Traffic balancing apparatus and method, and network forwarding apparatus and method using the same

• US 7,492,708 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 02/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Liang, Zhiyong, Li, Dan, Lin, Yonghua, Ge, Yi, Wang, Yan Qi
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH, MARCUS
• Application Number:
  US11/393,968
• Publication Number:
  US 20060233175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,055 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2212/00 Encapsulation of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/52 Multiprotocol routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results

Abstract

The present invention reduces the burden of the network having heavier load, maintains the load balance among different networks, and improves the overall resource utilization efficiency and transmission qualities of the networks, by providing a network forwarding apparatus for selectively distributing the IP packets to be forwarded to the network having less traffic for transmission by monitoring in real-time the traffic in the different networks.

Claims

1. An IP packet forwarding method performed in a network forwarding apparatus for forwarding IP packets in different networks employing two or more IP protocols comprising IPv4 protocol and IPv6 protocol, the network forwarding apparatus comprising an edge router and supporting the two or more IP protocols and holding a routing table for storing routing information employing one of the IP protocols as a direct path toward a destination address, said IP packet forwarding method comprises the steps of:

determining, for the destination address employing the one of the IP protocols in the routing table of said network forwarding apparatus, one or more routing information employing other IP protocols, as tunnel paths toward the destination address wherein the routing information comprises the next hop IP address;

monitoring traffic in said different networks to judge whether the traffic among said different networks is balanced or not, wherein the judgment as to whether the traffic is balanced or not is made by monitoring bandwidth;

determining, for the IP packet to be forwarded containing the destination address, a forward path from said direct path and said tunnel paths, to balance the traffic among said different networks, when it is judged that traffic imbalance occurs among the different networks, wherein the step of determining the tunnel paths comprises the steps of;

determining, for the destination address employing the one of the IP protocols in said routing table of the network forwarding apparatus, one or more routing information employing other IP protocols, as candidate tunnel paths towards the destination address;

detecting the link transmission qualities of said determined candidate tunnel paths;

determining priorities of the candidate tunnel paths based on the detected link transmission qualities of the candidate tunnel paths; and

determining the tunnel paths from the candidate tunnel paths according to the determined priorities; and

converting the IP packet to be forwarded into the packet of the IP protocol employed by the determined forwarding path, when the IP protocol employed by the determined forwarding path is different from the IP protocol employed by the IP packet to be forwarded.