TRANSPORT SEGMENT OAM ROUTING MECHANISMS

• US 20180013669A1
• Filed: 12/23/2016
• Published: 01/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infinera Corp.
• Original Assignee: Infinera Corp.
• Inventors: Bardhan, Sanjoy, Anand, Madhukar, Subrahmaniam, Ramesh
• Granted Patent: US 10,447,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/351 for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for determining a property of, or isolating a fault in, a transport segment. A packet portion test packet can be transmitted over a packet portion of a transport segment. Packet portion results can be received in response to the packet portion test packet. A transport portion test packet can be transmitted over a transport portion of the transport segment. Transport portion results can be received in response to the transport portion test packet. The packet portion results and the transport portion results can be correlated to generate correlated test results. The correlated test results can be processed to determine the property of, or isolate the fault in, the transport segment.

Claims

1. A method of determining a property of a transport segment in a packet-based network, the method comprising:

transmitting a test packet over a packet portion of the transport segment;

receiving packet portion results in response to the packet portion test packet;

transmitting a transport portion test packet over a transport portion of the transport segment;

receiving transport portion results in response to the transport portion test packet;

correlating the packet portion results and the transport portion results to generate correlated test results; and

processing the correlated test results to determine the property of the transport segment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating and transmitting a notification based on the determined property.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the notification is transmitted to initiate a remedial measure based on the determined property.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the test packet comprises a ping packet or a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device in response to receiving the test packet from a transport segment routing (TSR) operations administration and management (OAM) controller.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the property comprises a latency, a bandwidth, a throughput, or a reliability.

8. An apparatus for determining a property of a transport segment in a packet-based network, the apparatus comprising:

packet transmitter circuitry configured to transmit a packet portion test packet over a packet portion of the transport segment;

packet receiver circuitry configured to receive packet portion results in response to the packet portion test packet;

transport transmitter circuitry configured to transmit a transport portion test packet over a transport portion of the transport segment;

transport receiver circuitry configured to receive transport portion results in response to the transport portion test packet;

correlation circuitry configured to correlate the packet portion results and the transport portion results to generate correlated test results; and

processing circuitry configured to process the correlated test results to determine the property of the transport segment.

9. The device of claim 8, further comprising circuitry configured to generate and transmit a notification based on the determined property.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the notification is transmitted to initiate a remedial measure based on the determined property.

11. The device of claim 8, wherein the test packet comprises a ping packet or a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) packet.

12. The device of claim 8, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device.

13. The device of claim 8, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device in response to receiving the test packet from a transport segment routing (TSR) operations administration and management (OAM) controller.

14. The device of claim 8, wherein the property comprises a latency, a bandwidth, a throughput, or a reliability.

15. A method of detecting a fault in a transport segment in a packet-based network, the method comprising:

receiving a topology of the packet-based network including link characteristics and potential faults;

transmitting a packet portion test packet over a packet portion of the transport segment based on the received topology;

receiving packet portion results in response to the packet portion test packet;

transmitting a transport portion test packet over a transport portion of the transport segment based on the received topology;

receiving transport portion results in response to the transport portion test packet;

correlating the packet portion results and the transport portion results to generate correlated test results; and

processing the correlated test results to determine whether there is a fault in the transport segment.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising, on a condition that it is determined that the fault is in the transport segment, processing the correlated test results to determine whether the fault is in the packet portion or the transport portion.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating and transmitting a notification based on whether a fault is determined, wherein the notification is transmitted to initiate a remedial measure based on whether a fault is determined.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the packet portion test packet or the transport portion test packet comprises a ping packet or a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) packet.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the packet portion test packet and the transport portion test packet are transmitted by a packet-transport gateway device in response to receiving the test packet from a transport segment routing (TSR) operations administration and management (OAM) controller.

21. A method for determining a failure in a segment-routing capable packet-based communications network, the method comprising:

detecting, by operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) circuitry, whether a failure has occurred in the communications network;

on a condition that the a failure in the communications network is detected by the OEM circuitry, determining, by the OEM circuitry, whether the failure is in a transport portion of the network or in a packet portion of the network.