SYNCHRONIZING EVENTS ON A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK USING A VIRTUAL COMMAND INTERFACE

• US 20110038633A1
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Osias, Michael J., DeCusatis, Casimer M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,488,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/02 Wavelength-division multiplex systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0267 Optical signaling or routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0283 WDM ring architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0286 WDM hierarchical architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0287 Protection in WDM systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0661 using timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/064 involving time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/08 the synchronisation signals recurring cyclically

Abstract

A virtual network operating center and a virtual command interface synchronize events occurring on a wavelength division multiplexed network with processing events in a connected server. Should a disaster or other interruption of the network occur, the virtual command interface synchronizes events which occur on the network and any attached servers or server clusters with a reference clock coupled to the server. An event queue connected to the virtual command interface preserves the order of messages having a time stamp and compares the timestamps with the reference clock coupled to the server which is used to determine data integrity. The queued events may be encoded as XML device call to update the representation of the network or portions thereof in the virtual network operation center.

Claims

1. A method to synchronize events on a communications network, comprising:

receiving a network heartbeat signal in a network interface of a server having a virtual network operations center, the server coupled to the network;

receiving a time sync signal from the server;

correlating the time sync signal with the network heartbeat signal;

updating the virtual network operations center in response to the network heartbeat signal to reflect status of the network.

2. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 1, wherein the network heartbeat signal is enabled as a time stamp field in messages traversing the network.

3. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 1, further comprising:

queuing messages from the communications network to the server.

4. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving an event message of an event occurring on the network;

decoding a time of the event from the time stamp in the event message.

5. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 4, further comprising:

correlating the time sync signal from the server with the time stamp in the event message.

6. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 3, further comprising:

determining if any data transmitted to/from the server is invalid resulting from the event.

7. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 1, wherein the network has a plurality of channels.

8. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 7, wherein at least one of the plurality of channels is an optical channel.

9. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 8, wherein the optical channel is a wavelength division multiplexed channel.

10. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 2, wherein the time stamp field is enabled in a TL1 message.

11. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 1, wherein the network interface is a holographic enterprise interface that encapsulates messages traversing the network into holographic protocol architecture format.

12. The method to synchronize events on a communications network of claim 11, wherein the encapsulated messaged is transmitted to a virtual network operation center coupled to the server.

13. A computer program product for synchronizing events occurring on a data communications network with data transmitted to and from a server coupled to the data communications network, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:

a synchronization component that correlates a heartbeat signal in event messages received from the data communications network with a time sync signal from the server;

a translation component that translates the event messages received from the data communications network into a holographic protocol architecture protocol;

a communication component to transmit the translated event messages to a virtual network operations center coupled to the server; and

in response to the heartbeat signal, the virtual network operations center updates the status of the network.

14. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 13, the synchronization component further comprising:

a queuing component to messages from the communications network to the server.

15. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 13, further comprising:

a decode component that decodes a time from the time stamp in an event message received from the data communications network.

16. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 15, the synchronization component further correlating the time sync signal from the server with the time stamp in the event message.

17. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 16, the synchronization component further comprising:

a determination component that determines if data transmitted on the network to/from the server is invalid resulting from the event.

18. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 17, wherein the data communications network is a wavelength division multiplexed channel.

19. The computer program product for synchronizing events comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith as in claim 18 wherein the time stamp field is enabled in a TL1 message.

20. A computer system, comprising:

a virtual network management interface that translates TL1 messages having a time stamp into an holographic protocol architecture format in XML-remote procedure calls compatible with a virtual network operating center on a server;

a buffer which queues the TL1 messages;

a synchronization component that correlates the time stamp of a TL1 message with a time sync signal from the server coupled to the network to determine if the TL1 message contains valid or invalid data.