Patent ID: 9112793
Filing Date: 2015-08-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A network comprising: a first cluster of first switching devices and one or more third switching devices, each first switching device compatible with a software-defined networking (SDN) protocol, each third switching device not compatible with the SDN protocol; a second cluster of second switching devices within or partially overlapping the first cluster, each second switching device compatible with a protocol for an open systems interconnection (OSI) model layer, wherein the first switching devices comprise one or more border switching devices located at a boundary between the first cluster and the second cluster, each border switching device also compatible with the protocol for the OSI model layer, wherein the first switching devices effect first multipathing through the network except through the second cluster, and the second switching devices effect second multipathing just through the second cluster of the network, such that the first switching devices and the second switching devices together effect end-to-end multipathing through both the first cluster and the second cluster of the network, and wherein the first switching devices effect the first multipathing through the third switching devices via tunneling traffic of the SDN protocol through the third switching devices using encapsulation at a layer level higher than a layer level of the SDN protocol.