DIFFERENTIAL FORWARDING IN ADDRESS-BASED CARRIER NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A method of identifying data packets to be transported through a connection in an Ethernet-based carrier network providing communications services to customers, the method comprising the steps of:
- storing association data associating;
a customer attachment interface terminating a customer service, anda connection in the network, the connection being defined by a combination of a MAC address and an identifier;
identifying data packets as corresponding to the customer service; and
using the association data to identify the data packets as being for transport through the connection.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to enabling differential forwarding in address-based carrier networks such as Ethernet networks. There is described a method of and connection controller for establishing connections (76, 77) in a frame-based communications network comprising nodes (71-75 and 78) such as Ethernet switches. The connections are established by configuring, in various of the nodes, mappings for forwarding data frames, such as Ethernet frames. The mappings are from a combination of a) a destination (or source) address corresponding to a destination (or source) node (73) of the connection and b) an identifier, such as a VLAN tag. The mappings are to selected output ports of the various nodes. By using the combination of destination (or source) address AND identifier, the mappings enable data frames belonging to different connections (76, 77) to be forwarded differentially (ie forwarded on different output ports) at a node (75) despite the different connections having the same destination node. This enables flexibility in routing connections and the ability to perform traffic engineering.
58 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of identifying data packets to be transported through a connection in an Ethernet-based carrier network providing communications services to customers, the method comprising the steps of:
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storing association data associating; a customer attachment interface terminating a customer service, and a connection in the network, the connection being defined by a combination of a MAC address and an identifier; identifying data packets as corresponding to the customer service; and using the association data to identify the data packets as being for transport through the connection. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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11. A node for use in an Ethernet-based carrier network providing communications services to customers and arranged to identify data packets to be transported through a connection in the network, the node comprising:
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a data store storing association data associating; a customer attachment interface terminating a customer service, and a connection in the network, the connection being defined by a combination of a MAC address and an identifier; a processor arranged to identify data packets as corresponding to the customer service; and a processor arranged to identify the data packets as being for transport through the connection using the association data. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification