Frame relay switched data service

• US 20030161328A1
• Filed: 02/28/2003
• Published: 08/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Medamana, John Babu, Saksena, Vikram R., Holmgren, Stephen L., Chase, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,257,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.52
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2854 Wide area networks, e.g. public data networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4608 LAN interconnection over ATM networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5645 Connectionless
• 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 45/10 Routing in connection-oriented networks, e.g. X.25 or ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/72 Routing based on the source address
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/741 Routing in networks with a plurality of addressing schemes, e.g. with both IPv4 and IPv6
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/105 ATM switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections

Abstract

A new type of data transport service which uses a frame relay layer 2 data link connection identifier (DLCI) to select among various service types, feature sets, and/or closed user groups (CUGs) . A layer 3 address may be extracted from a layer 2 frame, and the layer 3 address information may be used to route a data packet over a packet-switched network according to the service classes, feature sets, and/or CUGs selected. At the destination, the layer 3 data packet may again be enclosed in a layer 2 frame with a DLCI indicating the service classes, features sets, and/or CUGs. Because the use of conventional permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) is not required in aspects of the invention, new methods of measuring and managing network traffic are presented.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving into a fast packet network frame relay data packets, said frame relay data packets having user data in a user data field; and

switching said frame relay packets within the fast packet network responsive to the user data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user data comprises service category data, said method further including the step of discriminating between a plurality of service categories based on the user data.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the step of routing over the internet responsive to at least one of the service categories.

4. The method of claim 2 further including the step of routing over a virtual private network comprising an intranet responsive to at least one of the service categories.

5. The method of claim 2 further including the step of routing over a virtual private network, the virtual private network comprising trading partners responsive to at least one of the service categories.

6. The method of claim 2 further including the step of routing over a closed user group responsive to at least one of the service categories.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of discriminating includes recognizing multicast data.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of discriminating includes recognizing voice data.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of discriminating includes recognizing video data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the user data includes an internet protocol packet.

11. The method of claim 10 further including the steps of:

generating a fast packet address field responsive to the internet protocol packet data; and

routing the internet protocol packet through the fast packet network responsive to the fast packet address field.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of generating the fast packet address field occurs in a node located at an edge of the fast packet network.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of generating the fast packet address field includes routing the internet protocol packet data within the fast packet network to a node capable of generating the fast packet address field responsive to the internet protocol packet data.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the fast packet address is generated at a single node within the fast packet network.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the fast packet network includes a plurality of nodes capable of generating the fast packet address field responsive to the internet protocol packet data and nodes not capable of generating the fast packet address field responsive to the internet protocol packet data.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein layer 3 data within the internet protocol packet data is utilized to generate the fast packet address field.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein layer 4 data within the internet protocol packet data is utilized to generate the fast packet address field.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the layer 4 information is utilized to determine a quality of service.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the quality of service includes an information rate.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the quality of service includes priority information.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the fast packet network is an asynchronous transfer mode network and the fast packets are asynchronous transfer mode cells.

22. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of frame relay packets over a permanent virtual circuit at a first node in an asynchronous transfer mode network;

generating an asynchronous transfer mode address based on a data field other than a data link connection identifier within the frame relay packets; and

routing the packets through the asynchronous transfer mode network based on the asynchronous transfer mode address.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the step of routing includes routing the packets responsive to one of a plurality of service categories.

24. A method comprising the step of utilizing separate routing tables within an asynchronous transfer mode switch for each of a plurality of service categories.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the service categories are determined using internet protocol data within a data field of a packet passed by the asynchronous transfer mode switch.

26. A method comprising the steps of:

utilizing a fast packet switch to service a plurality of customers; and

partitioning routing tables within the fast packet switch by customer.

27. In a fast packet network, a method comprising the steps of:

receiving a fast packet;

comparing an address of the fast packet with a layer 3 internet protocol address contained within the fast packet; and

determining whether the address is consistent with the layer 3 internet protocol address.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the step of determining includes examination of a sending address or a destination address.

29. The method of claim 27 further including the step of discarding packets responsive to an inconsistency being detected.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the fast packet is an asynchronous transfer mode packet.

31. A network comprising:

customer premises equipment;

an asynchronous transfer mode switch coupled to and receiving from the customer premises equipment a plurality of frame relay data packets, the asynchronous transfer mode switch including address translation circuitry for translating a data link connection identifier from at least one of the frame relay data packets into an asynchronous transfer mode address, the asynchronous transfer mode address representing at least one of a plurality of virtual private networks and depending on a predetermined service category associated with a particular data link connection identifier.

32. A network comprising:

customer premises equipment;

a fast packet switch coupled to the customer premises equipment with at least one permanent virtual circuit and receiving a plurality of frame relay data packets, the fast packet switch including address translation circuitry for translating user data within at least one of the frame relay data packets into a fast packet address.

33. The network of claim 32 wherein the translation circuitry is responsive to a plurality of different service categories.

34. The network of claim 33 wherein the translation circuitry is responsive to internet protocol data within the frame relay data packets.

35. The network of claim 34 wherein the translation circuitry is responsive to layer 3 internet protocol data.

36. The network of claim 33 wherein the translation circuitry is configured to determine a quality of service responsive to layer 4 data.

37. The network of claim 32 wherein the fast packet switch is an asynchronous transfer mode protocol based switch.

38. An asynchronous transfer mode switch comprising translation circuitry for translating a plurality of frame relay packets into asynchronous transfer mode cells, the asynchronous transfer mode switch assigning an address based on information contained within a user data field of the frame relay packets.

39. The asynchronous transfer mode switch of claim 38 wherein the translation circuitry includes a separate routing table for each of a plurality of different service categories.

40. The asynchronous transfer mode switch of claim 38 wherein the translation circuitry includes a separate routing table for each of a plurality of different customers.

41. The asynchronous transfer mode switch of claim 39 wherein the translation circuitry determines the different service categories using layer 3 internet protocol data.

42. The asynchronous transfer mode switch of claim 39 wherein the translation circuitry determines the different service categories using layer 4 internet protocol data.

43. An asynchronous transfer mode switch comprising translation circuitry for translating a plurality of frame relay packets into asynchronous transfer mode cells having an address responsive to layer 3 internet protocol data contained within a user data field of the frame relay packets

44. An asynchronous transfer mode switch comprising translation circuitry for translating a plurality of frame relay packets into asynchronous transfer mode cells having an address responsive to layer 4 internet protocol data contained within a user data field of the frame relay packets

45. A fast packet network having a node, said node including error checking circuitry for determining routing errors by comparing an address of a fast packet with layer 3 internet protocol data contained within the fast packet.

46. A multi-layer asynchronous transfer mode switch having separate routing tables for each of a plurality of service categories.

47. The multi-layer switch of claim 46 wherein the routing tables are separated based on customer.

48. The multi-layer switch of claim 46 wherein the routing tables are separated based on data link connection identifiers.

49. A network comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of frame relay frames, each frame relay frame having a data link connection identifier, wherein at least one data link connection identifier is associated with a service category; and

means for associating a data link connection identifier with a virtual network path according to the service category with which the data link connection identifier is associated.

50. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of frame relay frames at an asynchronous transfer mode switch in a mesh network; and

transmitting at least a portion of the frames over at least one of a plurality of virtual networks, each of said virtual networks representing different service classes, each of said service classes being associated with a data link connection identifier.

51. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of frame relay frames at an asynchronous transfer mode switch in a mesh network; and

transmitting at least a portion of the frames over one of a plurality of virtual networks responsive to internet protocol information contained in at least one of the frame relay frames.