System and method for supporting automatic protection switching between multiple node pairs using common agent architecture
First Claim
1. A communication system with an active node and a standby node forming a node pair, each node with a node agent and a heartbeat monitor, the improvement comprising a reliable datalink between heartbeat monitors of the node pair and wherein the node agent is a common agent.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for a computer system is used for implementing an extended distributed recovery block fault tolerance scheme. The computer system includes a supervisory node, an active node and a standby node. Each of the nodes has a primary routine, an alternate routine and an acceptance test for testing the output of the routines. Each node also includes a device driver, a monitor and a node manager for determining the operational configuration of the node as well as a common agent, the common agent being a hybrid software agent comprising both the characteristics of an EDRB model and a virtual circuit state machine, wherein the attachment objects of the agent are identical regardless of where instances of the agent are located. The supervisory node acts as an arbitrator and coordinates the operation of the active and standby nodes. A reliable data link extends between the monitors of the active and standby nodes.
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Citations
28 Claims
- 1. A communication system with an active node and a standby node forming a node pair, each node with a node agent and a heartbeat monitor, the improvement comprising a reliable datalink between heartbeat monitors of the node pair and wherein the node agent is a common agent.
- 11. A communication system with at least one active node and at least one standby node, forming a node set, each node with a node agent and a heartbeat monitor, the improvement comprising a reliable data link between the heartbeat monitor of each active node and the heartbeat monitor of a corresponding standby node selected from the node set by an arbitration node.
- 21. In a communication system with at least one active node and at least one standby node forming a node set, each node with a node agent, the improvement of supporting automatic protection switching between the at least one active node and a corresponding one of the at least one standby node of the node set-using common Agent architecture wherein the node agent is a common agent.
Specification