Packet flow bifurcation and analysis
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- receiving packets comprising an ingress traffic flow at a network element;
bifurcating processing of the packets to an egress traffic processor and a computation processor;
performing egress traffic flow operations at the egress traffic processor, the egress traffic flow operations assigning the packets to an egress traffic flow; and
performing traffic analysis operations at the computation processor concurrently with the egress traffic flow operations, the traffic analysis operations generating traffic analysis data corresponding to the ingress traffic flow.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for optimum matching of a traffic profile with an individual traffic flow using flow bifurcation and analysis. Bifurcation and duplication of packets that make up a flow received at an ingress element are forwarded to each of egress traffic and computation processor resources, such that egress traffic operations and traffic analysis operations may be performed concurrently without introducing jitter or delay in either bifurcated processing path. The traffic analysis includes maintaining flow statistics, flow stateful information and classifying the flow as a particular application traffic type. The optimum traffic profile for this application traffic type is then selected and applied to the individual flow. The traffic analysis data is forwarded to ingress and egress processing elements in real time, and ingress and egress traffic processing operations are dynamically adjusted in view of the traffic analysis data.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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receiving packets comprising an ingress traffic flow at a network element;
bifurcating processing of the packets to an egress traffic processor and a computation processor;
performing egress traffic flow operations at the egress traffic processor, the egress traffic flow operations assigning the packets to an egress traffic flow; and
performing traffic analysis operations at the computation processor concurrently with the egress traffic flow operations, the traffic analysis operations generating traffic analysis data corresponding to the ingress traffic flow. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus, comprising:
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a plurality of ingress traffic processors;
a plurality of egress traffic processors, communicatively coupled to the ingress traffic processors;
a plurality of computation processors, communicatively coupled to the ingress and egress traffic processors; and
software components distributed across the plurality of ingress traffic processors, egress traffic processors and computation processors, the software to execute on the plurality of ingress traffic processors, egress traffic processors and computation processors to perform operations including, performing ingress processing operations on packets comprising an ingress traffic flow received at the apparatus;
bifurcating processing of the packets to an egress traffic processor and a computation processor;
performing egress traffic flow operations at the egress traffic processor, the egress traffic flow operations assigning the packets to an egress traffic flow; and
performing traffic analysis operations at the computation processor concurrently with the egress traffic flow operations, the traffic analysis operations generating traffic profile data corresponding to the ingress traffic flow. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus, comprising:
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a chassis having a plurality of slots and including a backplane providing a mesh interconnect between the slots;
a plurality of traffic blades, each installed in the chassis in a respective slot and including a backplane interface coupled to the backplane, the plurality of traffic blades including ingress traffic blades and egress traffic blades;
a plurality of compute blades, each installed in the chassis in a respective slot and including a backplane interface coupled to the backplane; and
software components distributed across the plurality of traffic blades and compute blades, the software components to execute on processing elements hosted by the traffic blades and compute blades to perform operations including, performing ingress processing for packets received at an ingress traffic blade, the ingress processing including performing primary classification of the packets to identify a subscriber flow associated with the packets;
based on the subscriber flow, identifying an egress traffic blade to be employed for the egress traffic flow operations and sending a first copy of the packets to that egress traffic blade; and
identifying a computation blade to be employed for the traffic analysis operations and sending a second copy of the packets to that compute blade, performing egress traffic operations for the subscriber flow on the egress traffic blade using the first copy of packets; and
concurrently performing traffic analysis operations on the computation blade using the second copy of packets. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification