INTELLIGENT NETWORK RESTORATION

• US 20090003195A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: PITCHFORTH, Donald JR.
• Granted Patent: US 7,830,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0659 by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A device may isolate a first failure of a network interface that transports packets from one point in a network to another point in the network, may detect a subsequent failure of the interface, and may identify a recovery of the network interface from the subsequent failure. In addition, the device may restore the network interface to the network to enable the interface to transport packets after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to a time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

intelligent wait-to-restore logic, configured to;

receive information about a first failure of a working path for conveying packets in a network;

receive information about a subsequent failure of the working path;

receive information about a recovery of the working path from the subsequent failure; and

instruct a switch to restore the working path to the network after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to a time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the working path includes:

a network interface.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the network interface includes one of:

a synchronous optical network interface, an asynchronous transfer mode interface, or an Ethernet interface.

4. The device of claim 2, further comprising:

an agent that detects and sends the information about the first failure, the subsequent failure, and the recovery of the network interface to the intelligent wait-to-restore logic.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the switch includes:

a switch in a physical layer in Open Systems Interconnection model.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the switch includes:

a route modification logic that restores the working path to the network by modifying a route information base.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

generate a report that includes information about at least one of;

the first failure, the subsequent failure, the recovery, or a network restore; and

send the report to a management system.

8. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

an agent that detects the first failure based on a loss of signal or a loss of frame and sends information about the first failure to an element management system.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

receive instructions to restore the working path to the network from a remote element management system.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

determine the time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the intelligent wait-to-restore logic is further configured to:

replace the working path with a protection path after the first failure of the working path.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the device includes one of:

a router;

or

a synchronous optical network element.

13. A method comprising:

isolating a first failure of a network interface that transports packets from one point in a network to another point in the network;

detecting a subsequent failure of the network interface;

identifying a recovery of the network interface from the subsequent failure; and

restoring the network interface to the network to enable the network interface to transport packets after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to a time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a first recovery of the interface from the first failure.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

notifying an element management system of the first failure.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

measuring the time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

obtaining a new time difference between when the second failure and a third failure occur;

resetting the wait-to-restore period to a value that is approximately greater than or equal to the new time difference, if the new time difference is greater than the wait-to-restore period.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein isolating a first failure includes one of:

detecting a failure to provide a required quality-of-service at the network interface;

or

detecting a loss of signal at the network interface.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving instructions from a remote element manage station to restore the network interface to the network.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating a report that includes information about the first failure, the subsequent failure, the recovery, and restoring the network; and

sending the report to a network management system.

21. A device comprising:

means for sensing a first failure of a network interface that transports packets from one point in a network to another point in the network;

means for sensing a subsequent failure of the network interface;

means for detecting a recovery of the network interface from the subsequent failure; and

means for restoring the network interface to the network after a wait-to-restore period that is approximately greater than or equal to a time difference between when the first failure and the subsequent failure occur.