Router Architecture Archives

Tag: Router Architecture

Router Architecture refers to the internal design and organization of components within a router, which dictates how it processes and forwards data packets between different network segments. At its core, router architecture comprises several key elements:

Routing Processor: This is essentially the ‘brain’ of the router. It handles control plane tasks, like processing routing protocols, maintaining the routing table, and managing router configurations.

Switching Fabric: It’s the internal pathway through which data packets travel between input and output ports. The efficiency of the switching fabric can significantly influence a router’s performance.

Interface Ports: These are the physical or logical interfaces that connect the router to other devices or network segments. Each port is tuned to specific transmission standards like Ethernet, Frame Relay, or Serial.

Buffer Memory: Temporary storage areas in routers that hold data packets before they are forwarded. Buffering ensures smooth data flow, especially during times of congestion.

Routing Table: A database maintained by the routing processor that contains information about known network paths. When a packet arrives, the router consults this table to determine the best path for the packet.

Forwarding Information Base (FIB): Often derived from the routing table, the FIB is used for high-speed decisions about where to forward a data packet.

Control Plane and Data Plane: The control plane involves functions related to routing, while the data plane involves functions related to actual data packet forwarding.

ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits): Customized hardware components designed for rapid packet processing, often used in modern routers to accelerate specific tasks.

A well-designed router architecture ensures efficient, reliable, and high-speed data transmission, catering to the requirements of modern networks.

US 7,944,827

Content-aware dynamic network resource allocation

7944827 Content-aware dynamic optical bandwidth allocation: Network resources allocated for particular application traffic are aware of the characteristics of L4+ content to be transmitted. One embodiment of the invention realizes network resource allocation in terms of three intelligent modules, gateway, provisioning and classification. A gateway module exerts network control functions in response to application requests for network resources. The network control functions include traffic path setup, bandwidth allocation and so on. Characteristics of the content are also specified in the received application network resource requests. Under request of the gateway module, a provisioning module allocates network resources such as bandwidth in optical networks and edge devices as well. An optical network resource allocation leads to a provisioning optical route. Under request of the gateway module, a classification module differentiates applications traffic according to content specifications, and thus creates and applies content-aware rule data for edge devices to forward content-specified traffic towards respective provisioning optical routes.
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7944827 Content-aware dynamic optical bandwidth allocation: Network resources allocated for particular application traffic are aware of the characteristics of L4+ content to be transmitted. One embodiment of the invention realizes network resource allocation in terms of three intelligent modules, gateway, provisioning and classification. A gateway module exerts network control functions in response to application requests for network resources. The network control functions include traffic path setup, bandwidth allocation and so on. Characteristics of the content are also specified in the received application network resource requests. Under request of the gateway module, a provisioning module allocates network resources such as bandwidth in optical networks and edge devices as well. An optical network resource allocation leads to a provisioning optical route. Under request of the gateway module, a classification module differentiates applications traffic according to content specifications, and thus creates and applies content-aware rule data for edge devices to forward content-specified traffic towards respective provisioning optical routes.
READ MORE