NETWORK TO NETWORK INTERFACE (NNI) FOR MULTIPLE PRIVATE NETWORK SERVICE PROVIDERS

• US 20110060846A1
• Filed: 09/02/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Inventors: WALDROP, CRAIG ALAN, PATTERSON, LANE GORDON, YOUN, SUKWAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,756,344 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• 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 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3054 Auto-negotiation, e.g. access control between switch gigabit interface connector [GBIC] and link

Abstract

An Ethernet exchanger connected to private Ethernet networks of participating carriers to enable the private Ethernet networks to be interconnected at a common point. The Ethernet exchanger not biased to any participating carrier and is configured to receive, translate and transmit frames from one private Ethernet network to another private Ethernet network. The frame translation is performed by the Ethernet exchanger is based on the profiles of the participating carriers. The profiles are created based on information provided by the participating carriers using templates presented by an online web portal.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a carrier-neutral Ethernet exchanger coupled to two or more private Ethernet networks of participating carriers to enable the two or more private Ethernet networks to be interconnected at a common point, the two or more private Ethernet networks including a first private Ethernet network associated with a first Ethernet frame type and a second private Ethernet network associated with a second Ethernet frame type, wherein frames from the first private Ethernet network are received, translated and transmitted by the Ethernet exchanger to the second private Ethernet network, wherein frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger is based on a first profile associated with the first private Ethernet network and a second profile associated with the second private Ethernet network, the first profile and the second profile stored in a relational database associated with the Ethernet exchanger, the first profile and the second profile established based on information received from a first participating carrier associated with the first Ethernet network and from a second participating carrier associated with the second Ethernet network respectively using an online web portal which is hosted on a server cooperating with the Ethernet exchanger.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier-neutral Ethernet exchanger is configured for the participating carriers to connect to each other'"'"'s Ethernet networks, with a standard network-to-network interface (NNI) and with a process that reuses already entered or known data preventing the process from having to be done from scratch each time repeatedly, wherein a configuration module uses templates from the online web portal to solicit information from the participating carrier and then automatically extracts that information into a relational database for the information to be reused, wherein each time a new template is presented to the participating carrier the information now stored in the relational database is used to pre-populate known information in a new template presented to the participating carrier, which allows for a faster building of the NNI process for each participating carrier in a one-to-many solution based on usage of standards and usage of known information, wherein the online web portal is configured to standardize the NNI connections via having coded routines for:

a) for service connectivity and fabric provisioning between carriers connected to ports of the Ethernet exchanger;

b) service VLAN ID translation between the solicited VLAN IDs of the networks creating a within multiple network environments;

c) service VLAN frame translation between the solicited VLAN frame type used in each network being provisioned;

d) service MTU adaptation between the solicited MTU allowed in each network being provisioned; and

e) service VLAN TPID translation the solicited VLAN TPID assigned in each network being provisioned; and

any Quality of Service (QoS) parameters used in each network being provisioned

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to perform the frame translation of the frames received from the first private Ethernet network while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of each frame, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger comprises translating the first Ethernet frame type to the second Ethernet frame type.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger comprises translating a first service type associated with the first private Ethernet network to a second service type associated with the second private Ethernet network, and wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a routine configured perform handshaking, mapping, and conversion between different protocols and guarantee of service metrics used by the first and second participating carriers.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first profile and the second profile comprise information associated the first participating carrier and the second participating carrier and made available to other participating carriers through the online web portal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an interconnection between the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network is to enable the second participating carrier to use a third private Ethernet network associated with the first participating carrier without the second participating carrier having a direct connection between the second private Ethernet network and the third private Ethernet network.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Ethernet exchanger a) is configured to aggregate and translate private Ethernet services, via templates supplied to a browser of a client machine from the online web portal integrated with the Ethernet exchanger, b) has a provisioning routine to provision virtual circuits among the private Ethernet networks on behalf of the carriers, and c) is configured to facilitate Ethernet services across multiple geographically distinct locations.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to provide a many-to-many layer 2 Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) to enable the carriers to connect to the Ethernet exchanger and be interconnected with other carriers also connected to the Ethernet exchanger, wherein translation of private Ethernet services in between the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network are performed independent of proprietary protocol used in either private Ethernet network.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to provide mechanisms to enable the participating carriers to monitor and troubleshoot their respective interconnected private Ethernet networks end-to-end, the mechanisms including the online portal and one or more application programming interfaces (APIs).

