Transport network and method

• US 7,133,403 B1
• Filed: 06/06/2000
• Issued: 11/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Wynn, David W., Mo, Li, Bardalai, Snigdho C., Yaseen, Nimer Ibrahim, Bucklin, George E., Jaber, Abed Mohd, Mezeul, Michael J., Harbin, Edward Alton, Sullivan, Edward T., Terwilliger, David W., Ko, Kai Chung, Moore, Francois
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper, Kevin C.
• Application Number:
  US09/588,806
• Time in Patent Office: 2,345 Days
• Field of Search: 370/351, 370/389, 370/390, 370/400, 370/401, 370/395.1, 370/395.5, 370/395.53
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5627 Fault tolerance and recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/502 Frame based
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections

Abstract

A transport network includes a flexible topology for internally defining transport elements. The transport elements each include a port group having a plurality of geographically distributed ports from the transport network. Point-to-multipoint connectivity is defined between the ports in a port group. An identifier represents the port group as a single element to internal and/or external elements for protocol exchanges.

Claims

1. A transport element, comprising:

a port group comprising a plurality of geographically distributed ports;

point-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports;

an identifier operable to represent the port group as a single element to disparate elements and associated with a single IP address;

a primary processor operable to generate routing information for the transport element and to distribute the routing information to the ports in the port group for traffic processing, the routing information comprising a routing information base (RIB); and

a secondary processor for each port in the port group, the secondary processor operable to receive the RIB from the primary processor and to generate a forwarding information base (FIB) for the port based on the RIB.

2. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element is defined in a transport network, the identifier operable to represent the port group as a single element to an external node outside the transport network.

3. The transport element of claim 2, wherein the port group is operable to participate with the external node in protocol exchanges.

4. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element comprises a transport router interconnecting a set of subtending Internet protocol (IP) routers.

5. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element comprises a transport Ethernet switch interconnecting a set of subtending Ethernet switches.

6. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element comprises a transport Frame Relay switch interconnecting a set of subtending Frame Relay switches.

7. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the port group is user protocol independent and transparently interconnects a plurality of external ports of an external network.

8. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element is unaware of an internal topology of the transport network outside of the transport element.

9. The transport element of claim 1, further comprising a set of high-speed links directly connecting the ports of the port group.

10. The transport element of claim 1, further comprising multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports.

11. The transport element of claim 1, further comprising each port operable to receive Internet protocol (IP) packets, to add an internal transport overhead to the IP packet to generate an internal packet, and to transmit the internal packet directly on an optical link to an egress port in the port group.

12. The transport element of claim 1, further comprising the geographically distributed ports connected in a non-ring topology.

28. The transport element of claim 1, wherein the transport element is defined in a transport network including a plurality of transport elements, the transport element unaware of topologies of the other transport elements in the transport network.

13. A transport network, comprising:

a plurality of geographically distributed nodes;

each node including a plurality of ports;

a plurality of transport elements, each transport element including a port group having a plurality of ports from the geographically distributed nodes and associated with a single IP address, each transport element comprising;

a primary processor operable to generate routing information for the transport element and to distribute the routing information to the ports in the port group for traffic processing, the routing information comprising a routing information base (RIB); and

a secondary processor for each port in the port group, the secondary processor operable to receive the RIB from the primary processor and to generate a forwarding information base (FIB) for the port based on the RIB;

point-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports of the port groups of the transport elements; and

each transport element unaware of topologies of the other transport elements in the transport network.

14. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising an internal address space for the transport network independent from an external network.

15. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising an identifier operable to represent each port group as a single element within the transport network and external to the transport network.

16. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising software stored on computer-readable media, the software operable to selectively define the point-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports of the port groups.

17. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising an identifier operable to represent each port group as a single element to an external node, each port group operable to use the identifier to participate with the external node in protocol exchanges.

18. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising each transport element unaware of an internal topology of the transport network outside of the transport element.

19. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising a set of high-speed links directly connecting the ports of at least one port group.

20. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports of at least one port group.

21. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising each port of at least one port group operable to receive Internet protocol (IP) packets, to add an internal transport overhead to the IP packet to generate an internal packet and to transmit the internal packet directly on an optical link to an egress port in the port group.

22. The transport network of claim 13, further comprising the ports in at least one port group connected in a non-ring topology.

23. A method for provisioning a transport element in a transport network, comprising:

defining at least one port group in the transport network, the port group comprising a plurality of ports from geographically distributed nodes of the transport network;

defining point-to-multipoint connectivity between the ports in the port group;

representing the port group as a single entity to an external network and associated with a single IP address; and

defining the transport element in a transport network including a plurality of transport elements, the transport element unaware of topologies of the other transport elements in the transport network, the transport element comprising;

a primary processor operable to generate routing information for the transport element and to distribute the routing information to the ports in the port group for traffic processing, the routing information comprising a routing information base (RIB); and

a secondary processor for each port in the port group, the secondary processor operable to receive the RIB from the primary processor and to generate a forwarding information base (FIB) for the port based on the RIB.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

discovering a topology of the port group; and

generating routing information based on the topology of the port group to define the point-to-multipoint connectivity between ports of the port group.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

generating the routing information at a centralized location for the port group; and

distributing the routing information to each of the ports in the port group.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the transport element is a transport router and the identifier comprises a router identifier.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising peering the transport router with subtending routers.