SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA FOR PROVIDING INSTANTANEOUS FAILOVER OF PACKET PROCESSING ELEMENTS IN A NETWORK

• US 20110191624A1
• Filed: 02/04/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Genband US LLC (Ribbon Communications, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rodgers, Richard, Cervantes, James H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,472,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/16 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• 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 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• 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 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products for providing instantaneous failover of packet processing elements in a network are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a system for providing instantaneous failover of packet processing elements in a network. The system includes a plurality of packet processing elements for processing packets in a network and a packet distribution module for maintaining information about the operating status of each element of the plurality of packet processing elements, for maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the packet processing elements, and, for each packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as the primary element for the packet flow and assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as the secondary element for the packet flow. The packet distribution module routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the packet flow with which the packets are associated.

Claims

1. A system for providing instantaneous failover of packet processing elements in a network, the system comprising:

a plurality of packet processing elements for processing packets in a network; and

a packet distribution module for;

maintaining information about the operating status of each element of the plurality of packet processing elements;

maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the packet processing elements, and, for each packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as the primary element for the packet flow and assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as the secondary element for the packet flow; and

routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the packet flow with which the packets are associated.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the packet processing elements includes:

receiving a packet at the packet distribution module;

determining whether the packet is associated with a new packet flow or an existing packet flow; and

in response to a determination that the packet is associated with a new packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as a primary packet processing element for the new packet flow, and, prior to a failure of the primary packet processing element for the new packet flow, assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as a secondary packet processing element for the new packet flow.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the flow with which the packets are associated includes:

receiving, at the packet distribution module, a packet that is associated with a packet flow;

identifying the primary and secondary packet processing elements that are assigned to the packet flow;

determining the operational status of the primary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow;

in response to a determination that the primary packet processing element is operational to process the packet, forwarding the packet to the primary packet processing element for processing; and

in response to a determination that the primary packet processing element is not operational to process the packet, forwarding the packet to the secondary packet processing element for processing.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein maintaining information about packet flows includes using packet flow objects for maintaining information about packet flows, wherein each packet flow object includes:

a packet flow identifier for identifying the packet flow;

an identification of the primary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow; and

an identification of the secondary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein determining whether the packet is associated with a new packet flow or an existing packet flow includes:

generating a packet flow identifier based on information within the packet;

determining whether the generated packet flow identifier matches a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object;

in response to a determination that the generated packet flow identifier matches a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object, associating the received packet with the existing packet flow object that represents an existing packet flow; and

in response to a determination that the generated packet flow identifier does not match a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object, associating the received packet with a new packet flow object for representing a new packet flow.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein generating a packet flow identifier based on information within the packet includes generating a packet flow identifier based on a hash of values contained within the packet.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each packet flow represents at least one of a call or call attempt in the network, a session in the network, and a media stream in the network.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein maintaining information about the operating status of each element of the plurality of packet processing elements includes using a status map for indicating the operational status of each packet processing element.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the status map comprises a bitmap having a bit for each of the plurality of packet processing elements, wherein a first value of a bit in the bitmap indicates that a packet processing element corresponding to that bit is operational to process packets and wherein a second value of the bit in the bitmap indicates that the packet processing element corresponding to that bit is not operational to process packets.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein determining the operational status of the primary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow includes using heartbeat messages to or from each of the packet processing elements to monitor the operational status of the packet processing elements.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the packet distribution module assigns the primary and secondary packet processing elements for the new packet flow according to a load balancing algorithm for balancing the load across the plurality of packet processing elements.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of packet processing elements performs at least one of a security function, a media gateway function, and a session border control function.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the security function comprises at least one of an encryption function, a decryption function, a hash function, a message digest function, a message signing function, a certification function, an authentication function, an authorization function, and a key exchange function.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of packet processing elements and packet distribution module is geographically diverse from another of the plurality of packet processing elements and packet distribution module.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of packet processing elements are co-located with the packet distribution module.

