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`Patent and Trademark Office, U S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
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`PROVISIONAL APPL/CATION FOR PA TENT COVER SHEET
`This is a request for filing a PROVISIONAL APPLICATION FOR PATENT under 37CFR1.53 (c).
`
`Given Name (first and middle [If any])
`
`Family Name or Surname
`
`Sanchaita
`
`Bhaskar
`
`Datta
`
`Ragula
`
`Residence
`(City and either State or Foreign Country)
`Salt Lake City, Utah
`
`Salt Lake City, Utah
`
`INVENTOR(S
`
`D Additional inventors are being named on the ___ separately numbered sheets attached hereto
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`·\
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`TITLE OF THE INVENTION 1280 characters max\
`TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DIRECTING PACKETS OVER DISPARATE NETWORKS
`
`CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS
`
`Direct all correspondence to:
`
`D Customer Number I 23484
`D Firm or
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`OR
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`Type Customer Number here
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`Individual Name
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`John W L. Ogilvie
`
`I
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`...
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`Address
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`Address
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`City
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`Country
`
`Computer Law++
`1211 East Yale Avenue
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`Salt Lake City
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`USA
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`Utah
`
`State
`Telephone 801-582-2724
`
`ZIP
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`Fax
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`84105
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`801-583-1984
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`fees or credit any overpayment to Deposit Account Number·!
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`The invention was made by an agency of the United States Government or under a contract with an agency of the
`United States Government
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`Respectfully su : f l2
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`'I {(/L
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`.,,
`John ' / &)ilvie
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`Date I 2, 7 r?"'--1 (? ~b :2.CZ ~A'.)
`I
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`37 987
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`3003 2.11
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`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 1 of 10
`
`

`

`Express Mail Label No. EV047149251US
`PATENT APPLICATION
`DOCKET NO. 3003.2.11
`
`UNITED STATES
`PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION
`
`OF
`
`SANCHAITA DATTA AND RAGULA BHASKAR
`
`FOR
`
`TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DIRECTING PACKETS OVER
`DISPARATE NETWORKS
`
`CERTIFICATE OF MAILING UNDER 37 CFR 1.10
`
`I hereby certify that the correspondence listed below is being deposited with the United States Postal Service
`"Express Mail Post Office to Addressee" service under 37 CFR I. I 0 on February 8, 2002 addressed to the
`Commissioner for Patents, Box Provisional Patent Application, P.O. Box 2327, Arlington, VA 22202:
`
`Provisional Cover Sheet, Postcard, Check No. 0-1696 for $80
`Provisional Paten Application including this page plus 6 pages of specification and claims, and 2 drawing pages
`
`~ .
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`EV047149251US
`"Express Mail" label number
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 2 of 10
`
`

`

`The present invention provides methods and devices for combining frame
`
`relay/point-to-point W ANs and VPNs, to obtain greater reliability and permit additional
`
`load-balancing.
`
`5
`
`Organizations have used frame relay networks and point-to-point leased line
`
`networks for interconnecting geographically dispersed offices or locations. These
`
`networks have been implemented in the past and are currently in use for interoffice
`
`communication, data exchange and file sharing. These networks tend to be expensive.
`
`Also, there are few options for reliability and redundancy. As the data communication
`
`IO
`
`becomes critical to the day-to-day operation and functioning of the organization, the need
`
`for lower cost alternatives for redundant back-up for wide area networks becomes
`
`important.
`
`Internet-based communication solutions such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
`
`and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) offer alternatives to frame relay and point-to-point
`
`15
`
`leased line networks. These solutions are advantageous in the flexibility and choice they
`
`offer in cost, in service providers, and in vendors. Accordingly, some organizations have
`
`a frame relay (FR) or leased line connection (a.k.a. point-to-point or P-to-P) for intranet
`
`communication and a connection for accessing the Internet (Figure I).
`
`Organizations are still looking for better ways to use Internet-based redundant
`
`20
`
`connections to backup the primary FR networks. Also, organizations wanting to change
`
`from FR and P-to-P solutions to Internet-based solutions currently do not have the option
`
`of transitioning in a staged manner. They have to decide between the two solutions and
`
`deploy the solution in the entire network in one step. This is a barrier for deployment of
`
`Internet-based solutions, since an existing working network would be replaced by a yet-
`
`25
`
`untested new network. Also, for organizations with several geographically distributed
`
`locations a single step conversion is very complex. Some organizations may want a
`
`redundant Internet-based backup between a few locations while maintaining the FR
`
`network for the entire organization.
`
`The present invention allows FR and VPN wide area networks to co-exist for
`
`30
`
`redundancy as well as for transitioning from FR/P-to-P to Internet-based solutions in a
`
`staged manner. The present invention allows configurations which use both WAN
`
`1
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 3 of 10
`
`

