Packet Marking For Flow Management, Including Deadline Aware Flow Management

摘要

Network devices facilitate flow management through packet marking. The network devices may be switches, routers, bridges, hubs, or any other network device. The packet marking may include analyzing received packets to determine when the received packets meet a marking criterion, and then applying a configurable marking function to mark the packets in a particular way. The marking capability may facilitate deadline aware end-to-end flow management, as one specific example. More generally, the marking capability may facilitate traffic management actions such as visibility actions and flow management actions.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
in a network device that connects a source device to a destination device through the network device:
receiving a network packet that is part of a first network flow, the network packet destined for the destination device and passing through the network device;comparing the network packet against a classification criterion to determine whether to classify the first network flow as a deadline aware network flow; andwhen the first network flow is classified as a deadline aware network flow, determining whether to execute a marking function.