ANYCAST ROUTING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING SERVICE FLOW IN INTERNET SYSTEM

• US 20080080513A1
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: JUNG, Hae Won, KANG, Yoo Hwa, KIM, Tae Il
• Application Number:
  US11/861,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20080080513A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

An anycast routing method and apparatus for supporting a consecutive service flow are provided. In the any cast routing method, an anycast service is requested to at least one of the servers, and a packet including a destination option header with an anycast address is received as a response for the anycast service request from at least one of the servers. Then, the anycast address is stored in an anycast cache. The packet is transmitted through an anycast routing operation using the anycast address stored in the anycast cache if data to transmit to the service flow of at least one of the servers is received from an application.

Claims

1. An anycast routing method for guaranteeing a service flow transmitting to at least one of servers in a group in an in a terminal of an IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6) Internet system, comprising:

requesting an anycast service to at least one of the servers;

receiving a packet including an unicast address in a destination option header as a response for the anycast service request from at least one of the servers;

storing the unicast address in an anycast cache; and

transmitting a packet through an unicast routing operation using the unicast address stored in the anycast cache if data to transmit to the service flow is received from an application.

2. The anycast routing method according to claim 1, further comprising transferring data obtained by removing the destination option header in the received packet to the application.

3. The anycast routing method according to anyone of claims 1 and 2, further comprising transmitting consecutive packets to a same server where a previous packet is transmitted to according to a corresponding service flow using the stored unicast address if the consecutive packets are present.

4. The anycast routing method according to claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting the packet through the unicast routing operation includes:

looking up the stored unicast address when the data is received;

exchanging an anycast address of a destination address with the unicast address if it determines that an anycast entry is present based on the looking up result;

inserting a routing header set up with the exchanged anycast address into a packet of the service flow; and

transmitting the packet to the unicast address as a destination.

5. The anycast routing method according to claim 1, wherein the step of requesting the anycast server to at least one of the servers includes:

setting up a destination address of a first packet as an anycast address when the first packet is transmitted to a service flow of at least one of the servers; and

transmitting a packet including the anycast address to at least one of the servers through the anycast routing operation.

6. The anycast routing method according to claim 1, wherein the step of storing the unicast address includes:

mapping the unicast address to a corresponding anycast address; and

storing the unicast address mapped to the anycast address and a protocol port number to identify the service flow into the anycast cache.

7. The anycast routing method according to anyone of claims 6, wherein the unicast address is stored into the anycast cache only when the unicast address is transferred by being included in the destination option header, and the unicast address is removed from the anycast cache when a timer expires or when a service is terminated.

8. The anycast routing method according to claim 1, wherein the unicast address is included in the destination option header and received from at least one of the servers when a service start, and the unicast address is not included in packets received after the service starts.

9. An anycast routing method for guaranteeing a service flow receiving from a terminal in at least one of servers in a group of an IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6) Internet system, comprising:

transmitting a packet having a destination option header setup with a unicast address according to an anycast service request from the terminal;

receiving a packet having a routing header setup with an anycast address from the terminal through a unicast routing operation; and

processing the received packet.

10. The anycast routing method according to claim 9, wherein the step of transmitting the packet having the unicast address in the destination option header includes:

looking up the unicast address when a packet is firstly received through a service flow from the terminal;

adding the looked up unicast address into the destination option header; and

transmitting a packet having the destination option header to the terminal as a response for the service request.

11. The anycast routing method according to claim 9, wherein the step of processing the received packet includes:

exchanging a unicast address included in the received packet with an anycast address of a routing header;

removing the routing header setup with the exchanged unicast address from the received packet; and

transmitting data obtained by removing the routing header from the received packet to an application.

12. The anycast routing method according to claim 9, wherein the unicast address is included in the destination option header and transferred to the terminal when a service starts, and the unicast address is not included in packets after the service starts.

13. An anycast routing apparatus for guaranteeing a service flow transmitting to at least one of servers in a group in a terminal of an IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6) Internet system, comprising:

an anycast cache manager for receiving a packet having a destination option header setup with a unicast address as a response for an anycast service request from at least one of the servers, storing the unicast address in an anycast cache, and removing the unicast address from the anycast cache; and

a routing header generator for looking up the anycast cache to find a corresponding unicast address when receiving data of a service flow to transmit to at least one of the servers and transmitting a packet having a routing header using the corresponding unicast address through a unicast routing operation.

14. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the anycast cache manager transfers data obtained by removing the destination option header from the received packet to the application.

15. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the anycast cache manager transmits consecutive packets to a same server where a previous packet is transmitted to a corresponding service flow using a stored unicast address if the consecutive packets are present.

16. The anycast routing apparatus according to claims 13, wherein the anycast cache manager exchanges an anycast address of a destination address with the unicast address if it determines that an anycast entry is present based on the looking-up result, inserts a routing header setup with the exchanged anycast address into a packet of the service flow, and transmitting the packet of the service flow to a destination of the unicast address through the unicast routing operation.

17. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the anycast cache stores cache information including the unicast address mapped to the anycast address and a protocol port number to identify the service flow.

18. The anycast routing apparatus according to claims 17, wherein the unicast address is stored in the anycast cache only when the unicast address is included in the destination option header and transferred, and the unicast address is removed when a timer expires or when a service is terminated.

19. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the unicast address is added into the destination option header and received from at least one of the servers when a service starts, and the unicast address is not included in to packets after the service starts.

20. An anycast routing apparatus for guaranteeing a service flow receiving from a terminal in at least one of servers in a group of an IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6) Internet system, comprising:

a unicast address transmitter for transmitting a packet having a destination option header setup with a unicast address according to an anycast service request from the terminal; and

a routing header processor for receiving and processing a packet having a routing header setup with an anycast address through a unicast routing operation from the terminal.

21. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the routing header processor exchanges a unicast address of the destination address included in the received packet with an anycast address of a routing header, removes the routing header having the unicast address from the received packet, and transmits data obtained by removing the routing header from the received packet to an application.

22. The anycast routing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the unicast address is included in the destination option header of the packet and transferred to the terminal when a service starts, and the unicast address in not included after the service starts.