`

`connections with the data traffic being load-balanced across the two connections, as well
`
`as configurations which use one of the WAN s as a backup for use in case the primary
`
`connection through the other WAN fails.
`
`The network topology for one embodiment of the invention is shown in Figure 2.
`
`5
`
`In this topology the three locations are connected to each other via a FR or leased line
`
`network. All three locations are connected via a FR network. Locations 1 and 2 are also
`
`connected to each other via a VPN connection; VPN tunnels are established between
`
`locations 1 & 2 in the VPN pairs Line 1 to Line 3 and Line 2 to Line 3. There can be only
`
`one VPN tunnel between Location 1 and 2 as well. There is no VPN connection between
`
`10
`
`locations 3 and either location 1 or location 2.
`
`Therefore, locations 1, 2, and 3 can communicate with each other over the FR
`
`network, and locations 1 & 2 can communicate over the VPN connection as well.
`
`Communication between locations 1 and 3 and between locations 2 and 3 can take place
`
`over the FR network only. Communication between location 1 and 2 can take place over
`
`15
`
`FR, or the lines 1 and 3 pair, or the lines 2 and 3 pair. When the source and destination IP
`
`address pairs are the same between locations 1 and 2 but different types of networks
`
`connect those locations, a traffic routing decision that selects between network types
`
`cannot be made with an existing commercially available device. By contrast, the
`
`invention allows an organization to deploy an Internet-based solution between locations 1
`
`20
`
`& 2 while maintaining the FR network between locations 1, 2, and 3, and to select
`
`between the Internet and the FR network on a packet-by-packet basis.
`
`Let us look at the operation of the device at location 1. The device examines the
`
`IP data traffic through it and makes determinations like the following:
`
`1. Is the traffic destined for Internet? If so, send the traffic over the Internet using lines 1
`
`25
`
`and/or 2. Load balancing decisions can be based on criteria such as the load of a
`
`given network, router, or connection relative to other networks, routers, or
`
`connections, to be performed dynamically in response to actual traffic. Load(cid:173)
`
`balancing may be done through a round-robin algorithm which places the next packet
`
`on the next available line, or it may involve more complex algorithms that attempt to
`
`30
`
`measure and track the throughput, latency, and/or other performance characteristics of
`
`a given link or path element. Load-balancing is preferably done on a per-line basis, as
`
`2
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 4 of 10
`
`

`

`opposed to prior approaches that use a per-department and/or per-router basis for
`
`dividing traffic. Load-balancing algorithms in general are well understood, although
`
`their application in the context of the present invention is believed to be new.
`
`2. Is the traffic destined for location 2? If so, then there are three paths to location 2: the
`
`5
`
`Frame Relay line, line 3, or line 4. The invention then decides whether the three
`
`connections are in load-balance mode or on-failure backup mode or a combination
`
`thereof. For a load-balance mode, it chooses the communication line based on load(cid:173)
`
`balancing criteria. For backup mode, it chooses the communication line that is either
`
`the preferred line or (if the preferred line is down) the currently functional (backup)
`
`10
`
`line.
`
`3. Is the traffic destined for location 3? If so, then send the traffic on the Frame Relay
`
`line.
`
`Now let us look at the operation of the device at location 2. The device examines
`
`the IP data traffic through it and makes determinations like the following:
`
`15
`
`4. Is the traffic destined for Internet? If so, send the traffic over the Internet lines (line 3
`
`and/or line 4). Load balancing decisions are based on the criteria described above.
`
`5. Is the traffic destined for location 1? If so, then there are two paths to location 1: the
`
`Frame Relay line, or line 3. The invention then decides whether the two connections
`
`are in load-balance or on-failure backup mode, and chooses line(s) accordingly as
`
`20
`
`discussed above.
`
`6. Is the traffic destined for location 3? If so, then send the traffic on the Frame Relay
`
`line.
`
`To operate as discussed herein, the invention uses information about the IP
`
`address ranges in the locations as input data. For instance, a packet destined for the
`
`25
`
`Internet is one whose destination address is not in any of the address ranges of the known
`
`locations (e.g., locations 1, 2, 3 in the example above are known locations). In some
`
`configurations, this is the same as saying that a packet destined for the Internet is one
`
`whose address is not in the address range of any of the organization's locations.
`
`However, although all the known locations may belong to a single organization, that is
`
`30
`
`not necessary to use the invention since known locations may belong to multiple
`
`3
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 5 of 10
`
`

