Software FIB ARP FEC encoding
First Claim
1. A network device, comprising:
- a memory; and
a processing device coupled to the memory, the processing device to;
program a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises;
a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries; and
a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein;
data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries;
each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and
each FEC comprises an identifier for a virtual network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Described herein are various embodiments of a network element to process routing entries in a forwarding information base (FIB) for hosts that are directly attached to a multi-layer network element to encode address resolution protocol (ARP) data into forwarding equivalence class (FEC) entries for the directly attached hosts. One embodiment provides for a network element comprising a control plane including a forwarding agent and a data plane coupled to the control plane. The data plane can include a forwarding engine to forward a unit of network data from an ingress interface to an egress interface. The forwarding agent can be configured to program the forwarding engine with a forwarding information base having data-link layer forwarding data encoded into a network-layer forwarding entry.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A network device, comprising:
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a memory; and a processing device coupled to the memory, the processing device to; program a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises; a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries; and a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein; data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries; each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and each FEC comprises an identifier for a virtual network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method, comprising:
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programing a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises; a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries; and a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein; data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries; each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and each FEC entry comprises an identifier for a virtual network; and forwarding network data based on the forwarding information. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to process control plane data in a network element, the method comprising:
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programing a forwarding engine of a data plane with forwarding information, wherein the forwarding information comprises; a forwarding information base comprising a plurality of forwarding entries; and a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) table comprising a plurality of FEC entries, wherein; data link layer forwarding data is encoded into the FEC entries; each forwarding entry in the forwarding information base is associated with a corresponding FEC entry; and each FEC entry comprises an identifier for a virtual network; and forwarding network data based on the forwarding information.
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Specification