Patent ID: 11881935
Assignee: ARISTA NETWORKS, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 8:
9. A network device, comprising:
a hardware layer comprising a first portion of memory and a second portion of memory;
a control plane; and
a feature agent located in the control plane and programmed to:
access an allocation data structure, wherein the allocation data structure specifies the first portion of memory and the second portion of memory;
identify, using the allocation data structure, the first portion of memory to be used during an upgrade performed by the control plane, wherein the second portion of memory is used for storing a network device table, wherein the network device table is used by a packet transmission component of the hardware layer while the upgrade is being performed; and
upon completion of the upgrade, update the allocation data structure to specify that the packet transmission component use a second network device table in the first portion of memory and stop using the network device table, wherein the second network device table is initially populated during the upgrade, wherein, prior to the completion of the upgrade, the allocation data structure specifies the first portion of memory for completing the upgrade and the second portion of memory for use by the packet transmission component, and wherein, after the completion of the upgrade, the allocation data structure specifies the second portion of memory for completing a future upgrade and the first portion of memory for use by the packet transmission component.