Transmission Path Determining Method and Apparatus

• US 20190319882A1
• Filed: 06/26/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Yuan, Feng, Zhang, Hong, Chen, Kai
• Granted Patent: US 10,924,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/28 in relation to timing considerations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/33 using forward notification

Abstract

Embodiments of this application provide a transmission path determining method and apparatus, where the method includes: determining that a current path corresponding to a flow to which a to-be-transmitted packet belongs is congested; and determining a target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on a path congestion information table, and adding information about the target path to the to-be-transmitted packet, so as to transmit the to-be-transmitted packet based on the target path, where a congestion degree of the target path is less than a congestion degree of the current path, each entry of the path congestion information table includes a transmission path and congestion information corresponding to the transmission path, and the congestion information is used to indicate a congestion degree of the transmission path.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining that a current path is congested, wherein the current path corresponds to a flow to which a to-be-transmitted packet belongs;

determining a target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on a path congestion information table;

adding information about the target path to the to-be-transmitted packet, wherein a congestion degree of the target path is less than a congestion degree of the current path, each entry of the path congestion information table comprises a respective transmission path and respective congestion information corresponding to the respective transmission path, and the congestion information of each entry indicates a respective congestion degree of the respective transmission path; and

sending the to-be-transmitted packet based on the target path.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the current path is congested comprises:

determining that the flow is marked with an explicit congestion notification (ECN) when being transmitted on the current path, or that a round-trip time (RTT) corresponding to the current path is greater than a time threshold, or that the current path is faulty.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the congestion information of each entry comprises:

an average quantity of explicit congestion notifications (ECNs) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, a round-trip-time (RTT) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, an identifier indicating whether the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry is faulty, or a quantity of flows that coexist on the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

before determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table, determining whether a flow rate of the flow to which the to-be-transmitted packet belongs is greater than a preset threshold; and

wherein determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table comprises;

when the flow rate of the flow is greater than the preset threshold, determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table comprises:

when the to-be-transmitted packet is selected based on a preset probability from the to-be-transmitted packet and other packets to be transmitted on the current path, determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a time difference between a round-trip-time (RTT) of the target path and an RTT of the current path; and

sending the to-be-transmitted packet after duration of the time difference elapses.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

before determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table, sending a probe packet on each transmission path of at least one transmission path;

for each probe packet, receiving a response packet corresponding to the respective probe packet;

for each probe packet, determining, based on the corresponding response packet, respective congestion information corresponding to the respective transmission path on which the respective probe packet is sent; and

generating the path congestion information table based on the respective congestion information corresponding to each transmission path of the at least one transmission path.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

when obtained congestion information of a first transmission path of the at least one transmission path comprises an identifier indicating that the first transmission path is faulty, deleting an entry corresponding to the first transmission path from the path congestion information table.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor, configured to;

determine that a current path is congested, wherein the current path corresponds to a flow to which a to-be-transmitted packet belongs;

determine, based on a path congestion information table, a target path for the to-be-transmitted packet; and

add information about the target path to the to-be-transmitted packet, wherein a congestion degree of the target path is less than a congestion degree of the current path, each entry of the path congestion information table comprises a respective transmission path and congestion information corresponding to the respective transmission path, and the congestion information of each entry indicates a respective congestion degree of the respective transmission path; and

a transmitter, configured to send the to-be-transmitted packet based on the target path determined by the processor.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to:

determine that the flow is marked with an explicit congestion notification (ECN) when being transmitted on the current path, or that a round-trip time (RTT) corresponding to the current path is greater than a time threshold, or that the current path is faulty.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the congestion information of each entry comprises:

an average quantity of explicit congestion notifications (ECNs) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, a round-trip time (RTT) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, an identifier used for indicating whether the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry is faulty, and a quantity of flows that coexist on the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to:

when a flow rate of the flow corresponding to the to-be-transmitted packet is greater than a preset threshold, determine the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to:

when the to-be-transmitted packet is selected based on a preset probability from the to-be-transmitted packet and other packets to be transmitted on the current path, determine the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a time difference between an round-trip-time (RTT) of the target path and an RTT of the current path; and

wherein the transmitter is configured to send the to-be-transmitted packet after duration of the time difference elapses.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the apparatus further comprises a receiver;

the transmitter is further configured to send a probe packet on each transmission path of at least one transmission path;

the receiver is further configured to, for each probe packet, receive a respective response packet corresponding to the respective probe packet;

the transmitter is further configured to, for each probe packet, determine, based on the corresponding response packet, respective congestion information corresponding to the respective transmission path on which the respective probe packet is sent; and

the processor is further configured to generate the path congestion information table based on the congestion information corresponding to each transmission path of the at least one transmission path.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to:

when obtained congestion information of a first transmission path of the at least one transmission path comprises an identifier indicating that the first transmission path is faulty, delete an entry corresponding to the first transmission path from the path congestion information table.

17. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

determine that a current path is congested, wherein the current path corresponds to a flow to which a to-be-transmitted packet belongs;

determine a target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on a path congestion information table;

add information about the target path to the to-be-transmitted packet, wherein a congestion degree of the target path is less than a congestion degree of the current path, each entry of the path congestion information table comprises a respective transmission path and respective congestion information corresponding to the respective transmission path, and the congestion information of each entry indicates a respective congestion degree of the respective transmission path; and

send the to-be-transmitted packet based on the target path.

18. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 17, wherein determining that the current path is congested comprises:

determining that the flow is marked with an explicit congestion notification (ECN) when being transmitted on the current path, or that a round-trip time (RTT) corresponding to the current path is greater than a time threshold, or that the current path is faulty.

19. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 17, wherein the congestion information of each entry comprises:

an average quantity of explicit congestion notifications (ECNs) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, a round-trip-time (RTT) of the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry, an identifier indicating whether the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry is faulty, and a quantity of flows that coexist on the respective transmission path corresponding to the respective entry.

20. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 17, wherein the instructions which, when executed by a computer, further cause the computer to:

before determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table, determine whether a flow rate of the flow to which the to-be-transmitted packet belongs is greater than a preset threshold; and

wherein determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table comprises;

when the flow rate of the flow is greater than the preset threshold, determining the target path for the to-be-transmitted packet based on the path congestion information table.