MULTI-PATH COMMUNICATION DEVICE CAPABLE OF IMPROVING ENERGY USE EFFICIENCY AND TRAFFIC DISTRIBUTION METHOD FOR IMPROVING ENERGY USE EFFICIENCY THEREOF

• US 20150271061A1
• Filed: 10/18/2013
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Byun, Sung-Hyuk
• Granted Patent: US 9,577,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0833 for reduction of network energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-path communication device capable of improving energy use efficiency and a traffic distribution method for improving the energy use efficiency thereof, which can improve energy use efficiency of an entire network in multi-path communication by properly adjusting the number of paths for transmitting traffic according to traffic levels and distributing the traffic without distributing and transmitting the traffic to all possible paths.

Claims

1. A multi-path communication apparatus capable of improving energy efficiency comprising:

a plurality of physical links;

a processor configured to select two or more physical links, that are included in an equal-cost multi-path for each packet destination, from among the plurality of physical links as path-links, generate and manage at least one destination-specific multi-path link group that includes the selected path-links as group members, and select path-links to which traffic is transmitted in a distributed manner from the destination-specific multi-path link group based on a traffic level of the destination-specific multi-path link group;

a traffic meter configured to measure a traffic level of path-links included in the destination-specific multi-path link group managed by the processor; and

a traffic splitter configured to distribute and transmit traffic heading for a destination of a corresponding multi-path link group to the path-links selected by the processor.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor manages each path-link as an active path-link or idle path-link based on a priority of each path-link included in the destination-specific multi-path link group.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the priority of each of the path-links includes a node priority of an adjacent node connected to a corresponding path-link and a link priority of a physical link corresponding to a corresponding path-link.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor selects active path-links based on the node priority, and when two or more path-links are connected to the same adjacent node, the processor selects active path-links based on a link priority of a physical link corresponding to each path-link connected to the same adjacent node.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the node priority is determined by a router ID used in a routing protocol.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the link priority is determined by a port number or link layer address of the physical link corresponding to the path-link.

7. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, when it is determined that the number of active path-links of the multi-path link group is too large for the traffic level of the multi-path link group, the processor switches some active path-links to idle path-links based on the priority of path-links included in the multi-path link group.

8. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, when it is determined that the number of active path-links of the multi-path link group is too small for the traffic level of the multi-path link group, the processor switches some idle path-links to active path-links based on the priority of path-links included in the multi-path link group.

9. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when one physical link is selected as a path-link of each multi-path link group for a plurality of multi-path link groups, the processor designates a corresponding physical link as an active path-link or idle path-link independently for each multi-path link group.

10. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the traffic meter monitors the amount of traffic of path-links included in the destination-specific multi-path link group managed by the processor, and determines an average traffic load of active path-links included in the destination-specific multi-path link group as a traffic level of a corresponding multi-path link group.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the traffic meter respectively compares the traffic level of the multi-path link group with an upper threshold and a lower threshold, and determines whether the number of active path-links of the multi-path link group is too large or too small for the traffic level of the multi-path link group.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, when the traffic level of the multi-path link group is greater than the upper threshold, the traffic meter provides a notification that the number of active path-links of the multi-path link group is determined as being too small for the traffic level to the processor.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, when the traffic level of the multi-path link group is lower than the lower threshold, the traffic meter provides a notification that the number of active path-links of the multi-path link group is determined as being too large for the traffic level to the processor.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, when it is determined as a new packet flow based on a hashing result of header information of the traffic packets, the traffic splitter allocates and distributes packets included in the new packet flow to a path-link having lower amount of traffic.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is implemented in a hardware type constituting some or all components of a wired or wireless host, some or all components of a switch, or some or all components of a router included in a multi-path communication system.

16. A traffic distribution method of improving energy efficiency of a multi-path communication apparatus, comprising:

selecting two or more physical links included in an equal-cost multi-path as path-links for each destination, and generating at least one destination-specific multi-path link group that includes the selected path-links as group members;

setting each path-link as an active path-link or idle path-link based on a priority of each path-link included in the destination-specific multi-path link group generated in the multi-path link group generating operation and initializing the path-link;

measuring a traffic level of path-links included in the destination-specific multi-path link group;

selecting active path-links to which traffic is transmitted in a distributed manner from among path-links of a corresponding destination-specific multi-path link group based on the traffic level of the destination-specific multi-path link group measured in the traffic measuring operation; and

distributing and transmitting traffic to be transmitted to a corresponding destination to active path-links selected in the active path-link selecting operation.