USING FLOATING TRANSPORT CARD FOR BEST EFFORT TRAFFIC

• US 20150117851A1
• Filed: 12/29/2014
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Wellbrock, Glenn A., Xia, Tiejun J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,590,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/03 Arrangements for fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/032 using working and protection systems H04J14/0287 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/021 Reconfigurable arrangements, e.g. reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers [ROADM] or tunable optical add/drop multiplexers [TOADM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/02122 Colourless, directionless or contentionless [CDC] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0291 Shared protection at the optical multiplex section (1:1, n:m)
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0294 Dedicated protection at the optical channel (1+1)
• 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 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/62 Wavelength based optical switching H04Q11/0062
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0086 Network resource allocation, dimensioning or optimisation

Abstract

A network management device monitors an optical network that is configured for a required bandwidth. The optical network includes multiple optical nodes and a plurality of light paths between the multiple optical nodes. The multiple optical nodes include transport cards with a majority of the transport cards provisioned as active cards to receive a traffic load of up to full capacity of the transport cards, and with a minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards for the active cards. The network management device identifies an unused first floating spare card and an unused second floating spare card in a pair of the multiple optical nodes and automatically provisions, by the network management device, the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring an optical network that is configured for a required bandwidth,

wherein the optical network includes multiple optical nodes and a plurality of light paths between the multiple optical nodes, and

wherein the multiple optical nodes include transport cards with a majority of the transport cards provisioned as active cards to receive a traffic load of up to full capacity of the transport cards, and with a minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards for the active cards;

identifying, by a network management device, an unused first floating spare card and an unused second floating spare card in a pair of the multiple optical nodes; and

automatically provisioning, by the network management device, the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the network management device, a high traffic condition between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying a high traffic condition between a pair of the multiple optical nodes further comprises:

receiving, from a network administrator, manual input to indicate a particular path on which to carry low-priority traffic;

or

receiving an indication of congestion from a Layer 2 network device associated with one of the optical nodes of the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the network management device, a failure event in the optical network;

automatically disabling, by the network management device and based on the identifying, the light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes; and

automatically re-provisioning, by the network management device and based on the identifying, the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the failure event in the optical network is one of a transport card failure, a fiber failure, or a node failure.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein automatically re-provisioning the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event includes:

provisioning the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a particular light path associated with the transport card failure, and routing the light path associated with a failed transport card to the one of the floating spare cards;

re-routing traffic around the fiber failure while maintaining the required bandwidth;

or

provisioning the first floating spare card or the second floating spare card to reconfigure at least some of the plurality of light paths to route traffic around a failed node.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein, when automatically re-provisioning the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event, the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card are provisioned to use wavelengths previously assigned for communications with a failed node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple nodes include core nodes and aggregation nodes and wherein the optical network is configured such that traffic does not flow directly between aggregation nodes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards includes no more than two floating spare cards at each of the multiple optical nodes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards include exactly one floating spare card at each of the multiple optical nodes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical network is a long-haul optical network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple optical nodes includes a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) with a colorless, directionless, and contentionless architecture.

13. A network management device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

one or more processors configured to;

monitor a network including multiple optical nodes with a plurality of light paths between the multiple optical nodes;

identify an unused first floating spare card and an unused second floating spare card in a pair of the multiple optical nodes; and

provision the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

14. The network management device of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a high traffic condition between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

15. The network management device of claim 13, wherein each of the multiple optical nodes include a majority of the transport cards provisioned as active cards to receive a traffic load of up to full capacity of the active cards and a minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards for the active cards.

16. The network management device of claim 13, wherein, when identifying a high traffic condition between the pair of the multiple optical nodes, the one or more processors are further configured to:

receive an indication of congestion from a Layer 2 network device associated with one of the optical nodes of the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

17. The network management device of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a failure event in the optical network;

disable, based on the identifying, the light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes; and

re-provisioning, based on the identifying, the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event.

18. The network management device of claim 17, wherein, when re-provisioning the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event, the one or more processors are further configured to:

provision the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a particular light path associated with a failed transport card, and

route the light path associated with the failed transport card to the one of the floating spare cards.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to:

monitor an optical network configured for a required bandwidth, wherein the optical network includes multiple optical nodes and a plurality of light paths between the multiple optical nodes, wherein the multiple optical nodes include transport cards with a majority of the transport cards provisioned as active cards to receive a traffic load of up to full capacity of the transport cards, and with a minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards for the active cards;

identify an unused first floating spare card and an unused second floating spare card in a pair of the multiple optical nodes; and

automatically provision the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions to:

identify a failure event in the optical network; and

automatically re-provisioning, based on the identifying, the one or more of the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service protected traffic impacted by the failure event.