Method and apparatus for providing grades of service for unprotected traffic in an optical network
First Claim
1. A protection switch processor of an optical network that supports protected traffic and extra traffic at predefined grades of service using pre-provisioned working and protection channels, the protection switch processor executing under control of software comprising executable instruction code for:
- determining a priority value associated with a protection switch request message for switching protected traffic from a working channel to its associated protection channel;
determining an occupant priority value associated with the protection channel by determining a service priority value associated with unprotected traffic within the protection channel;
comparing the priority value associated with the protection switch request message to the occupant priority value; and
refusing the protection switch request when a bandwidth of the working channel to be switched is greater than an unoccupied portion of the protection channel and the request priority value of the protection switch request is less than or equal to the occupant priority value of the protection channel;
wherein refusing the protection switch request comprises pending the request so that if the unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channel subsequently releases the protection channel, a network element (NE) that issued the priority switch request is notified.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for providing grades of service to unprotected traffic on an optical network that provides protection channels associated with working channels, defines a linearly ordered set of protection switch request priorities, and two or more grade of service priorities, and uses those priorities to enforce a protection access policy. The unprotected traffic may be of a high priority, approximating non-pre-emptable unprotected traffic (NUT); of low priority, like extra traffic; or may be of an intermediate priority between the two. This allows data transport providers to offer different unprotected transport services at different rates on protected links, in which the different unprotected transport services are associated with different probabilities of pre-emption.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A protection switch processor of an optical network that supports protected traffic and extra traffic at predefined grades of service using pre-provisioned working and protection channels, the protection switch processor executing under control of software comprising executable instruction code for:
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determining a priority value associated with a protection switch request message for switching protected traffic from a working channel to its associated protection channel; determining an occupant priority value associated with the protection channel by determining a service priority value associated with unprotected traffic within the protection channel; comparing the priority value associated with the protection switch request message to the occupant priority value; and refusing the protection switch request when a bandwidth of the working channel to be switched is greater than an unoccupied portion of the protection channel and the request priority value of the protection switch request is less than or equal to the occupant priority value of the protection channel; wherein refusing the protection switch request comprises pending the request so that if the unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channel subsequently releases the protection channel, a network element (NE) that issued the priority switch request is notified. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. In an optical network including predetermined protection channels for transport of protected traffic during a failover, a method for controlling access to each protection channel, the method comprising:
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assigning one of a predetermined set of at least two service priority values to each flow of unprotected traffic being transported through at least one protection path of the network; assigning one of a predetermined set of request priority values to each protection switch request for switching protected traffic from a working channel to its associated protection channel; and refusing a protection switch request when a bandwidth of the working channel to be switched is greater than an unoccupied portion of the protection channel and the request priority value of the protection switch request is less than or equal to the service priority value of unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channel; wherein refusing the protection switch request comprises pending the request so that if the unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channel subsequently releases the protection channel, a network element (NE) that issued the priority switch request is notified. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. In an optical network including predetermined protection channels for transport of protected traffic during a failover, a method for handling a protection switch request, the method comprising:
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receiving the protection switch request for switching protected traffic from a working channel to its associated protection channel, the protection switch request including a request priority value; determining a current occupancy of the protection channel, the occupancy being one of idle, occupied by unprotected traffic associated with one of a plurality of grades of service, and occupied by protected traffic switched from a working channel with a specific request priority; and refusing the protection switch request when a bandwidth of the working channel to be switched is greater than an unoccupied portion of the protection channel; and
the request priority value of the protection switch request is less than or equal to the service priority value of unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channelwherein refusing the protection switch request comprises pending the request so that if the unprotected traffic being transported through the protection channel subsequently releases the protection channel, a network element (NE) that issued the priority switch request is notified. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification