Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service

• US 20070291716A1
• Filed: 05/13/2005
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: L & M Data Communications, Morales Barroso
• Original Assignee: L & M Data Communications, Morales Barroso
• Inventors: Morales Barroso, Jose
• Granted Patent: US 7,710,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks

Abstract

We describe a universal Ethernet telecommunications service (UETS) that combines the features of the telephone network, local area networks and the Internet in order to offer integrated broadband services by re-using the infrastructure of the telephone and electrical networks. User-network communication extends the Ethernet local network services to the infrastructure of the operator in the “Ethernet domain”, which is distinguished from the Internet “IP domain”. The access device offers packet telephone service, with power supply over the telephone pairs, which guarantees the emergency call through the exchange being provided with a battery and power control for energy saving. Terminals are also defined with a simple supervisor to support the applications used in the Internet, which communicate via the Ethernet domain with the LLC/MAC or TCP/IP protocols and via the IP domain with the TCP/IP protocols.

Claims

1. Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service, amenable for application to communication relating to voice telephone networks, local area networks, packet telephony, broadband services, data transmission via an electrical network and Internet, that extends an Ethernet local area network to infrastructure of telecom operators and service providers in an “

Ethernet domain”

, comprising;

a) a Terminator of Universal Ethernet Network (TRUE) (101, 103), for facilitating access to the Ethernet local area network;

b) an extension of the Ethernet local area network to the infrastructure of telecom operators and the service providers in the “

Ethernet domain”

, by means of utilization of local MAC addresses, indicated with a U/L bit fixed to one, assigned to every physical interface in order that switching could be done directly by means of any one of Banyan, Benes, or Batcher switching matrices;

c) a Terminal Universal Ethernet (TUE), comprising one of a specific device and software designed to run on a computer, and that will use protocols based in IEEE 802.2 LLC for transport in the Ethernet domain, and

d) an exchange for the universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service (105), wherein for local MAC frames, (bit U/L=1), logical and physical network addresses coincide, not needing additional tables because a destination address carries routing information, designed with levels of quality and reliability required for the telecommunications service, applying a necessary degree of redundancy both in hardware and at protocol level.

2. Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service according to claim 1, wherein said Terminator of Universal Ethernet Network (TRUE) (101, 103), for facilitating access to the network, comprises:

at least one connection by means of a telephone pair (102) to a universal digital telecommunications service, which uses an Ethernet technique for transmission at speeds ranging from 2 megabits per second to 100 megabits per second over telephone pairs (102), in duplex mode, with power supply from the exchange via the pair (102);

at least one output interface over the telephone pair, for connecting analogue telephones or other TRUE devices (210, 208), either over data pairs according to the IEEE 802.3 standard with power supply over the pairs according to the IEEE 802.3af standard (207), wireless systems (209) in accordance with the specifications of the IEEE 802.11 standards and the Wi-Fi alliance or to the PLC type electrical network (204) with 802.3 encapsulation;

a power control device for energy saving, which enables transmission and equipment switching elements to be placed in low consumption mode when links are inactive over a certain period of time;

operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) facilities according to standard IEEE 802.3ah for the Ethernet links, which permit remote management by operators and services suppliers;

an internal Ethernet frame switch (205) that will permit connection of various network elements and interfaces comprising the universal network terminator (101, 103) wherein, priorities will be applied in the following order;

top priority for traffic with local addressing MAC, medium priority for LLC Type 2 traffic and minimum priority for the rest and at least VLAN, multicast and traffic filtering to the access network functions will be included;

a telephone based on Ethernet or IP packet technology for transmission over a telephone circuit, which due to its features may transport at the same time voice, data and image, with call signalling based on one of a plurality of international standards, comprising, IETF SIP or ITU H.323, connected to the internal Ethernet frame switch (205) and powered from the connection to the universal digital telecommunications service, which assures operation of the emergency call service with same levels of service as classic analogue telephony, and

an optional power source, with a battery (204).

3. Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service according to claim 1, wherein the extension of the Ethernet local network to the infrastructure of the operators and services suppliers in the “

Ethernet domain”

(100), comprises;

the distinction and isolation of the Ethernet domain, in which applications use IEEE 802.2 LLC protocols, and an IP domain (111), in which applications use TCP (314), UDP (313) or IP (312) protocols in their versions 4 or 6 (IP and IPv6);

the delivery of local broadband services to users in the Ethernet domain by means of connections set up with different types of LLC/MAC or TCP/IP protocol, in accordance with features of each class of traffic;

the identification of the services in the Ethernet domain by means of a combination of the MAC 802.3 addresses and the LLC fields in order to apply congestion control mechanisms based on three priority levels;

the use of two registers for six-octet MAC addresses, one of them not open to modification containing the universal MAC address, corresponding to a manufacturer of the equipment, and the other optional for the local MAC address configurable by software, which will permit identification of the equipment within the bounds of the Ethernet domain and application of flow control techniques based on prioritising traffic with the local MAC and type 2 LLC in respect of that of universal MAC and LLC in non-connected mode, applying mechanisms similar to those described in IETF RFC2581 for “

TCP congestion control”

, for which it will be necessary to add to the LLC protocol, the selective rejection of frames for performing the function equivalent to rapid retransmission by the TCP double ACK;

connectivity with other networks to extend basic services, comprising connectively with Internet networks by means of the TCP/IP protocol stack, with MPLS networks for establishment of tunnels that interconnect different Ethernet domains and SDH transmission networks so as to establish digital circuits for carrying Ethernet frames, and

the possibility that the infrastructure of one operator may support multiple service suppliers by means of VLAN techniques or by locally administered MAC addresses, indicated by the U/L bit fixed to 1, using the Banyan, Benes, or Batcher switching matrices, which will route the MAC frames with local addresses high priority ones, assigned to each physical interface so that the switching may be done by hardware, without need of tables.

4. Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service according to claim 1, wherein the Universal Ethernet Terminal (101, 103) comprises:

an Ethernet network interface over telephone pair (208), data pairs, optical fiber (207), wireless system (209) or to the electrical network (204), wherein in case of connection over the telephone pair the same techniques will be used as for the universal Ethernet network terminator (101, 103), in the case of data pairs the Ethernet network interface will be used for a 802.3af standard power supply and a power control mechanism will be added for energy saving;

a standard browser used for the Internet, in accordance with the specifications, guidelines, software, and tools defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and all applications that are normally used in this environment;

a file handler that is capable of collecting and delivering information needed for operation of the applications (301) that run in the terminal on the browser interface and which is in the Ethernet or IP domains, wherein LLC types 1 (309), 2 (310) and 3 (311) protocols for the Ethernet domain and TCP (314), UDP (313) and IP (312) protocols in the IP domain will be used as main transport mechanisms;

a device for user identification with authentication and certification capabilities, based on a SIM/USIM type card of those used in mobile telephony services, in a key with connection to USB or in an equivalent device;

capability for supplying power over the pairs (102), both in the case of telephone and data pairs, and

terminals intended only for generating traffic when they are being used or when essential for the management, operation or maintenance procedures.

5. Universal Ethernet Telecommunications Service according to claim 1, wherein the universal Ethernet telecommunications service exchange (101, 103) comprises:

capabilities for switching and routing at link layer by combination of the Ethernet MAC address and the LLC fields, in which priorities will be applied in the following order;

high priority for local addressing MAC traffic, medium priority for LLC Type 2 traffic and minimum priority for the rest;

at least one Ethernet frame switches, for most powerful machines, based on Banyan, Benes, Batcher switching matrices, which will route the MAC frames with local addresses, high priority ones, assigned to each physical interface so that the switching may be done by hardware with a mechanism analogous to that used in ATM, and another mandatory one, in accordance with IEEE 802.1 specifications, which will take care of the MAC frames with universal addresses and the local ones if there is no matrix switch;

an input selector for handling priorities and congestion control, which routes the local MAC frames to the matrix switch and the universal MAC frames to the conventional Ethernet switch, and which should be capable of returning LLC Type 2 protocol flow control frames if thresholds are exceeded that are defined in each case for the execution of control of congestion towards the terminal;

handling of VLANs, multicast support at the MAC and IP levels, service quality and security with the detection system and intrusion blocking at the MAC level, which prevents users from being able to make layer 2 attacks in the Ethernet domain (100);

power supply over the pairs (102) at the connections by copper cables, power control at interface level and at complete system level, and battery;

connections by means of telephone pair (208), data pairs (207), electrical network cables (204), optical fibers (207) or wireless systems (209), and

the interface needed for IP networks IP (111) and the Internet, with firewall and intrusion detection system at IP level (IDS) and translation of addresses (NAT) and optional interfaces to MPLS (112) and SDH (113) networks.