Method and apparatus for forwarding of telecommunications traffic
First Claim
1. A telecommunications node with an ability to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic, the node comprising:
- a backplane, which is able to switch IP-packets;
at least two device boards, which are connected to the backplane and are associated with the handling of IP-traffic;
at least one resource for processing telecommunications traffic,a resource manager; and
a distributed forwarding engine functionality,wherein the forwarding engine functionality is distributed such that each of said at least two device boards is provided with a forwarding engine,wherein at least a first device board of said at least two device boards is further provided with at least a first resource of the at least one resource and at least one board internal IP-subnet, having an associated IP subnet address and at least a first associated IP interface address,wherein the first associated IP interface address is based on said associated IP subnet address,wherein the board internal IP-subnet is associated with the at least one resource, andwherein the resource manager is arranged to perform a load distribution within the node by determining that a destination address of a first telecommunications traffic stream is to be based on the IP subnet address associated with the board internal IP-subnet.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a telecommunications node (1a) that is able to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic, which node includes means for simple and effective load distribution between resources (40-43) in the node. The inventive telecommunications node (1a) includes board internal IP-subnets (45, 46) with associated subnet interfaces (45a, 46a) having interface addresses and a distributed forwarding engine structure where every device board (10, 11a, 12a) associated with the handling of IP-traffic is provided with a forwarding engine (20-22). Each board internal IP-subnet (45, 46) is associated with at least one predetermined node resource (40-43) for processing telecommunications traffic, thereby enabling a resource manager (49) to perform load distribution by ordering a destination address for a selected stream of IP-traffic, which is to terminate in the node, to be based on the interface address associated with a selected board internal IP-subnet (45, 46).
16 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A telecommunications node with an ability to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic, the node comprising:
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a backplane, which is able to switch IP-packets; at least two device boards, which are connected to the backplane and are associated with the handling of IP-traffic; at least one resource for processing telecommunications traffic, a resource manager; and a distributed forwarding engine functionality, wherein the forwarding engine functionality is distributed such that each of said at least two device boards is provided with a forwarding engine, wherein at least a first device board of said at least two device boards is further provided with at least a first resource of the at least one resource and at least one board internal IP-subnet, having an associated IP subnet address and at least a first associated IP interface address, wherein the first associated IP interface address is based on said associated IP subnet address, wherein the board internal IP-subnet is associated with the at least one resource, and wherein the resource manager is arranged to perform a load distribution within the node by determining that a destination address of a first telecommunications traffic stream is to be based on the IP subnet address associated with the board internal IP-subnet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for distributing load within a telecommunications node, wherein the node is able to handle IP-traffic and to terminate telecommunications traffic and wherein the node includes a backplane, which is able to switch IP-packets, and at least two device boards, connected to the backplane, said method comprising:
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a resource manager of the node determining at least a first resource of the node to be appropriate for processing a first stream of telecommunications traffic; the resource manager ordering a destination address of said first stream of telecommunications traffic to be based on a first IP subnet address associated with at least one first board internal IP-subnet, which is located on a first device board of the at least two device boards and which is associated with the first resource; a first forwarding engine located on a second device board of the at least two device boards receiving at least one IP-packet associated with the first stream of telecommunications traffic and forwarding the at least one IP-packet, via the backplane, based on the destination address, to a second forwarding engine located on the first device board; and the second forwarding engine forwarding the at least one IP-packet to the first IP-subnet for further forwarding to the first resource. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A telecommunications node, comprising:
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a plurality of device boards, including a first and second device boards, operatively connected to each other via a backplane, wherein the first and second device boards are configured to handle IP traffic; and a resource manager configured to manage resources of the node to distribute load across the plurality of device boards, wherein the resource manager is configured to determine that for a particular IP traffic type, a resource on the second device board is currently better suited to handle the particular IP traffic type, wherein the resource manager is configured to communicate with one or more networks external to the node to notify the one or more external networks that IP data of the particular IP traffic type is to have a destination IP address corresponding to a subnet IP address corresponding to the resource on the second device, and wherein the first device board is configured to receive IP data from the one or more external networks, the first device board including a forwarding engine configured to forward the IP data based on the destination IP address of the IP data. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification