Flexible shared mesh protection services for intelligent TDM-based optical transport networks

• US 8,477,769 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2008
• Issued: 07/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ciena Corporation
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Stephen Shyan-Shiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDREWS, LEON T
• Application Number:
  US12/119,818
• Publication Number:
  US 20090285574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,876 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/388
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/14 Monitoring arrangements for SDH/SONET rings H04J3/085
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1652 Optical Transport Network [OTN]

Abstract

A system includes one or more active/working circuit groups to transfer information through a protection domain, the protection domain defined by a plurality of network devices and a plurality of links connecting the network devices between a start point and an end point; and a protection circuit group through the protection domain, the protection circuit group being disjoint from the one or more active/working circuit groups to provide shared protection for the one or more active/working circuit groups, where the protection circuit group is comprised of an individual protection circuit and where a capacity of the protection circuit group is dynamically adjusted based on a capacity of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more active/working circuit groups to transfer information through a protection domain,

the protection domain defined by a plurality of network devices and a plurality of links connecting the plurality of network devices between a start point and an end point;

a primary protection circuit through the protection domain,

the primary protection circuit being disjoint from the one or more active/working circuit groups and providing shared protection for the one or more active/working circuit groups,

the primary protection circuit being comprised of an individual protection circuit,

a capacity of the primary protection circuit being dynamically adjusted when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold, and

the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the one or more active/working circuit groups divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit;

a secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit providing shared protection for the one or more active/working circuit groups, and

the secondary protection circuit being used to restore one or more faults when a worst case protection bandwidth exceeds a particular threshold associated with the capacity of the primary protection circuit; and

a processor to;

receive a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designate one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-route each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the processor, when re-routing each path, being to one of;

re-route each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-route each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 

the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

update the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

2. The system of claim 1, where the plurality of links supports at least one of:

an external-network network interface (E-NNI);

or

an internal-network network interface (I-NNI).

3. The system of claim 1, where the secondary protection circuit is disjoint from the primary protection circuit.

4. The system of claim 1, where each of the one or more active/working circuit groups comprises a fully disjoint prototype path.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device to store a protection circuit group table with a registration of at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit and a current status of at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit.

6. The system of claim 5, where the storage device is further to store one or more of:

an available bandwidth for protection in the primary protection circuit,

a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit, or

a protection type of the primary protection circuit.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device to store an active/working circuit group table with a registration of each of the one or more active/working circuit groups and a current status of each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

8. The system of claim 1, where

each active/working circuit group comprises one or more individual circuit segments, and

an information stream from the one or more individual circuit segments of the one or more active/working circuit groups is automatically switched to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit in the event of a failure of the one or more individual circuit segments.

9. The system of claim 1, where at least two of the one or more active/working circuit groups, the primary protection circuit, or the secondary protection circuit are of different circuit types.

10. A method comprising:

selecting, by one or more devices, one or more prototype paths over a protection domain within an optical transport network,

the prototype paths defining an active/working circuit group;

configuring, by the one or more devices, a primary protection circuit over the protection domain to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group,

the primary protection circuit being disjoint from the active/working circuit group;

calculating, by the one or more devices, a protection bandwidth ratio based on a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit and a total bandwidth of the active/working circuit group;

dynamically adjusting, by the one or more devices, a capacity of the primary protection circuit when the protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold;

determining, by the one or more devices, whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

adding, by the one or more devices and when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, a secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receiving a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designating one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-routing each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the re-routing each path including one of;

re-routing each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-routing each path to another secondary protection circuit,

the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

updating the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

automatically switching an information stream from an individual circuit segment of the active/working circuit group to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit when a failure of the individual circuit segment is detected.

12. The method of claim 10, where the active/working circuit group and the protection circuit are of different types.

13. The method of claim 10, where an amount of prototype paths in the active/working circuit group is adjusted dynamically.

14. The method of claim 10,

where the secondary protection circuit is disjoint from the primary protection circuit.

15. The method of claim 10, where the protection domain includes an internal-network network interface (I-NNI) domain or an external-network network interface (E-NNI) domain.

16. The method of claim 10, where the protection domain includes at least one internal-network network interface (I-NNI) domain and at least one external-network network interface (E-NNI) domain.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

creating an active/working circuit group table for each prototype path.

18. A system comprising:

a plurality of circuits;

a primary protection circuit;

a secondary protection circuit; and

a transport network, including a shared protection mechanism, that;

allows a quantity of circuits, of the plurality of circuits, between a particular start point and particular end point to increase in real-time,

dynamically adjusts a capacity of the primary protection circuit when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold, the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the number of circuits divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit,

determines whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

adds, when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, the secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receives a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designates one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-routes each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the re-routing each path including to one of;

re-routing each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-routing each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 

the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

updates the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.

19. The system of claim 18, where the transport network automatically switches an information stream to at least one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit in the event of a failure of a circuit.

20. A system comprising:

one or more devices to;

select one or more prototype paths over a protection domain within an optical transport network, the one or more prototype paths defining an active/working circuit group;

select a primary protection circuit over the protection domain to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group, the protection circuit being disjoint from the active/working circuit group;

dynamically adjust a capacity of the primary protection circuit when a protection bandwidth ratio is outside a predetermined threshold,

the protection bandwidth ratio being based on a total bandwidth of the active/working circuit group divided by a total available protection bandwidth of the primary protection circuit;

determine whether the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit satisfies a worst case protection bandwidth threshold;

add, when the dynamically adjusted capacity of the primary protection circuit does not satisfy a worst case protection bandwidth threshold, the secondary protection circuit,

the secondary protection circuit being to provide shared protection for the active/working circuit group;

receive a request to remove one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit;

designate one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit for removal based on a comparison of respective bandwidths of the primary protection circuit and the secondary protection circuit;

re-route each path associated with the designated one of the primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit,

the one or more devices, when re-routing each path, being to one of;

re-route each path to the one of primary protection circuit or the secondary protection circuit that is not designated for removal, or

re-route each path to another secondary protection circuit,

 

the other secondary protection circuit being different than the secondary protection circuit; and

update the protection bandwidth ratio for each of the one or more active/working circuit groups.