Independent restoration of control plane and data plane functions

• US 6,601,186 B1
• Filed: 05/20/2000
• Issued: 07/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ciena Corporation
• Original Assignee: Equipe Communications Corporation
• Inventors: Fox, Barbara A., Pothier, Peter, Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr., Langrind, Nicholas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilson, Yolanda L.
• Application Number:
  US09/574,430
• Time in Patent Office: 1,165 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/38, 714/43, 714/44, 709/321, 709/328, 709/227, 370/216, 370/465, 370/351, 370/352, 370/395.5
• US Class Current: 714/4.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2273 Test methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5016 based on statistics of service availability, e.g. in percentage or over a given time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity

Abstract

The present invention provides a computer system having a modular control process, and a modular device driver process that works in conjunction with the control process. The device driver process is capable of continuing operation even if the control process is terminated, for example, upon detection of a fault. In one aspect, the invention provides a network device that includes a control plane and a data plane. The control plane includes a modular control application for establishing and terminating network connections, and the data plane has an independent, modular device driver process for transmitting data over network connections established by the control application. The device driver process is capable of continuing to transmit data over established network connections even if the control application is terminated.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a modular control process; and

a modular device driver process working in conjunction with the control process, wherein the device driver process is capable of continuing operation if the control process is terminated and wherein the control process is capable of continuing operation if the device driver process is terminated.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the control process may be terminated and restarted upon detection of a fault.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the device driver process may be terminated and restarted upon detection of a fault.

4. A network device, comprising

a control plane including a modular control application for establishing and terminating network connections;

a data plane having an independent, modular device driver process for transmitting data over network connections established by the control application; and

wherein the device driver process is capable of continuing to transmit data over established network connections if the control application is terminated.

5. The network device of claim 4, wherein the control application may be terminated and restarted upon detection of a fault.

6. The network device of claim 4, wherein the control process is capable of continuing to establish and terminate network connections if the device driver process is terminated.

7. The network device of claim 6, wherein the device driver process may be terminated and restarted upon detection of a fault.

8. The network device of claim 4, wherein the control process is a network protocol application.

9. The network device of claim 8, wherein the network protocol is an Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol.

10. The network device of claim 8, wherein the network protocol is an Multi-Protocol Label Switching protocol.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the network protocol is a Frame Relay protocol.

12. A method of operating a network device, comprising:

establishing and terminating network connections through a modular control application within a control plane;

transmitting data over network connections established by the control application through a modular device driver process within a data plane; and

continuing to transmit data over established network connections if the control application is terminated.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising

restarting the control application while the device driver continues to transmit data over established network connections.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising

continuing to establish and terminate network connections if the device driver process is terminated.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising restarting the device driver process while the control process continues to establish and terminate network connections.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the control application is a network protocol application.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the network protocol is an Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the network protocol is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching protocol.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the network protocol is a Frame Relay protocol.