Method and apparatus for forwarding of telecommunications traffic

• US 20040062251A1
• Filed: 09/22/2003
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Johansson, Johan, Lindholm, Ake, Kling, Lars-Orjan
• Granted Patent: US 7,369,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.52
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/663 Transport layer addresses, e.g. aspects of transmission control protocol [TCP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] ports
• 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 45/60 Router architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/602 Multilayer or multiprotocol switching, e.g. IP switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/12 Protocol engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0045 involving hybrid, i.e. a mixture of public and private, or multi-vendor systems

Abstract

The present invention relates to a telecommunications node (1a) that is able to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic, which node includes means for simple and effective load distribution between resources (40-43) in the node. The inventive telecommunications node (1a) includes board internal IP-subnets (45, 46) with associated subnet interfaces (45a, 46a) having interface addresses and a distributed forwarding engine structure where every device board (10, 11a, 12a) associated with the handling of IP-traffic is provided with a forwarding engine (20-22). Each board internal IP-subnet (45, 46) is associated with at least one predetermined node resource (40-43) for processing telecommunications traffic, thereby enabling a resource manager (49) to perform load distribution by ordering a destination address for a selected stream of IP-traffic, which is to terminate in the node, to be based on the interface address associated with a selected board internal IP-subnet (45, 46).

Claims

1. A telecommunications node with the ability to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic, which node includes

a backplane, which is able to switch IP-packets,

at least two device boards, which are connected to the backplane and are associated with the handling of IP-traffic,

at least one resource for processing telecommunications traffic,

a resource manager, and

a distributed forwarding engine functionality, characterized in that the forwarding engine functionality is distributed such that each of said at least two device boards are provided with a forwarding engine;

in that at least a first device board of said at least two device boards is further provided with at least a first resource of the at least one resource and at least one board internal IP-subnet, having an associated IP subnet address and at least a first associated IP interface address, which IP interface address is based on said IP subnet address, which board internal IP-subnet is associated with the at least one resource; and

in that the resource manager is arranged to perform load distribution within the node by determining that a destination address of a first telecommunications traffic stream is to be based on the IP subnet address associated with the board internal IP-subnet.

2. The telecommunications node of claim 1, characterized in that the first device board further includes at least one board internal IP-host, associated with an IP host address, which IP host address also is associated with the board internal IP-subnet and which is based on the IP subnet address, which board internal IP-host is associated with said board internal IP-subnet and said first resource.

3. The telecommunications node of claim 2, characterized in that the resource manager is arranged to determine that the destination address is to be based on the IP host address.

4. The telecommunications node of any of claims 2-3, characterized in that the board internal IP-host includes said first resource.

5. The telecommunications node of any of claims 1-4, characterized in that at least the forwarding engine of said first device board includes at least two forwarding engine instances.

6. The telecommunications node of claim 5, characterized in that the first resource is a tunnel termination device, with an input and an output, which input is associated with a first forwarding engine instance of said at least two forwarding engine instances, and which output is associated with a second forwarding engine instance of said at least two forwarding engine instances.

7. The telecommunications node of any of claims 1-6, characterized in that the node is a Media Gateway.

8. The telecommunications node of any of claims 1-6, characterized in that the node is an IP-router.

9. The telecommunications node of any of claims 1-6, characterized in that the node is a combined Media Gateway and IP-router.

14. The method of any of claims 1-13, characterized by the second forwarding engine including at least a first and a second forwarding engine instance and by the first forwarding engine forwarding the at least one IP-packet to the first forwarding engine instance of the second forwarding engine.

15. The method of claim 14, characterized by the first resource being a tunnel termination device, with an input and an output, and by the first forwarding engine instance forwarding the at least one IP-packet to the input of the tunnel termination device.

16. The method of claim 15 characterized by the first stream of telecommunications traffic being a tunnel and by the further steps of

the resource manager also determining a second resource of the node to be appropriate for processing a second stream of telecommunications traffic included in the tunnel;

the resource manager ordering a second destination address of the second stream of telecommunications traffic to be based on a second IP subnet address associated with a second board internal IP-subnet, which is associated with the second resource;

the tunnel termination device processing said at least one IP-packet and outputting to the second forwarding engine instance at least one second IP-packet associated with the second stream of telecommunications traffic;

the second forwarding engine instance forwarding the at least one second IP-packet, via the backplane, based on the second destination address, to a third forwarding engine, located on the same device board as the second resource; and

the third forwarding engine forwarding the at least one second IP-packet to the second IP-subnet for further forwarding to the second resource.

10. A method for load distribution within a telecommunications node, which node is able to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic and which node includes a backplane, which is able to switch IP-packets, and at least two device boards, connected to the backplane, said method including the step of a resource manager of the node determining at least a first resource of the node to be appropriate for processing a first stream of telecommunications traffic, characterized by said method including the further steps of

the resource manager ordering a destination address of said first stream of telecommunications traffic to be based on a first IP subnet address associated with a at least one first board internal IP-subnet, which is located on a first device board of the at least two device boards and which is associated with the first resource;

a first forwarding engine located on a second device board of the at least two device boards receiving at least one IP-packet associated with the first stream of telecommunications traffic and forwarding the at least one IP-packet, via the backplane, based on the destination address, to a second forwarding engine located on the first device board; and

the second forwarding engine forwarding the at least one IP-packet to the first IP-subnet for further forwarding to the first resource.

11. The method of claim 10, characterized by the first device board further including a board internal IP-host, associated with a IP host address, which IP host address also is associated with the board internal IP-subnet and which is based on the IP subnet address, and by forwarding the at least one IP-packet to the first resource via the board internal IP-host.

12. The method of claim 11, characterized by the resource manager ordering the destination address to be based on the IP host address.

13. The method of any of claims 11-12, characterized by the board internal IP-host including the first resource.