Network Availability Enhancement Technique for Packet Transport Networks

• US 20080279103A1
• Filed: 06/27/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Dunbar, Linda, Sultan, Robert, Yong, Lucy
• Granted Patent: US 8,472,325 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• 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 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A packet communications network that transports a plurality of traffic over a plurality of server transport paths from a source to a destination, the network comprising: using a load distribution method to distribute each instance of traffic to an individual transport path, thereby avoiding reordering at the destination; enabling all the transport paths to carry the traffic; allowing the network to provision a preferred traffic distribution through a policy setting; and redistributing the traffic when a condition on one of the transport paths changes. Also disclosed is a composite transport group component comprising: a processor configured to implement a method comprising: receiving a server trail failure notification message; and performing a dynamic redistribution of traffic over a plurality of server trails, thereby transporting substantially all of the traffic associated with a class of traffic transported over the server trail associated with the server trail failure notification message.

Claims

1. A packet communications network that transports a plurality of client traffic over a plurality of server transport paths from a source to a destination, the network comprising:

using a load distribution method to distribute each instance of client traffic to an individual transport path, thereby avoiding reordering at the destination;

enabling all the transport paths to carry the client traffic and protect each other;

allowing the network to provision a preferred client traffic distribution through a policy setting; and

redistributing the client traffic when a condition on one of the transport paths changes.

2. The network of claim 1 wherein a composite transport group is used to maintain a mapping relationship between the client traffic and the transport paths.

3. The network of claim 1 wherein some of the transport paths may have different transport capacities and/or transport types and can be routed diversely through the communication network

4. The network of claim 1 wherein some of the client traffic may have different types and/or different rates, and wherein some of the client traffic can be associated with different kinds of service profiles defined by at least one service provider.

5. The network of claim 1 wherein a redistribution method is applied when the condition changes so that client traffic can be restored or transport paths can protected among each other as a group.

6. A composite transport group component comprising:

a processor configured to implement a method comprising;

receiving a server trail failure notification message; and

performing a dynamic path redistribution of client traffic over a plurality of server trails, thereby transporting substantially all of the client traffic associated with a class of client traffic transported over the server trail associated with the server trail failure notification message.

7. The component of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises:

updating a server trail table comprising data associated with the server trails.

8. The component of claim 7 wherein the method further comprises:

updating the server trail status to out of service in the server trail table when a fault occurs in the server trail, thereby indicating that the server trail may no longer transport client traffic until repaired.

9. The component of claim 6 wherein a client profile table is used to perform the redistribution.

10. The component of claim 6 wherein performing the dynamic path redistribution comprises changing the client traffic from the failed server trail to another server trail, wherein the capacity of the other server trail can accommodate the amount of forwarded client traffic.

11. The component of claim 6 wherein performing the dynamic path redistribution comprises changing the client traffic from the failed server trail to another server trail and dropping some of the existing client traffic from the other server trail when the capacity of the other server trail cannot accommodate the amount of forwarded client traffic.

25. The component of claim 6 wherein at least one server trail comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links.

12. A method comprising:

maintaining a client profile table comprising data associated with a plurality of client traffic entering a connection-oriented network;

maintaining a server trail table comprising data associated with a plurality of server trails that transport the client traffic across the network;

monitoring the server trails to determine when a fault occurs;

redistributing the client traffic over the server trails when the fault occurs; and

updating the server trail table to reflect the fault and redistribution of client traffic.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving a path failure message, and sending the path failure message to an ingress edge node.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the path failure message is an alarm indication signal message.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the path failure message is a remote defect indication message.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the client traffic with the highest priority is redistributed over the server trails when the fault occurs.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the client traffic with the smallest capacity is redistributed over the server trails when the fault occurs.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the client traffic with the longest time is redistributed over the server trails when the fault occurs.

26. The method of claim 12 wherein at least one server trail comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links.

19. A communications system comprising:

a first edge node and a second edge node;

a plurality of paths that transport traffic between the first edge node and the second edge node, one of the paths comprising an aggregated link;

wherein upon an occurrence of a partial fault in the path with the aggregated link, one of the edge nodes determines whether a reduced path capacity is unacceptable, and upon determining that the reduced path capacity is unacceptable, at least some of the traffic from the path with partial fault is transferred to the other paths.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the partial fault is unacceptable when the reduced path capacity is less than a provisioned path capacity.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the partial fault is detected by analyzing the packet drop rate for the paths.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the path with the partial fault remains in service after the partial fault is detected and transports traffic up to the reduced path capacity.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the capacity of the paths are not equal.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein the system consolidates multiple partial fault messages on the path, wherein a defect indication message specifies a single capacity reduction.