`

`organizations or individuals. Likewise, other locations belonging to the organization may
`
`be unknown for purposes of a given embodiment of the invention.
`
`Address ranges can be specified and tested using subnet masks. The subnet masks
`
`may be of different lengths (contain a different number of 1 bits) in different embodi-
`
`5 ments and/or in different address ranges in a given embodiment. For instance, class Band
`
`class C addresses may both be used in some embodiments.
`
`As an example, consider an illustrative network topology having two locations
`
`which are connected by a frame relay network and by the Internet through a frame relay
`
`router and an Internet router at each location. Suppose also that the address ranges used
`
`10
`
`by the routers are the following:
`
`Location
`
`Internet
`
`Frame Relay
`
`200.x.x.x
`
`196.x.x.x
`
`2
`
`210.x.x.x
`
`198.x.x.x
`
`Without the invention, this illustrative topology requires some inflexible method
`
`15
`
`of assigning packets to paths. Thus, if a packet from location 1 that is meant for location
`
`2 has a destination address in the 198.x.x.x range then it must be sent to the frame relay
`
`router, even though there is Internet connectivity between the two locations. Likewise, a
`
`packet from location 1 meant for location 2 which has a destination address in the
`
`210.x.x.x range must be sent to the Internet router even though there is frame relay
`
`20
`
`connectivity between the two locations. Traditionally, these necessary match-ups of
`
`packets with routers were done by inflexible approaches such as sending all traffic from a
`
`given department, building, or local area network to a specified router. Manual and/or
`
`tedious reconfiguration was needed to change the destination address used in packets
`
`from a given source LAN, so this approach allowed load-balancing only on a very broad
`
`25
`
`granularity, and did not load-balance dynamically in response to actual traffic. In
`
`particular, difficult reconfiguration of network parameters was needed to redirect packets
`
`to another router when the specified router went down.
`
`By placing inventive modules between locations and their routers (e.g., as in
`
`Figure 2), however, the invention allows load-balancing, redundancy, or other criteria to
`
`30
`
`be used dynamically, on a granularity as fine as packet-by-packet, to direct packets to the
`
`Internet router and/or the frame relay/point-to-point router according to the criteria. For
`
`4
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 6 of 10
`
`

`

`instance, with reference to the illustrative network topology discussed above, if the
`
`inventive module at location 1 receives a packet with a destination address in the
`
`21 O.x.x.x range and the Internet router is either down or over-loaded, then the inventive
`
`module can change the destination address so that it is in the 198.x.x.x range (the rest of
`
`s
`
`the address may be kept) and then send the modified packet to the frame relay router.
`
`The invention allows the organization to achieve the following goals, in the
`
`context of Figure 2; similar goals are facilitated in other configurations:
`
`1. Deploy an Internet-based second connection between only locations 1 & 2, while
`
`maintaining FR connectivity between locations 1, 2, and 3. Later the organization
`
`10
`
`may deploy an Internet-based solution at location 3 as well.
`
`2. Use the Internet-based connection between locations 1 & 2 for full load-balancing or
`
`backup, or a combination of the two.
`
`3. Use the FR connection between locations 1 & 2 for full load-balancing or backup, or
`
`a combination of the two.
`
`15
`
`4. Load-balance traffic in a multi-homing situation between two ISPs or two
`
`connections to the Internet at locations 1 and/or 2.
`
`Although particular methods and systems embodying the present invention are
`
`expressly illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated that signal and article
`
`embodiments may be formed according to the systems and methods of the present
`
`20
`
`invention. Unless otherwise expressly indicted, the description herein of methods and
`
`systems of the present invention therefore extends to corresponding signals and articles,
`
`and the description of signals and articles of the present invention extends likewise to
`
`corresponding methods and systems.
`
`The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its
`
`25
`
`essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects
`
`only as illustrative and not restrictive.
`
`What is claimed and desired to be secured by patent is:
`
`1.
`
`A method for distributing packets between networks, the method
`
`comprising the steps of:
`
`30
`
`checking the packet's destination address;
`
`5
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 7 of 10
`
`

`

`checking a load-balancing or backup mode status to determine if the
`
`packet destination address should be changed to use a different network; and
`
`changing the destination address of at least one packet and sending that
`
`packet over a different network than the network whose router recognizes the
`
`5
`
`original destination address.
`
`2.
`
`A computer storage medium having a configuration that represents data
`
`and instructions which will cause performance of the method steps in claim 1.
`
`3.
`
`A computer device which contains a memory and a processor configured
`
`to operate according to the method of claim 1.
`
`10
`
`\US 11 \pprovO
`
`6
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 8 of 10
`
`

`

`Figure 1:
`
`Internet
`connection
`
`Router
`
`Location 1
`
`5
`
`10
`
`15
`
`Internet
`
`" <,,
`
`Internet
`connection
`
`Router
`
`J
`
`Router
`Frame Relay
`or leased line
`connection
`
`Router
`
`7
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 9 of 10
`
`

`

`Figure 2:
`
`Line 1
`
`Router
`
`II VPN
`
`Line2
`I Router
`
`II VPN
`
`1--
`I:>
`
`Fat
`Pip
`e
`Pr
`od
`uct
`
`Intern
`et
`
`Location 1
`
`Router
`
`Line 3
`
`. ". · ·· .j Router II VPN
`
`f-",c
`
`Line4
`
`i . ,• .;,
`
`Router
`
`Fat
`Pip
`e
`Pr
`od
`uct
`
`Location 2
`
`Router
`
`Relay
`Network
`/P-to-P
`Network
`
`Location 3
`
`Router
`
`Internet
`connections
`
`Frame Relay
`or leased line
`connections
`
`8
`
`Cisco Systems, Inc.
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 10 of 10
`
`