Method of establishing MPOA shortcut virtual channel connections

• US 6,606,321 B1
• Filed: 12/29/1999
• Issued: 08/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Goldstein, Dror, Natanson, Sarit Shani, Katzri, Lior, Gershon, Benny
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Levitan, Dmitry
• Application Number:
  US09/474,675
• Time in Patent Office: 1,322 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/395.2, 370/395.4, 709/227, 709/230, 710/20, 714/18, 714/749
• US Class Current: 370/395.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/5601 Transfer mode dependent, e.g. ATM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/563 Signalling, e.g. protocols, reference model
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5669 Multiprotocol over ATM [MPOA]

Abstract

A method of establishing calls between an ingress MPC (the calling party) and an egress MPC (the called party) in MPOA enabled ATM based networks. The call establishment method utilizes the call request SETUP, CONNECT and CONNECT_ACK messages in creating the shortcut VCC between ingress and egress MPCs. The calling party is adapted to send a READY_IND message in a reliable manner to the called party indicating that it is ready to receive frames over the shortcut VCC. The called party starts sending data over the shortcut VCC only when it knows that the calling party is ready. The called party knows the calling party is ready upon receipt of a READY_IND message or at least one data frame on the shortcut VCC. The calling party knows that the called party is ready to receive frames when it receives the CONNECT message. Since the READY_IND message sent by the calling party may get lost, the calling party is adapted to re-send the READY_IND message repeatedly until it is certain the called party has received it. The calling party utilizes a timer whereupon expiration, the READY_IND message is re-sent to the called party and the timer is restarted.

Claims

1. In an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) based Multiple Protocol Over ATM (MPOA) network, a method of establishing a bidirectional shortcut Virtual Channel Connection (VCC) between a calling party and a called party said method comprising the steps of:

initiating a call request by sending a setup message from said calling party to said called party;

initializing said called party and sending a connect message to said calling party;

initializing said calling party and sending a ready indication message to said called party on said shortcut VCC when said calling party is ready to receive data;

periodically re-sending said ready indication message to said called party until a ready acknowledge message or data frame is received by said calling party; and

sending data from said called party to said calling party upon receipt by said called party of said ready indication message or at least one data frame.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of initializing said call request comprises the step of sending a SETUP request message as described in the ATM User-to-Network (UNI) Signaling 3.0/3.1 standard.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of sending a connect message comprises the step of sending a CONNECT message as described in the ATM User-to-Network (UNI) Signaling 3.0/3.1 standard.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of initializing said called party comprises the step of initializing said shortcut VCC and associated Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) function.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of initializing said calling party comprises the step of initializing said shortcut VCC and associated Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) function.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said ready indication message comprises an MPOA Control Message adapted to have a fixed header comprising an indication identifying the message as a ready indication message.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said fixed header comprises an ar$op.type field adapted to indicate a ready indication message.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of periodically re-sending said ready indication message comprises starting a timer and restarting said timer upon its expiration.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the duration of said timer is set to within the range of 10 milliseconds to 1 second.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the duration of said timer is set to 200 milliseconds.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of sending data from said calling party to said called party upon receipt by said calling party of a connect message.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said connect message comprises an ATM UNI 3.0/3.1 CONNECT message.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said ready acknowledge message comprises an MPOA Control Message adapted to have a fixed header comprising an indication identifying the message as a ready acknowledge message.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said fixed header comprises an ar$op.type field adapted to indicate a ready acknowledge message.