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to enable the first private Ethernet network to be interconnected to private Ethernet networks of two or more other participating carriers simultaneously and to enable the first participating carrier to take advantage of already laid-out network wirings of the two or more other participating carriers, and wherein the multiple geographically distinct locations includes locations in different continents.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first private Ethernet network of the first participating carrier can be interconnected to the private Ethernet networks of one or more other participating carriers without leaving framework of the first private Ethernet network.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the online web portal is resident on a server and configured to present web pages and templates to a browser application on a client machine to solicit information from the participating carriers, the templates enabling the carriers to create profile information and provide information about their private Ethernet networks, wherein the information provided by the carriers is extracted automatically from the templates via a first extraction routine, which then stores the information in a relational database associated with the Ethernet exchanger.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a configuration module configured to qualify the participating carriers, enable the participating carriers to search for other participating carriers and their services, buy and sell services to the other participating carriers, monitor and trouble shoot their circuits and private Ethernet networks end-to-end, and provide bandwidth translation and quality of service (Qos) mapping.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein request for quote (RFQ) is used to enable buy and sell services, and wherein the Ethernet exchanger provisions the circuits based on the information provided by the participating carriers via the templates and based on information included in the RFQ.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a provisioning module configured to take the information from the RFQ and the relational database and automatically populate fields of a provisioning request, and wherein logical and physical connections are established in the Ethernet exchanger based on the fields of the provisioning request to interconnect private Ethernet networks of participating carriers involved in the RFQ.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein frame translation performed by the Ethernet comprises preserving a portion of an incoming frame including a service frame carrying data, and translating a portion of the incoming frame including at least Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) translation, virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation and tag protocol identifier (TPID) translation.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to generate support ticket information and making the support ticket information accessible via an application programming interface (API) to enable network operation center (NOC) of the participating carriers to trouble shoot the circuits.

18. A method for interconnecting private Ethernet networks using an Ethernet exchanger, the method comprising:

establishing a virtual circuit to interconnect a first private Ethernet network with a second private Ethernet network based on information received from a respective first service provider and second service provider, wherein the information is received via a web portal through one or more templates, the virtual circuit established in the Ethernet exchanger coupled with the web portal which is hosted on a server and accessible via web browser on a client machine;

translating a frame received from the first private Ethernet network based on information associated with the second private Ethernet network to form a translated frame, wherein the translating comprises virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation, tag protocol identifier (TPID) translation, and frame type translation, and wherein the translating is performed while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of the frame; and

transmitting the translated frame to the second private Ethernet network via the virtual circuit.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

performing maximum transmission unit (MTU) adaptation on the frame; and

performing necessary handshaking, mapping, and conversion operations between different protocols associated with the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network, wherein the translated frame is transmitted to a destination located in a different geographical area as compared to a location of the first private Ethernet network.

20. A system comprising:

means for enabling a plurality of Ethernet service providers to become qualified and participate in an Ethernet switch platform configured to provide a many-to-many layer 2 Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) to enable the Ethernet service providers to connect to the Ethernet switch platform and be interconnected with other Ethernet service providers also connected to the Ethernet switch platform;

means for translating frames received from a first Ethernet network of a first Ethernet service provider into frames to be transmitted to a second Ethernet network of a second Ethernet service provider, wherein said translating the frames includes virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation, tag protocol identifier (TPID) translation, and frame type translation, and wherein said translating is to be performed while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of the frames; and

means for transmitting translated frames to the second Ethernet network via a virtual circuit in the Ethernet switch platform, the virtual circuit interconnecting the first Ethernet network with the second Ethernet network via a port of the first Ethernet service provider and a port of the second Ethernet service provider.