Passive route control of data networks

• US 20030133443A1
• Filed: 10/29/2002
• Published: 07/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Internap Holding LLC
• Original Assignee: netVmg, Inc. (Internap Holding LLC)
• Inventors: Klinker, James Eric, McCanne, Steven R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,561,517 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/353
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5087 wherein the managed service relates to voice services management of VoIP services H04M7/0081
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 : Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 : Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/121 : by minimising delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/123 : Evaluation of link metrics techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 : using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 : based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 : Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/302 : Route determination based on requested QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 : Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/308 : Route determination based on user's profile, e.g. premium users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 : Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 : Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 : by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 : Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 : relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 : in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 : Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 : Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 : Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and a method for controlling routing of data over multiple networks. Accordingly, a system and method are provided for routing data between a first point and a second point. The method comprises passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path, comparing the at least one data flow characteristic, associated with the data flow on the first path, to an associated data flow requirement of a policy, switching the data flow to a second path if the at least one data flow requirement is not met, passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path, and comparing the at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path with the associated data flow requirement of the policy.

Claims

1. A method of routing data between a first point and a second point, the method comprising:

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path;

comparing the at least one data flow characteristic, associated with the data flow on the first path, to an associated data flow requirement of a policy;

switching the data flow to a second path if the at least one data flow requirement is not met;

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path; and

comparing the at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path with the associated data flow requirement of the policy.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising switching the data flow to a third path if the at least one data flow requirement is not met.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the passively monitoring related to the first path and the second path occurs during different time intervals.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the second path if the associated data flow requirement of the policy is met.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one data flow characteristic is a performance characteristic.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the performance characteristic is related to loss.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the performance characteristic is related to latency.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the performance characteristic is related to jitter.

9. A method of routing data between a first point and a second point, the method comprising:

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a plurality of paths, where each of the plurality of paths is monitored over non-overlapping periods of time; and

switching the data flow to at least one of the plurality of paths.

10. A method of claim 9, wherein passively monitoring further comprises:

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path to determine a first value of a data flow characteristic;

switching the data flow to a second path;

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path to determine a second value of a data flow characteristic; and

comparing the first value to the second value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising switching the data flow to a third path if the second value does not represent improved performance over the first value.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the passively monitoring related to the first path and the second path occurs during different time intervals.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting the second path if the second value represents improved performance over the first value.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one data flow characteristic is a performance characteristic.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the performance characteristic is related to latency.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the performance characteristic is related to jitter.

17. A method of routing data between a first point and a second point, the method comprising:

splitting a path into at least two paths;

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the at least two paths to determine a respective values of a data flow characteristic for each of the at least two paths; and

comparing the values to each other.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting a path having a value representing improved performance over the respective values of the other paths.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the passively monitoring occurs simultaneously.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one data flow characteristic is a performance characteristic.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the performance characteristic is related to loss.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the performance characteristic is related to latency.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the performance characteristic is related to jitter.

24. A method of routing data between a first point and a second point, the method comprising:

splitting a data flow associated with a group of addresses into a first data flow associated with a first subset of addresses and a second data flow associated with a second subset of addresses;

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the first data flow to determine a first value of a data flow characteristic;

passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the second data flow to determine a second value of the data flow characteristic;

comparing the first value to the second value; and

selecting the second subset of addresses for the data flow if the second value represents improved performance over the first value.

25. An apparatus for routing data between a first point and a second point, the apparatus comprising:

means for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path;

means for comparing the at least one data flow characteristic, associated with the data flow on the first path, to an associated data flow requirement of a policy;

means for switching the data flow to a second path if the at least one data flow requirement is not met;

means for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path; and

means for comparing the at least one data flow characteristic associated to the data flow on the second path with the associated data flow requirement of the policy.

26. An apparatus for routing data between a first point and a second point, the apparatus comprising:

means for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path to determine a first value of a data flow characteristic;

means for switching the data flow to a second data path;

means for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path to determine a second value of a data flow characteristic; and

means for comparing the first value to the second value.

27. An apparatus for routing data between a first point and a second point, the apparatus comprising:

means for splitting a path into at least two paths;

means for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the at least two paths to determine a respective value of a data flow characteristic for each of the at least two paths; and

means for comparing the respective values.

28. A computer-readable media for routing data between a first point and a second point, the computer-readable media comprising:

instructions for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path;

instructions for comparing the at least one data flow characteristic, associated with the data flow on the first path, to an associated data flow requirement of a policy;

instructions for switching the data flow to a second path if the at least one data flow requirement is not met;

instructions for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path; and

instructions for comparing the at least one data flow characteristic associated to the data flow on the second path with the associated data flow requirement of the policy.

29. A computer-readable media for routing data between a first point and a second point, the computer-readable media comprising:

instructions for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with a data flow on a first path to determine a first value of a data flow characteristic;

instructions for switching the data flow to a second data path;

instructions for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the data flow on the second path to determine a second value of a data flow characteristic; and

instructions for comparing the first value to the second value.

30. A computer-readable media for routing data between a first point and a second point, the computer-readable media comprising:

instructions for splitting a path into at least two paths;

instructions for passively monitoring at least one data flow characteristic associated with the at least two paths to determine a respective values of a data flow characteristic for each of the at least two paths; and

instructions for comparing the values to each other.