Apparatus and method for optical communication protection
First Claim
1. A network element arranged to be coupled within a working path of an optical network, the network element comprising:
- a plurality of ports including first and second ports arranged to be coupled to Optical Camer (OC) links within the working path;
a switch fabric connected to the plurality of ports and configured to couple the first and second ports such that data traffic received on one of the first and second ports is output on the other; and
a control unit, connected to the switch fabric, that operates to monitor for a failure within the working path and, if a failure is detected in the working path, to determine protection switching data corresponding to the failure and to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic being output from at least one of the first and second ports,wherein the data traffic comprises a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte; and
wherein to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic, the control unit inserts the protection switching data within the at least one protection byte.
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Abstract
Protection techniques within optical communication networks are extremely important. An alternative to a line protection scheme, as most current optical communication networks use, is to utilize a path protection technique in which working and protection paths that are desired are assigned during network setup. During normal operations, only the working path is configured within the network elements'"'"' switch fabric with protection paths being left unconfigured. If a failure indication is detected in the working path by a network element, a protection entry within a routing table of the network element is looked up to determine protection switching data that is required to switch the data traffic to the pre-assigned protection path. This protection switching data is inserted within the path overhead for the data traffic so that it can be communicated to all of the network elements that require their switch fabrics reconfigured to establish the protection path of communications. This protection technique allows for similar switching speed to that of line switching protection such as BLSR designs, but with an increase in efficiency in terms of protection bandwidth.
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Citations
48 Claims
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1. A network element arranged to be coupled within a working path of an optical network, the network element comprising:
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a plurality of ports including first and second ports arranged to be coupled to Optical Camer (OC) links within the working path; a switch fabric connected to the plurality of ports and configured to couple the first and second ports such that data traffic received on one of the first and second ports is output on the other; and a control unit, connected to the switch fabric, that operates to monitor for a failure within the working path and, if a failure is detected in the working path, to determine protection switching data corresponding to the failure and to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic being output from at least one of the first and second ports, wherein the data traffic comprises a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte; and wherein to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic, the control unit inserts the protection switching data within the at least one protection byte. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A network element arranged to be assigned within a protection path of an optical network, the network element comprising:
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a plurality of ports; a switch fabric connected to each of the ports; and a control unit, connected to the switch fabric, that operates to monitor for changes in protection switching data within data traffic received at one of the ports and, if the protection switching data has changed, to process the protection switching data in order to determine if any switching instructions within the protection switching data relate to the network element and, if at least one of the switching instructions relate to the network element, to reconfigure the switch fabric according to the switching instruction related to the network element such that the network element is configured within a protection path of the optical network, wherein the data traffic comprises a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte; and wherein the protection switching data within the data traffic is located within the at least one protection byte. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for establishing an optical communication network of network elements and Optical Carrier (OC) links, the method comprising:
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configuring a working path for data traffic between a first path-terminating network element and a second path-terminating network element via a first set of the OC links; and assigning at least one protection path for data traffic between the first path-terminating network element and the second path-terminating network element via a second set of the OC links, at least one path of the working path and the at least one protection path comprising a network element other than the first path-terminating network element and the second path-terminating network element, and the assigning at least one protection path comprising; inserting protection entries into tables within network elements that can detect failures within the working path, the protection entries comprising protection switching data that indicates switch fabric modifications necessary to configure the protection path between the first network element and the second network element. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for configuring a pre-assigned protection path within an optical network during a failure within a pre-configured working path, the method comprising;
monitoring for a failure indication within the pre-configured working path; and if a failure indication is detected within the working path; determining protection switching data corresponding to the failure; transporting the protection switching data within the data traffic to network elements of the protection path, the data traffic comprising a plurality of data units and each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte, the transporting the protection switching data within the data traffic comprising inserting the protection switching data within the at least one protection byte of the path overhead and forwarding the data traffic; and processing the protection switching data at each of the network elements that requires reconfiguration such that their corresponding switch fabrics are reconfigured. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. An optical communication network of network elements coupled together with Optical Carrier (OC) links, the optical communication network comprising:
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a working path comprising a first set of OC links and network elements that are configured to transmit data traffic between first and second path-terminating network elements; and at least one protection path comprising a second set of OC links and network elements that are assigned to transmit data traffic between the first and second path-terminating network elements if a failure is detected on the working path; wherein tables within the network elements of the working path comprise a protection entry that dictates switching instructions that must be applied to the network elements of the protection path to configure the protection path, and wherein the data traffic comprises a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte; and wherein to insert the determined protection switching data into the data traffic, the particular network element operates to insert the protection switching data within the at least one protection byte. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. An optical communication network of network elements coupled together with Optical Carrier (OC) links, the optical communication network comprising:
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a working path comprising a first set of OC links and network elements that are configured to transmit data traffic between first and second path-terminating network elements, each of the OC links within the first set comprising reserved bandwidth for the date traffic to traverse the working path; and at least one protection path comprising a second set of OC links and network elements that are assigned to transmit data traffic between the first and second path-terminating network elements if a failure is detected on the working path; wherein tables within the network elements of the working path comprise a protection entry that dictates switching instructions that must be applied to the network elements of the protection path to configure the protection path.
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46. An optical communication network of network elements coupled together with Optical Carrier (OC) links, the optical communication network comprising:
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a working path comprising a first set of OC links and network elements that are configured to transmit data traffic between first and second path-terminating network elements; and at least one protection path comprising a second set of OC links and network elements that are assigned to transmit data traffic between the first and second path-terminating network elements if a failure is detected on the working path, each of the OC links of the second set comprising reserved bandwidth for the data traffic to traverse the protection path wherein tables within the network elements of the working path comprise a protection entry that dictates switching instructions that must be applied to the network elements of the protection path to configure the protection path.
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47. A network element arranged to be coupled within a working path of an optical network, the network element comprising;
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means for monitoring for a failure within the working path; means for determining protection switching data corresponding to the failure if a failure is detected in the working path; means for inserting the determined protection switching data within data traffic; and means for outputting me data traffic with the determined protection switching data inserted, wherein the data traffic comprises a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte; and wherein to insert the protection switching data within the data traffic, the means for inserting the determined protection switching data inserts the protection switching data within the at least one protection byte.
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48. A network element arranged to be assigned within a protection path of an optical network, the network element comprising:
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means for receiving data traffic, the data traffic comprising a plurality of data units, each data unit comprising a path overhead that further comprises at least one protection byte and the protection switching data being located within the at least one protection byte; means for monitoring for changes in protection switching data within the received data traffic; and means for processing the protection switching data in the case that the protection switching data has changed; and wherein the means for processing the protection switching data comprises means for reconfiguring the network element in the case that the protection switching data comprises a switching instruction relate to the network element.
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Specification