to a second network path;
generating a copy of an original packet of the traffic flow at a node;
forwarding, by the node, the original packet along the first network path;
modifying the copy of the original packet to generate a path learn request packet, wherein modifying the copy of the original packet to generate the network path learn request packet includes adding a header field to the copy of the original packet, wherein the header field includes a type field, a subtype field, a forwarding type field, a local index field, and a fabric system port field;
forwarding, by the node, the path learn request packet along the first network path;
and
receiving, at the node, a path learn request reply packet with an indication of a fabric system port.

4 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;
and
a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
redirect packets of a traffic flow from a first network path to a second network path;
generate a copy of an original packet of the traffic flow at a node;
forward, by the node, the original packet along the first network path;
modify the copy of the original packet to generate a path learn request packet, wherein modifying the copy of the original packet to generate the network path learn request packet includes adding a header field to the copy of the original packet, wherein the header field includes a type field, a subtype field, a forwarding type field, a local index field, and a fabric system port field;
forward, by the node, the path learn request packet along the first network path;
and
receive, at the node, a path learn request reply packet with an indication of a fabric system port.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

MSDC scaling through on-demand path update

Life of this patent

MSDC scaling through on-demand path update

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20