Method for automatically discovering a bus system in a multipoint transport network, multipoint transport network and network node

• US 20070115854A1
• Filed: 10/23/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bunse, Stephan
• Granted Patent: US 7,764,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40169 Flexible bus arrangements arrangements for maintenance or administration involving management of faults; events, alarms H04L41/06; automatic restoration of network faults H04L41/0654
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A method for automatically discovering a bus system in a multipoint transport network is described, wherein the individual nodes of this network at first discover those conditions, which are directly accessible to them and then exchange and acknowledge said conditions along said bus. Furthermore a multipoint transport network to be used to execute said method, plus a network node to be used in such a multipoint transport network is described.

Claims

1. A method for automatically discovering a bus system in a multipoint transport network, wherein the individual nodes of this network at first discover those conditions, which are directly accessible to them and then exchange and acknowledge said conditions along said bus.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that each node after discovering its conditions provides information comprising those conditions at least to the proximate nodes, wherein each node that has been provided with such information provides its proximate nodes with information comprising the conditions of that particular node plus the conditions of all nodes information has been received from.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that exchanging information follows a hierarchy beginning at the first node within said bus system.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that each node acknowledges said information the very moment information comprising conditions of other nodes has been received.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein discovery of the conditions of the nodes takes place in the control plane.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that to discover the conditions of at least one potential connection between the nodes the data plane is checked against the control plane.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that a test signal is placed to gain a relation between the termination functions and the corresponding termination connection points, wherein the relations between the connection points of the MTN bus are derived by using local knowledge about the status of the adaptation functions.

8. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that to establish a bus system in said multipoint transport network, the link management protocol of the control plane is used.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the MTN bus is realized in a GFP layer that is set upon an ODU layer.

10. A multipoint transport network for carrying out the method according to claim 1, comprising means to automatically discover the conditions of the nodes along the bus and means to exchange information between said nodes, wherein said information comprises said conditions.

11. A network node for a multipoint transport network according to claim 10, comprising means to discover its conditions, means to receive similar information from other nodes and means to provide other nodes within said multipoint transport network with information comprising at least the conditions discovered and the information received.