METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LINK SHARING AMONG LOGICAL ROUTERS

• US 20100061366A1
• Filed: 09/08/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Corporate Services Group Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Turlington, Matthew W., DelRegno, Christopher N., KOTRLA, Scott R.
• Application Number:
  US12/206,004
• Publication Number:
  US 20100061366A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• 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 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/552 by ensuring the integrity of packets received through redundant connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

An approach is provided for sharing capacity among multiple logical routers. A request from one of a plurality of logical routers is received for reserving bandwidth corresponding to a port shared by the logical routers. Reservation of the bandwidth is confirmed within a forwarding plane before granting the request to the one logical router.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request from one of a plurality of logical routers for reserving bandwidth corresponding to a port shared by the logical routers; and

confirming reservation of the bandwidth within a forwarding plane before granting the request to the one logical router.

2. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying, by the forwarding plane, other ones of the logical routers of unreserved bandwidth.

3. A method of claim 1, wherein each of the logical routers is configured to modify an unreserved bandwidth value based on the reserved bandwidth.

4. A method of claim 3, wherein each of the logical routers is further configured to maintain a traffic engineering database, and to update a corresponding traffic engineering database with the modified unreserved bandwidth value.

5. A method of claim 1, wherein the unreserved bandwidth value is assigned to a plurality of priority levels or a plurality of quality of service (QoS) levels.

6. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

signaling a label switched path based on the reserved bandwidth over the port to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network.

7. A method of claim 1, wherein the port is either a Gigabit Ethernet port, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, a 100 Gigabit Ethernet port, or an Optical Carrier (OC)-768 port.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a control plane configured to receive a request from one of a plurality of logical routers for reserving bandwidth corresponding to a port shared by the logical routers; and

a forwarding plane configured to confirm reservation of the bandwidth before granting the request to the one logical router.

9. An apparatus of claim 8, wherein the forwarding plane is further configured to notify other ones of the logical routers of unreserved bandwidth.

10. An apparatus of claim 8, wherein each of the logical routers is configured to modify an unreserved bandwidth value based on the reserved bandwidth.

11. An apparatus of claim 10, wherein each of the logical routers is further configured to maintain a traffic engineering database, and to update a corresponding traffic engineering database with the modified unreserved bandwidth value.

12. An apparatus of claim 8, wherein the unreserved bandwidth value is assigned to a plurality of priority levels or a plurality of quality of service (QoS) levels.

13. An apparatus of claim 8, wherein the forwarding plane is further configured to signal a label switched path based on the reserved bandwidth over the port to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network.

14. An apparatus of claim 8, wherein the port is either a Gigabit Ethernet port, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, a 100 Gigabit Ethernet port, or an Optical Carrier (OC)-768 port.

15. A routing platform comprising:

a plurality of logical routers configured to share a port, wherein one of the logical routers is configured to generate a request for reserving bandwidth corresponding to the port;

a plurality of control planes corresponding to the logical routers, wherein the control planes are configured to execute a routing protocol; and

a forwarding plane coupled to the control planes and configured to confirm reservation of the bandwidth within the forwarding plane before granting the request to the one logical router.

16. An apparatus of claim 15, wherein the forwarding plane is further configured to notify other ones of the logical routers of unreserved bandwidth.

17. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein each of the logical routers is configured to modify an unreserved bandwidth value based on the reserved bandwidth.

18. A routing platform of claim 16, wherein each of the logical routers is further configured to maintain a traffic engineering database, and to update a corresponding traffic engineering database with the modified unreserved bandwidth value.

19. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein the forwarding plane is configured to notify the control planes of the modified unreserved bandwidth value.

20. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein the unreserved bandwidth value is assigned to a plurality of priority levels or a plurality of quality of service (QoS) levels.

21. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein the forwarding plane is further configured to signal a label switched path based on the reserved bandwidth over the port to a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network.

22. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein the port is either a Gigabit Ethernet port, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, a 100 Gigabit Ethernet port, or an Optical Carrier (OC)-768 port.

23. A routing platform of claim 15, wherein the forwarding plane enforces a policy that ensures a predetermined amount of bandwidth corresponding to the port is designated for each of the logical routers.