Method and system for automatically rerouting logical circuit data in a data network

• US 20050135237A1
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, William, Massengill, David, Hollingsworth, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,199,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5601 Transfer mode dependent, e.g. ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5627 Fault tolerance and recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• 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 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines

Abstract

A method and system are provided for automatically rerouting logical circuit data in a data network. A failure is identified in a logical circuit in a data network. The logical circuit may include a communication path for communicating data. Once the failure in the logical circuit is determined, a logical failover circuit is then identified. The logical failover circuit includes an alternate communication path for communicating the data for the failed logical circuit. After the logical failover circuit has been identified, the data from the failed logical circuit is rerouted to the logical failover circuit without manual intervention. After the data has been rerouted the logical failover circuit, a determination is made as to whether the failure in the logical circuit has been corrected. If it is determined that the failure in the logical circuit has been corrected, then the data from the logical failover circuit is rerouted back to the logical circuit in the data network without manual intervention.

Claims

11-1. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical failover circuit is a permanent virtual circuit.

15. A system for automatically rerouting logical circuit data in a data network, the system comprising:

a network device for communicating status information for a logical circuit in the data network;

a logical element module, in communication with the network device, for receiving the status information for the logical circuit in the data network; and

a network management module, in communication with the logical element module, for;

receiving the status information for the logical circuit;

determining a failure of the logical circuit based on the status information;

identifying a logical failover circuit;

rerouting the data from the logical circuit to the logical failover circuit without manual intervention;

after rerouting the data to the logical failover circuit, communicating with the logical element module to determine whether the failure in the logical circuit has been corrected; and

if the failure in the logical circuit has been corrected, then rerouting the data from the logical failover circuit to the logical circuit in the data network without manual intervention.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the logical circuit comprises at least one logical connection.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the logical failover circuit comprises at least one currently unused logical connection in the data network.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the network management module determines a failure in the at least one logical connection to determine the logical circuit failure.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the logical circuit is identified by a first logical circuit identifier in the data network.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the logical failover circuit is identified by a second logical identifier in the data network.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the network management module renames the first logical circuit identifier identifying the logical circuit to the second logical circuit identifier identifying the logical failover circuit prior to rerouting the data from the logical circuit to the logical failover circuit.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the first logical circuit identifier is a data link connection identifier (DLCI).

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the first logical circuit identifier is a virtual path/virtual circuit identifier (VPI/VCI).

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one unused logical connection comprises a network-to-network interface.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the logical failover circuit is a permanent virtual circuit.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the logical failover circuit is a switched virtual circuit.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein the data network is a frame relay network.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein the data network is an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network.