Patent Document ID: 20140348166
Application ID: 13898572
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for determining an optimal forwarding path across a network, the network including a plurality of virtual extensible local area network (“VxLAN”) gateways configured to implement networking protocols for switching packets over a Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (“TRILL”) fine-grained labeling (“FGL”) network and a VxLAN, the method comprising: learning one or more RBridge nicknames, each RBridge nickname being uniquely associated with one of the VxLAN gateways in the network; determining a path cost over the FGL network between each of the VxLAN gateways and a source node; determining a path cost over the VxLAN between each of the VxLAN gateways and a destination node; determining an encapsulation overhead metric associated with switching packets over the VxLAN; and selecting one of the VxLAN gateways as an optimal VxLAN gateway, wherein the selection is based on the path cost over the FGL network between each of the VxLAN gateways and the source node, the path cost over the VxLAN between each of the VxLAN gateways and the destination node and the encapsulation overhead metric.