A technique increases the efficiency of functions performed by an intermediate device of a computer network by encoding a portion of a routing information field (RIF) of a token ring frame transported over the network with information for use by the device. The maximum number of route descriptor (RD) hops in the network is altered to provide a predetermined portion of the RIF for storing encoded information. Each intermediate device configured in accordance with the technique identifies this pre…

A technique maintains priority of packets transmitted over a heterogeneous network by a hybrid node coupled to the network. The hybrid node assigns each packet a transmission priority (TP) level as it traverses protocol layers of a communications stack of the node. An application programming interface extension provides a tagging mechanism for conveying the TP levels from higher protocol layers of the stack to lower layers. The TP levels are then converted to information that is “tagged” to the …

Computerized system and method are provided which have particular utility in the field of automated testing. In one embodiment of the method of the present invention, an array is stored in computer-readable memory. The array has a plurality of tuples, each of which includes a respective action field, a respective expected result field, a respective success field, and a respective failure field. The respective action field is for specifying at least one respective action whose performance by the …

Methods and apparatus for efficiently distributing traffic on available best-effort service flows within a system are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for forwarding a packet which includes destination information and source information upstream from a source to a destination includes determining a first value associated with the packet using the destination information and the source information. A first service flow that is suitable for use to forward the p…

Backup peers in an asymmetrically organized computer network are organized into a “pool” of available devices that are activated as necessary. The network comprises a set of remote peers and a set of local peers directly associated with a central computational facility, the local peers facilitating connection between the remote peers and the central facility. During the capabilities exchange, the “primary” local peer to which the remote peer connects provides a list of backup peer devices to the…

The present invention detects a micro-roaming client in a WLAN. Once a micro-roaming client is detected, APs coordinate with each other and assign the client to a specific AP. In an embodiment, a user-configurable anchor timer for micro-roaming clients is provided, so that when the timer has expired, the client is free to roam within the overlapping cell until it becomes anchored to an AP again. In various embodiments, environmental variables can affect APs to release an anchored client to roam …

Systems and methods for retransmitting unsuccessfully transmitted data across a communication link. The retransmission mechanism may be applied to point to multipoint networks including wireless networks. Each packet is encapsulated in an ARQ frame and assigned a sequence number for the purpose of coordinating acknowledgments and retransmissions. Information as to which packets require retransmission is communicated in the form of a bitmap where each bit indicates an acknowledgment status for a …

The topology of a computer network is represented, for each routing device in the network, as a tree structure with the root of the tree designating the particular routing device. Tree nodes represent LANs, while arcs connecting the nodes represent other routing devices. Thus, the number of first-level links to children off the root is equal to the number of LANs connected to the source routing device, and those first-level links point to nodes representing the LANs (or LAN segments) directly co…

A system and method for merging a plurality of sorted lists using multiple processors having access to a common memory in which N sorted lists which may exceed the capacity of the common memory are merged in a parallel environment. Sorted lists from a storage device are loaded into common memory and are divided into a number of tasks equal to the number of available processors. The records assigned to each task are separately sorted, and used to form a single sorted list. A multi-processing envi…