NETWORK DESIGN METHOD

• US 20100226285A1
• Filed: 03/05/2009
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: ZHAO, Zhengxue John, EL-SAYED, Mohamed, FORTUNE, Steven, WILFONG, Gordon Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,944,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/256
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/18 Loop-free operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 Routing tree calculation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results

Abstract

A network design method for Ethernet-type networks exhibiting capacities sufficient for operation during normal periods as well those as periods when a single node or link has failed.

Claims

1. A network design method comprising the steps of:

inputting a representation of a network; and

outputting a set of node and link parameters indicative of how a Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) will perform upon the failure of any given node or link in the network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining for each Multiple Spanning Tree Instance (MSTI) the node and link parameters indicative of how the STP will perform.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said inputting step further comprises the steps of:

inputting the representation of the network wherein said representation describes the networks connectivity, link delays and cost functions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the input network is defined by N=(N,D,P,L,C) where N is the network, C is a set of capacities;

D is a set of demands;

P is a priority function; and

L is a length function.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the output set of parameters defines a network which is hop-count compliant.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the output set of parameters defines a network which is delay compliant.

7. A network design method comprising the steps of:

inputting a representation of a network N=(N,D,P,L,C) where N is the network, C is a set of capacities;

D is a set of demands;

P is a priority function; and

L is a length function; and

outputting a set of node and link parameters indicative of how a Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) will perform upon the failure of any given node or link in the network;

wherein the set of node and link parameters are used to define an output network,

N′

=(N,D′

,P′

,L′

,C′

) where

D′

=(D′

₁=D₁∪

{circumflex over (D)}₁,D₂∪

{circumflex over (D)}₂, . . . ,D_t∪

{circumflex over (D)}_t),

P′

=(p′

₁( ),p′

₂( ), . . . p′

_t( )),

L′

=(L′

₁( ),L′

₂( ), . . . L′

_t( )), and

C′

=(C′

(v₁), . . . C′

(v_n),C′

(e₁), . . . C′

(e_m)).