16. The system of claim 1 comprising a plurality of packet processing modules configured in a fault-tolerant configuration.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the packet processing elements includes:

receiving a packet at the packet distribution module;

determining whether the packet is associated with a new packet flow or with an existing packet flow; and

in response to a determination that the packet is associated with a new packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as a primary packet processing element for the new packet flow, and, prior to a failure of the primary packet processing element for the new packet flow, assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as a secondary packet processing element for the new packet flow.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the flow with which the packets are associated includes:

receiving, at the packet distribution module, a packet that is associated with a packet flow;

identifying the primary and secondary packet processing elements that are assigned to the packet flow;

determining the operational status of the primary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow;

in response to a determination that the primary packet processing element is operational to process the packet, forwarding the packet to the primary packet processing element for processing; and

in response to a determination that the primary packet processing element is not operational to process the packet, forwarding the packet to the secondary packet processing element for processing.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the packet processing elements includes using packet flow objects for maintaining information about packet flows, wherein each packet flow object includes:

a packet flow identifier for identifying the packet flow;

an identification of the primary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow; and

an identification of the secondary packet processing element assigned to the packet flow.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein determining whether the packet is associated with a new packet flow or with an existing packet flow includes:

generating a packet flow identifier based on information within the packet;

determining whether the generated packet flow identifier matches a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object;

in response to a determination that the generated packet flow identifier matches a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object, associating the received packet with the existing packet flow object that represents an existing packet flow; and

in response to a determination that the generated packet flow identifier does not match a packet flow identifier within an existing packet flow object, associating the received packet with a new packet flow object for representing a new packet flow.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein generating the packet flow identifier based on information within the packet includes generating a packet flow identifier based on a hash of values within the packet.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein each packet flow represents at least one of a call or call attempt in the network, a session in the network, and a media stream in the network.

24. The method of claim 16 wherein determining the operational status of the primary packet processing element comprises accessing a data structure for storing operational status for each packet processing element.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the data structure for storing operational status for each packet processing element comprises a bitmap, wherein a first value of a bit indicates that a packet processing element corresponding to that bit is operational to process packets and wherein a second value of a bit indicates that the packet processing element corresponding to that bit is not operational to process packets.

26. The method of claim 16 comprising using heartbeat messages to monitor operational status of the packet processing elements.

27. The method of claim 16 wherein assigning primary and secondary packet processing elements for the packet flow includes assigning the primary and secondary packet processing elements according to a load balancing algorithm for balancing the load across the plurality of packet processing elements.

28. The method of claim 16 comprising, at a packet processing element, receiving the forwarded packet and processing the packet according to at least one of a security function, a media gateway function, and a session border control function.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the security function comprises at least one of an encryption function, a decryption function, a hash function, a message digest function, a message signing function, a certification function, an authentication function, an authorization function, and a key exchange function.

30. The method of claim 16 wherein at least one of the plurality of packet processing elements is geographically diverse from another of the plurality of packet processing elements.

31. The method of claim 16 wherein at least one of the plurality of packet processing elements and packet distribution module is geographically diverse from another of the plurality of packet processing elements and packet distribution module.

32. The method of claim 16 comprising a plurality of packet processing modules configured in a fault-tolerant configuration.

17. A method for providing instantaneous failover of packet processing elements in a network, the method comprising:

at a packet distribution module for receiving and routing packets to a plurality of packet processing elements;

maintaining information about the operating status of each element of the plurality of packet processing elements;

maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the plurality of packet processing elements, and, for each packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as the primary element for the packet flow and assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as the secondary element for the packet flow; and

routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the packet flow with which the packets are associated.

33. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor of a computer perform steps comprising:

at a packet distribution module for receiving and routing packets to a plurality of packet processing elements;

maintaining information about the operating status of each element of the plurality of packet processing elements;

maintaining information about packet flows being processed by the plurality of packet processing elements, and, for each packet flow, assigning one of the plurality of packet processing elements as the primary element for the packet flow and assigning another of the plurality of packet processing elements as the secondary element for the packet flow; and

routing packets to the packet processing elements according to the operating status of the packet processing elements that have been assigned to the packet flow with which the packets are associated.