Systems and methods to support quality of service in communications networks
First Claim
1. A method of communication for a plurality of software applications over a wide-area packet-switched network, wherein the packet-switched network communicates via a best-efforts protocol operating on a first layer of the packet-switched network, and a label switching protocol operating on a second layer of the packet-switched network, the method comprising:
- at one or more nodes in the wide-area packet-switched network, classifying packets traversing through the one or more nodes into a plurality of microflows, the classifying packets further including detecting identifying signatures for the packets, mapping the signatures to the plurality of microflows;
mapping in real-time the plurality of microflows to a plurality of label-switched paths, the label-switch paths generated by the label switching protocol, mapping the plurality of microflows further including determining a current status of each of the plurality of label-switched paths, for each micro-flow from the plurality of micro-flows, determining a rule applicable to the micro-flow, wherein the rule specifies one or more network characteristics for the microflow, and comparing the rule applicable to the micro-flow to the current status of each of the plurality of label-switched paths to select a label-switched path from the plurality of label-switched paths on which to forward the microflow.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for supporting Quality of Service assurances for communication by and between software applications over a best-efforts networks. Characteristic signatures are generated and referenced to segregate traffic on the network into discrete flows. Traffic engineering protocols, such as MPLS, are used to generate discrete paths in the best-efforts network, and flows are routed on such paths based on pre-set policies. The state of individual paths and the network at large are continuously monitored in order to re-map flows on paths and maintain the QoS assurances.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of communication for a plurality of software applications over a wide-area packet-switched network, wherein the packet-switched network communicates via a best-efforts protocol operating on a first layer of the packet-switched network, and a label switching protocol operating on a second layer of the packet-switched network, the method comprising:
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at one or more nodes in the wide-area packet-switched network, classifying packets traversing through the one or more nodes into a plurality of microflows, the classifying packets further including detecting identifying signatures for the packets, mapping the signatures to the plurality of microflows;
mapping in real-time the plurality of microflows to a plurality of label-switched paths, the label-switch paths generated by the label switching protocol, mapping the plurality of microflows further including determining a current status of each of the plurality of label-switched paths, for each micro-flow from the plurality of micro-flows, determining a rule applicable to the micro-flow, wherein the rule specifies one or more network characteristics for the microflow, and comparing the rule applicable to the micro-flow to the current status of each of the plurality of label-switched paths to select a label-switched path from the plurality of label-switched paths on which to forward the microflow. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A node on a packet-switched network, the packet-switched network in communication via a label-switching protocol, the node comprising:
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one or more interfaces coupled to the packet-switched network;
a plurality of label-switched paths coupling the node to one or more destination nodes, wherein node is in communication with the one or more destination nodes via the label-switching protocol over the packet-switched network, wherein the node is operative to monitor a current status network performance of the plurality of label-switched paths in real-time;
one or more tables identifying a plurality of micro-flows traversing the packet-switched network via the node, the one or more micro-flows including network traffic to the one or more destination nodes for a distinct software application from a plurality of software applications, each of the plurality of software applications having a distinct service-level requirement, the distinct service-level requirement including one or more of;
a bandwidth requirement and a priority amongst the plurality of software applications;
wherein the node is further operative to re-map the plurality of micro-flows to the plurality of label-switched paths periodically based on the distinct service-level requirement of each of the plurality of software applications and the current network performance of the plurality of label-switched paths. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification