Customer traffic forwarding continues while control plane is reset
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A network element comprising:
- a line card configured to receive and transmit data traffic; and
a motherboard coupled to the line card, the motherboard including;
one or more control planes configured to control data traffic processing of the network element;
a data plane configured to perform the data traffic processing; and
a selecting multi-domain reset controller configured to selectively reset the one or more control planes without resetting the data plane, wherein to selectively reset the one or more control planes comprises resetting the one or more control planes while the data traffic processing by the data plane continues and without interruption while the one or more control planes are reset and returning the one or more control planes to a state able to reassert control over the data plane.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus selectively resetting a control plane in a network element is described. One embodiment of the invention is a network element with a selective reset controller that can reset the control plane of the network element without interrupting the data traffic processing of the data plane of the network element.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A network element comprising:
-
a line card configured to receive and transmit data traffic; and a motherboard coupled to the line card, the motherboard including; one or more control planes configured to control data traffic processing of the network element; a data plane configured to perform the data traffic processing; and a selecting multi-domain reset controller configured to selectively reset the one or more control planes without resetting the data plane, wherein to selectively reset the one or more control planes comprises resetting the one or more control planes while the data traffic processing by the data plane continues and without interruption while the one or more control planes are reset and returning the one or more control planes to a state able to reassert control over the data plane. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 21, 22)
-
-
10. A method performed by a network element, comprising:
-
receiving a control plane reset condition, wherein the control plane reset condition indicates that one or more control planes of the network element are to be reset, and wherein the network element comprises a motherboard and a line card, the motherboard including the one or more control planes and a data plane and the one or more control planes comprise a set of control plane components; generating a set of control plane signals; resetting respective control plane components from the set of control plane components in response to the generated set of control plane signals while data traffic processing by the data plane continues and without interruption over a period when the respective control plane components are reset; and returning the one or more control planes to a state able to reassert control over the data plane. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 23)
-
-
15. A machine-readable storage medium that is one of a disk, a memory, and a card and that stores instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
-
receiving a control plane reset condition, wherein the control plane reset condition indicates that one or more control planes of a network element are to be reset, wherein the network element comprises a motherboard and a line card, the motherboard including the one or more control planes and a data plane and the one or more control planes comprise a set of control plane components; generating a set of control plane signals; resetting respective control plane components from the set of control plane components in response to the generated set of control plane signals without an interruption of data traffic processing by the data plane; and returning the one or more control planes to a state able to reassert control over the data plane. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. An apparatus comprising:
-
a motherboard; a data plane module including a component on the motherboard and operable to process data traffic; a control plane module on the motherboard and operable to control the data traffic processing comprising, a selecting multi-domain reset control module that selectively resets the control plane module without resetting the data plane module, wherein to selectively reset the control plane module comprises resetting the control plane module without an interruption of the data traffic processing by the data plane module and returning the control plane module to a state able to reassert control over the data plane module; and a cross plane interface module comprising a control plane interface and a data plane interface, wherein the cross plane interface module selectively resets the control plane interface in response to the control plane module resetting. - View Dependent Claims (20)
-
Specification