Software control plane for switches and routers

• US 20080219268A1
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Dennison, Larry R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• 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 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/308 Route determination based on user's profile, e.g. premium users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/56 Routing software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/655 Interaction between route computation entities and forwarding entities, e.g. for route determination or for flow table update
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2425 for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA

Abstract

A Provider Network Controller (PNC) addresses the challenges in building services across Next Generation Network (NGN) architectures and creates an abstraction layer as a bridge, or glue, between the network transport and applications running over it. The PNC is a multi-layer, multi-vendor dynamic control plane that implements service activation and Layer 0-2 management tools for multiple transport technologies including Carrier Ethernet, Provider Backbone Transport (PBT), Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS), Transport MPLS (T-MPLS), optical and integrated networking platforms. Decoupling transport controls and services from the network equipment simplifies service creation and provides options for carriers to choose best-in-class equipment that leverages the PNC to enable rapid creation and management of transports and services. The PNC provides Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) interfaces to abstract transport objects expressly designed to support both wholesale and retail services, and supports service offerings with varied bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, thus achieving enterprise Ethernet economics.

Claims

1. A method of controlling services in a communications network, the method comprising by means of a software control plane control system:

storing information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network, and traffic engineering rules and network policies governing the communications network;

defining services to be implemented on the communications network;

computing communications paths according to the stored information to implement the defined services;

programming hardware endpoints along the computed communications paths to establish the communications paths in the communications network;

monitoring programmed hardware endpoints and communications connections along the computed communications paths and updating the stored information; and

recomputing communications paths and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to adapt the communications paths according to changes in the stored information and services to ensure implementation of the services.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network is a multi-layer, mutli-service, multi-vendor or multi-carrier communications network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the paths include tunnels.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network includes capacity, utilization and performance metrics.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the services are defined by attributes, the method further comprising:

storing attributes defining the services to be implemented on the network; and

computing communications paths according to the attributes to implement the defined services.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the attributes defining services include service performance, including frame latency, delay variation and loss ratio, and bandwidth profile.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising recomputing communications paths and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to adapt the communications paths according to changes in the attributes of the defined services to ensure implementation of the services.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein computing communications paths further comprises optimizing hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network according to quality of service and per-class bandwidth constraints.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein computing communications paths includes computing backup communications paths that are fully-redundant from the computed communications paths.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein programming hardware endpoints along the computed communications paths includes overriding normal behaviors of the hardware endpoints.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring programmed hardware endpoints and communications connections along the computed communications paths further comprises monitoring for network faults, overloads or path optimization.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein recomputing the communications paths and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths restores communications paths in the communications network in the event of a failure of at least one of the communications connections in the computed communications paths.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications connections have underlying communications protocols, the method further comprising:

emulating the underlying communications protocol of computed communications paths using communications connections in the communications network having underlying communications protocols different from the underlying communications protocol of the communications paths.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein recomputing the communications paths and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths optimizes the communications path for each service in the communications network according to the stored information.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein recomputing the communications paths includes dynamically adjusting associated restoration time constants of the communications paths according to the respective restoration time constants of the communications connections of the recomputed communications paths.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein recomputing the communications paths includes recomputing according to an economic or social value associated with the communications paths.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising migrating services from the computed path to the recomputed path.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein migrating services from the computed path to the recomputed path allows maintenance of hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network without disruption to services.

20. A software control plane network controller configured to control services in a communications network, the services defined to be implemented on the communications network, the network controller comprising:

a database configured to store information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network, and traffic engineering rules and network policies governing the communications network; and

a path computation module configured to compute communications paths according to the stored information to implement the defined services, program hardware endpoints along the computed communications paths to establish the communications paths in the communications network, monitor programmed hardware endpoints and communications connections along the computed communications paths and update the stored information, and recompute communications paths and reprogram hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to adapt the communications paths according to changes in the stored information and services to ensure implementation of the services.

21. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the communications network is a multi-layer, mutli-service, multi-vendor or multi-carrier communications network.

22. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the paths include tunnels.

23. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

24. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network includes capacity, utilization and performance metrics.

25. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to compute communications paths according to attributes stored in a database, the attributes defining the services to be implemented on the network.

26. The network controller of claim 25 wherein the attributes defining services include service performance, including frame latency, delay variation and loss ratio, and bandwidth profile.

27. The network controller of claim 25 wherein the path computation module is further configured to compute communications paths and reprogram hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to adapt the communications paths according to changes in the attributes of the defined services to ensure implementation of the services.

28. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to optimize hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network according to quality of service and per-class bandwidth constraints.

29. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to compute backup communications paths that are fully-redundant from the computed communications paths.

30. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to program hardware endpoints along the computed communications paths by overriding normal behaviors of the hardware endpoints.

31. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to monitor programmed hardware endpoints and communications connections along the computed communications paths for network faults, overloads or path optimization.

32. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to recompute the communications paths and reprogram hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to restore communications paths in the communications network in the event of a failure of at least one of the communications connections in the computed communications paths.

33. The network controller of claim 32, the communications connections having underlying communications protocols, wherein the path computation module is further configured to emulate the underlying communications protocol of computed communications paths using communications connections in the communications network having underlying communications protocols different from the underlying communications protocol of the communications path.

34. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to recompute the communications paths and reprogram hardware endpoints along the recomputed communications paths to optimize the communications path for each service in the communications network according to the stored information.

35. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to dynamically adjust associated restoration time constants of the communications paths according to the respective restoration time constants of the communications connections of the recomputed communications paths.

36. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the path computation module is further configured to recompute the communications paths according to an economic or social value associated with the communications paths.

37. The network controller of claim 20 wherein the network controller is further configured to migrate services from the computed path to the recomputed path.

38. The network controller of claim 37 wherein the network controller is further configured to migrate services to allow maintenance of hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network without disruption to services.

39. A method of restoring communications tunnels in a communications network, the method comprising by means of a software control plane control system:

storing information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network;

computing communications tunnels according to the stored information;

programming hardware endpoints along the computed communications tunnels to establish the communications tunnels in the communications network;

detecting failures in hardware endpoints and communications connections along the communications tunnels; and

allocating new communications tunnels and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the new communications tunnels to restore the communications tunnels.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

41. The method of claim 39 wherein programming hardware endpoints along the computed communications tunnels includes overriding normal behaviors of the hardware endpoints.

42. The method of claim 39 wherein the communications tunnels have underlying communications protocols, the method further comprising:

emulating the underlying communications protocol of computed communications tunnels using new communications tunnels in the communications network having underlying communications protocols different from the underlying communications protocol of the communications tunnels.

43. The method of claim 39 wherein allocating new communications tunnels and reprogramming hardware endpoints along the new communications tunnels optimizes the communications tunnels according to the stored information.

44. The method of claim 39 further comprising migrating services from the computed communications tunnels to the new communications tunnels.

45. A software control plane network controller configured to restore communications tunnels in a communications network, the network controller comprising:

a database configured to store information about hardware endpoints and communications connections in the communications network; and

a path computation module configured to compute communications tunnels according to the stored information, program hardware endpoints along the computed communications tunnels to establish the communications tunnels in the communications network, detect failures in hardware endpoints and communications connections along the communications tunnels, and allocate new communications tunnels and reprogram hardware endpoints along the new communications tunnels to restore the communications tunnels.

46. The network controller of claim 45 wherein the hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

47. The network controller of claim 45 wherein the path computation module is further configured to program hardware endpoints along the computed communications tunnels includes by overriding normal behaviors of the hardware endpoints.

48. The network controller of claim 45, the communications tunnels having underlying communications protocol, wherein the path computation module is further configured to emulate the underlying communications protocol of computed communications tunnels using communications tunnels in the communications network having underlying communications protocols different from the underlying communications protocol of the communications tunnels.

49. The network controller of claim 45 wherein the path computation modules is further configured to allocate new communications tunnels and reprogram hardware endpoints along the new communications tunnels to optimize the communications tunnels according to the stored information.

50. The network controller of claim 45 wherein the network controller is further configured to migrate services from the computed communications tunnels to the new communications tunnels.

51. A method for restoring communication tunnels in a network, the method comprising:

storing information about multiple existing communication tunnels;

allocating multiple new communication tunnels in the event of failure of at least one of the multiple existing communication tunnels based on the stored information, each new tunnel having multiple hardware endpoints; and

connecting the multiple new tunnels by directly programming the multiple hardware endpoints.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein the multiple hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

53. The method of claim 51 wherein directly programming the multiple hardware endpoints includes overriding normal routing behaviors.

54. A method for emulating communication tunnels in a network, the method comprising:

allocating a communication tunnel having a first underlying communication protocol and multiple hardware endpoints; and

connecting the tunnel to other communication tunnels having underlying communication protocols different than the first protocol by directly programming the multiple hardware endpoints.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein the multiple hardware endpoints include switches and routers.

56. The method of claim 54 wherein directly programming the multiple hardware endpoints includes overriding normal routing behaviors.