Static, dynamic and intelligent VRF routing for services traffic

• US 8,457,117 B1
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wood, Michael J., Shafique, Sibrina
• Primary Examiner(s): Sam, Phirin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hsiung, Hai-Chang
• Application Number:
  US12/844,761
• Time in Patent Office: 1,043 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/353
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4666 Operational details on the addition or the stripping of a tag in a frame, e.g. at a provider edge node
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's

Abstract

A system for determining static, dynamic and intelligent Virtual Route Forwarding routing for services traffic includes a data device and a network processing device. The network processing device is configured to: receive a data transmission from the data device, analyze the data transmission to identify a data characteristic other than a source or destination associated with the data transmission, create a packet, determine a transmission identifier associated with the data characteristic, and transmit the packet through a network path corresponding to the transmission identifier.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a network interface; and

a processor coupled with the network interface and configured to;

receive a first data packet via the network interface;

decode data from the first data packet;

identify a data characteristic from the decoded data, wherein the data characteristic indicates whether the decoded data is voice data or non-voice data;

determine a virtual route corresponding to the data characteristic;

generate a tag corresponding to the data characteristic;

translate the decoded data into digital data;

encode the digital data into a second data packet that originates in the network device as an Internet Packet to Internet Packet transaction;

add the tag to the second data packet;

identify the virtual route for the second data packet from the data characteristic in the tag; and

transmit the second data packet according to the identified virtual route, where the tag is removed prior to transmitting the packet.

2. The network device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to remove the tag prior to transmitting the second data packet.

3. The network device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the voice data according to a different virtual route than the non-voice data.

4. The network device according to claim 1, wherein the tag is added, by the processor, to the second data packet within the network device.

5. The network device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to translate the tag into a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) label, and wherein the MPLS label is included in the second data packet.

6. The network device according to claim 1, wherein, the processor is further configured to determine whether the data is voice data or non-voice data independently of an ingress port of the network device.

7. The network device according to claim 1, wherein the first data packet is terminated within the network device prior to transmitting the second data packet.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving data at a non-internet protocol interface of a network device;

means for sampling the received data;

means for analyzing the received data to determine a data characteristic included in the received data;

means for determining if the received data is voice data or non-voice data based on the data characteristic;

means for translating the received data into an internet protocol (IP) data packet;

means for determining a virtual route forwarding (VRF) path based on whether the received data is voice data or non-voice data, wherein a different VRF path is associated with voice data as compared to non-voice data;

means for adding an identification tag to the IP data packet indicating whether the received data is voice data or non-voice data;

means for removing the identification tag prior to transmitting the IP data packet, wherein the identification tag is added and removed within the network device;

means for selecting the VRF path from a VRF table corresponding to a determination whether the received data is voice data or non-voice data from the identification tag; and

means for transmitting the IP data packet according to the selected VRF path.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the means for analyzing the received data comprises means for analyzing the received data for the data characteristic other than a source of transmission or destination of the received data.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising means for translating the identification tag into a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) label, wherein the MPLS label is included in the IP data packet.

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising means for terminating the received data within the network device prior to transmitting the IP data packet.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving data at a non-internet protocol interface of a network device;

sampling the received data;

analyzing the received data to determine a data characteristic included in the received data;

generating an identification tag identifying the received data as Internet Protocol (IP) data or as non-Internet Protocol (non-IP) data based on the data characteristic;

translating the received data into an IP data packet;

determining a virtual route forwarding (VRF) path associated with the data characteristic, wherein a different VRF path is associated with IP data as compared to non-IP data;

adding the identification tag to the IP data packet;

removing the identification tag prior to transmitting the IP data packet, wherein the identification tag is added and removed within the network device;

selecting the VRF path for the IP data packet from a VRF table corresponding to the identification tag; and

transmitting the IP data packet according to the selected VRF path.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising identifying a virtual network associated with the received data according to an ingress interface, where the ingress interface is further determined according to the identified virtual network.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein analyzing the received data comprises analyzing the received data to determine the data characteristic other than a virtual network identification.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the received data is sampled by a coder/decoder of the network device.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the received data comprises analog data.