System and method for managing communications in an access network
First Claim
1. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
- receiving on a first interface a first packetized communication via a carrier-tagged flow, each packet of the first packetized communication having a plurality of carrier tags prepended to a carrier-tagged flow payload;
determining a second interface on which the first packetized communication is to be routed, the second interface being based upon the first interface and an outermost carrier tag;
routing the first packetized communication to the second interface,wherein the one or more carrier tags are pushed on each packet of the first packetized communication as the first packetized communication travels through the access network.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
System and method for managing communications in an access network is provided. The system and method utilizes carrier-tagged paths established between communicatively coupled terminating elements, such as a service or customer edge and network elements, such as a building aggregator, layer 2 switch, or the like. The carrier-tagged paths may be nested within one another, and carrier-tagged paths may be aggregated together to simplify switching. Carrier-tagged flows carried over the carrier-tagged paths include one or more carrier tags prepended to terminating element traffic. For example, in an embodiment, inbound carrier-tagged flows from multiple sources destined for a common service edge may be merged by prepending a common carrier tag. In another embodiment, outbound carrier-tagged flows are nested within other carrier-tagged flows.
210 Citations
98 Claims
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1. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving on a first interface a first packetized communication via a carrier-tagged flow, each packet of the first packetized communication having a plurality of carrier tags prepended to a carrier-tagged flow payload; determining a second interface on which the first packetized communication is to be routed, the second interface being based upon the first interface and an outermost carrier tag; routing the first packetized communication to the second interface, wherein the one or more carrier tags are pushed on each packet of the first packetized communication as the first packetized communication travels through the access network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a first carrier-tagged flow from a first network device, the first carrier-tagged flow having one or more packets, each packet having a plurality of carrier tags; determining a first carrier-tagged path to which the first carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the determining being based at least in part on a first outermost carrier tag of the carrier tags; routing the first carrier-tagged flow to the first carrier-tagged path; and switching the first outermost label with a second outermost label. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a first carrier-tagged flow from a first network device, the first carrier-tagged flow having one or more packets, each packet having one or more carrier tags; determining a second network device to which the first carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the determining being based at least in part on a first outermost carrier tag of the carrier tags; pushing a second outermost carrier tag onto each packet of the first carrier-tagged flow, the second outermost carrier tag indicating a second carrier-tagged flow within which the first carrier-tagged flow is nested; and routing the second carrier-tagged flow to the second network device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving communications from a first network device, the communications comprising one or more packets; determining a terminating element to which the communications are to be sent; pushing a first carrier tag on each packet of the communications, the first carrier tag indicating a first carrier-tagged flow; pushing a second carrier tag on each packet of the communications, the second carrier tag indicating a second carrier-tagged flow, the first carrier-tagged flow being nested within the second carrier-tagged flow; and transmitting each packet on the second carrier-tagged flow to a second network element. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a first packetized communications from a first network device, the first packetized communications comprising one or more packets, each packet having a first carrier-tag and a second carrier tag prepended to a carrier-tagged flow payload; popping the first carrier tag thereby creating a second packetized communications comprising the second carrier tag prepended to the carrier-tagged flow payload; determining a terminating element to which the second packetized communications are to be sent, the determining being based at least in part on the first carrier tag; and transmitting the second packetized communications to the terminating element. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a first carrier-tagged flow from a first network device, the first carrier-tagged flow having one or more packets, each packet having a first carrier tag and a second carrier tag prepended to a carrier-tagged flow payload; popping the first carrier tag from the each packet of the first carrier-tagged flow, thereby creating a second carrier-tagged flow comprising the second carrier tag prepended to the carrier-tagged flow payload; determining a destination network element to which the second carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the destination network element being based at least in part on the first carrier tag; and routing the second carrier-tagged flow to the destination network element. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a first carrier-tagged flow from a first network device, the first carrier-tagged flow comprising a first carrier tag prepended to a first nested carrier-tagged flow and a second carrier tag prepended to a second nested carrier tagged flow; popping the first carrier tag from the first nested carrier-tagged flow; determining a first destination network element to which the first nested carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the determining the first destination network element being based at least in part on the first carrier tag; routing the first nested carrier-tagged flow to the first destination network element; popping the second carrier tag from the second nested carrier-tagged flow; determining a second destination network element to which the second nested carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the determining the second destination network element being based at least in part on the second carrier tag; and routing the second nested carrier-tagged flow to the second destination network element. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. A method for providing communications in an access network, the method comprising:
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receiving a carrier-tagged flow from a first network device, the carrier-tagged flow comprising one or more packets, each packet comprising at least a first carrier tag and a second carrier tag prepended to a carrier-tagged flow payload; popping the first carrier tag from each packet; determining a terminating element to which the communications are to be sent, the determining being based at least in part on the first carrier tag; and transmitting the carrier-tagged flow payload to a customer edge. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A method for implementing a proxy function by a first network element, the method comprising:
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receiving by the first network element communications from a second network element, the first network element performing for the first terminating element a first forwarding proxy function that includes pushing a first carrier tag on the communications from the second network element to form a first carrier-tagged flow; pushing a second carrier tag on the first carrier-tagged flow to form a second carrier-tagged flow; determining a third network element to which the second carrier-tagged flow is to be routed, the determining being based at least in part on the second carrier tag; and sending the second carrier-tagged flow to the third network element. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88)
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89. A method for establishing carrier-tagged paths within an access network, the method comprising:
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establishing a carrier-tagged path between a first network element and a second network element, the carrier-tagged path being identified by a first carrier tag; establishing a first control link between the first and second network element; establishing control links between the first network element and one or more customer terminating equipments; receiving a control message by the first network element from the second network element, the control message comprising at least an identifier of a specific customer terminating equipment; distributing a second carrier tag over the control link between the first network element and the specific customer terminating equipment; receiving communications by the first network element from the customer terminating equipment, the communications including the second carrier tag; and sending the communications to the second network element on the carrier-tagged path. - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98)
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Specification