VIRTUAL LOCAL AREA NETWORK SERVER REDUNDANCY AND FAILOVER TO ENABLE SEAMLESS MOBILITY IN THE MOBILITY DOMAIN

• US 20100293043A1
• Filed: 05/03/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Atreya, Vivek, Ankaiah, Shashi, Choudhary, Seemant, Karunakaran, Kumara Das
• Granted Patent: US 8,427,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2041 with more than one idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4675 Dynamic sharing of VLAN information amongst network nodes configuration of the network or of network elements H04L41/08

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) server redundancy is presented. A mobility switch (MS) advertises to at least one peer mobility switch, VLANs configured as server capable, the advertising including providing priority information relating to a server for the VLAN. The MS receives advertising from the at least one peer mobility switch and elects a server for a mobility VLAN which is not mapped locally. The MS maintains a current server and a list of alternative servers for the VLAN and determines when the MS looses connection with the current server for the VLAN and moves the VLAN to an alternate server contained on the list.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

advertising, by a mobility switch (MS) to at least one peer mobility switch, Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) configured as server capable, said advertising including providing priority information relating to a server for said VLAN;

receiving advertising from said at least one peer mobility switch;

electing a server for a mobility VLAN which is not mapped locally;

maintaining a current server and a list of alternative servers for said VLAN; and

determining when said MS loses connection with said current server for said VLAN and moving said VLAN to an alternate server contained on said list.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said priority information includes at least one of administrator configured priority and dynamic priority.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said dynamic priority is determined from a current capacity of said MS and from port information associated with said MS.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said electing is based on said priority information.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing load balancing when more than one server advertises for a VLAN.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a random weighted election method is used for performing said load balancing.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said random weighted election method includes a probability density function computed from said advertised priority.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said advertising is performed periodically.

20. The computer readable storage of claim 1 further comprising performing load balancing when more than one server advertises for a VLAN, wherein a random weighted election method is used for performing said load balancing, wherein said random weighted election method includes a probability density function computed from said advertised priority.

9. A mobility switch (MS) comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

a communications interface;

an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface; and

wherein the memory is encoded with an application providing Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) server redundancy, that when performed on the processor, provides a process for processing information, the process causing the mobility switch to perform the operations of;

advertising, by a mobility switch (MS) to at least one peer mobility switch, VLANs configured as server capable, said advertising including providing priority information relating to a server for said VLAN;

receiving advertising from said at least one peer mobility switch;

electing a server for a mobility VLAN which is not mapped locally;

maintaining a current server and a list of alternative servers for said VLAN; and

determining when said MS loses connection with said current server for said VLAN and moving said VLAN to an alternate server contained on said list.

10. The mobility switch of claim 9 wherein said priority information includes at least one

of administrator configured priority and dynamic priority.

11. The mobility switch of claim 10 wherein said dynamic priority is determined from a current capacity of said MS and from port information associated with said MS.

12. The mobility switch of claim 9 wherein said electing is based on said priority information.

13. The mobility switch of claim 9 further comprising performing load balancing when more than one server advertises for a VLAN.

14. The mobility switch of claim 13 wherein a random weighted election method is used for performing said load balancing.

15. The mobility switch of claim 14 wherein said random weighted election method includes a probability density function computed from said advertised priority.

16. The mobility switch of claim 9 wherein said advertising is performed periodically.

17. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable code thereon for providing Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) server redundancy, the medium including instructions in which a computer system performs operations comprising:

advertising, by a mobility switch (MS) to at least one peer mobility switch, VLANs configured as server capable, said advertising including providing priority information relating to a server for said VLAN;

receiving advertising from said at least one peer mobility switch;

electing a server for a mobility VLAN which is not mapped locally;

maintaining a current server and a list of alternative servers for said VLAN; and

determining when said MS loses connection with said current server for said VLAN and moving said VLAN to an alternate server contained on said list.

18. The computer readable storage of claim 17 wherein said priority information includes at least one

of administrator configured priority and dynamic priority, wherein said dynamic priority is determined from a current capacity of said MS and from port information associated with said MS.

19. The computer readable storage of claim 17 wherein said electing is based on said priority information.

21. A method comprising:

detecting a switchover/failover event;

sending Media Access Control (MAC) address learning frames in a first Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) over a mobility tunnel between a first mobility switch (MS) connected to a roamed mobility unit and a second MS formerly connected to said roamed mobility unit; and

wherein said sending MAC address learning frames is performed for every known roamed MU connected to said first MS in said first VLAN such that devices in said first VLAN relearn source MAC addresses of roamed MUs.

22. A method comprising:

detecting a server failover event while a roamed multicast listener is receiving a multicast stream from another device in a first Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN);

sending one of a proxy query by a mobile switch connected to said roamed listener to all associated roaming clients in said first VLAN or sending an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) join request on behalf of all roamed clients in said first VLAN over a mobility tunnel to a new first VLAN server; and

wherein all switches having IGMP snooping enabled on said first VLAN update group membership such that a multicast stream is restored to all roamed clients on said first MS in said first VLAN.