Network to network interface (NNI) for multiple private network service providers

• US 8,756,344 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2010
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Inventors: Waldrop, Craig Alan, Youn, Sukwan, Patterson, Lane Gordon
• Primary Examiner(s): Ashraf, Waseem
• Application Number:
  US12/875,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20110060846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 709/249, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3054 Auto-negotiation, e.g. access control between switch gigabit interface connector [GBIC] and link

Abstract

An Ethernet exchanger connected to private Ethernet networks of participating carriers to enable the private Ethernet networks to be interconnected at a common point. The Ethernet exchanger not biased to any participating carrier and is configured to receive, translate and transmit frames from one private Ethernet network to another private Ethernet network. The frame translation is performed by the Ethernet exchanger is based on the profiles of the participating carriers. The profiles are created based on information provided by the participating carriers using templates presented by an online web portal.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a carrier-neutral Ethernet exchanger coupled to two or more private Ethernet networks of participating carriers to enable the two or more private Ethernet networks to be interconnected at a common point, the two or more private Ethernet networks including a first private Ethernet network associated with a first Ethernet frame type of a first Ethernet protocol and a second private Ethernet network associated with a second Ethernet frame type of a second Ethernet protocol, wherein frames from the first private Ethernet network are received, translated from the first Ethernet protocol to the second Ethernet protocol, and transmitted by the Ethernet exchanger to the second private Ethernet network, wherein frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger is based on a first profile associated with the first private Ethernet network and a second profile associated with the second private Ethernet network, the first profile and the second profile stored in a relational database associated with the Ethernet exchanger, the first profile and the second profile established based on information received from a first participating carrier associated with the first private Ethernet network and from a second participating carrier associated with the second private Ethernet network respectively using an online web portal which is hosted on a server cooperating with the Ethernet exchanger;

wherein the online web portal is configured to present web pages and templates to a browser application on a client machine to solicit the information from the participating carriers, where the templates are configured to enable the participating carriers to create profile information and provide other information about their private Ethernet networks, wherein the profile information provided by the participating carriers is configured to be extracted automatically from the templates via a first extraction routine, which then stores the profile information in the relational database associated with the Ethernet exchanger;

wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a configuration module configured to qualify the participating carriers, enable the participating carriers to search for other participating carriers and their services, buy and sell services to the other participating carriers, and provide bandwidth translation and Quality of Service (QoS) mapping; and

wherein components of the apparatus are implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both, and where components of the apparatus implemented in the software are stored in an executable format on one or more non-transitory machine-readable mediums.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier-neutral Ethernet exchanger is configured for the participating carriers to connect to each other'"'"'s private Ethernet networks, with a standard network-to-network interface (NNI) and with a process that reuses already entered or known data preventing the process from having to be done from scratch each time repeatedly, wherein each time a new template is presented to the participating carrier the information now stored in the relational database is used to pre-populate known information in the new template presented to the participating carrier, which allows for a faster building of the NNI for each participating carrier in a one-to-many solution based on usage of standards and usage of the known information, wherein the online web portal is configured to standardize any NNI connections via having coded routines for:

a) service connectivity and fabric provisioning between the participating carriers connected to ports of the Ethernet exchanger;

b) service virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation between solicited VLAN IDs of the two or more private Ethernet networks creating a change within multiple network environments;

c) service virtual local area network (VLAN) frame translation between a solicited VLAN frame type used in each network being provisioned;

d) service Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) adaptation between any solicited MTU allowed in each network being provisioned; and

e) service VLAN tag protocol identifier (TPID) translation for any solicited VLAN TPID assigned in each of the two or more private Ethernet networks being provisioned; and

any Quality of Service (QoS) parameters used in each of the two or more private Ethernet network being provisioned.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to perform the frame translation of the frames received from the first private Ethernet network while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of each frame, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger comprises translating the first Ethernet frame type to the second Ethernet frame type.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger comprises translating a first service type associated with the first private Ethernet network to a second service type associated with the second private Ethernet network, and wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a routine configured to perform handshaking, mapping, and conversion between different protocols and guarantee of service metrics used by the first and second participating carriers.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first profile and the second profile comprise the information associated with the first participating carrier and the second participating carrier and made available to other participating carriers through the online web portal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an interconnection between the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network is to enable the second participating carrier to use a third private Ethernet network associated with the first participating carrier without the second participating carrier having a direct connection between the second private Ethernet network and the third private Ethernet network.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Ethernet exchanger a) is configured to aggregate and translate private Ethernet services, via the templates supplied to the browser application of the client machine from the online web portal integrated with the Ethernet exchanger, b) has a provisioning routine to provision virtual circuits among the two or more private Ethernet networks on behalf of the participating carriers, and c) is configured to facilitate Ethernet services across multiple geographically distinct locations.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to provide a many-to-many layer 2 Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) to enable the participating carriers to connect to the Ethernet exchanger and be interconnected with other participating carriers also connected to the Ethernet exchanger, wherein translation of private Ethernet services in between the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network are performed independent of a proprietary protocol used in any of the two or more private Ethernet networks.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to provide mechanisms to enable the participating carriers to monitor and troubleshoot their respective interconnected private Ethernet networks end-to-end, the mechanisms including the online web portal and one or more application programming interfaces (APIs).

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to enable the first private Ethernet network to be interconnected to the two or more private Ethernet networks of the other participating carriers simultaneously and to enable the first participating carrier to take advantage of already laid-out network wirings of the other participating carriers, and wherein the multiple geographically distinct locations include locations in different continents.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first private Ethernet network of the first participating carrier can be interconnected to the two or more private Ethernet networks of one or more other participating carriers without leaving a framework of the first private Ethernet network.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a request for quote (RFQ) is used to enable the buy and sell services, and wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to provision circuits based on both the information provided by the participating carriers via the templates and information included in the RFQ.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the Ethernet exchanger includes a provisioning module configured to take the information from the RFQ and the relational database and automatically populate fields of a provisioning request, and wherein logical and physical connections are established in the Ethernet exchanger based on the fields of the provisioning request to interconnect the two or more private Ethernet networks of the participating carriers involved in the RFQ.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger comprises preserving a portion of an incoming frame including a service frame carrying data, and translating a portion of the incoming frame including at least its Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) translation, virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation and tag protocol identifier (TPID) translation.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the Ethernet exchanger is configured to generate support ticket information and making the support ticket information accessible via an application programming interface (API) to enable a network operation center (NOC) of the participating carriers to trouble shoot their circuits.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frame translation performed by the Ethernet exchanger includes virtual local area network (VLAN) frame translation between a first VLAN frame type used in the first private Ethernet network and a second, different VLAN frame type used in the second private Ethernet network.

16. A method for interconnecting private Ethernet networks using an Ethernet exchanger, the method comprising:

establishing a virtual circuit to interconnect a first private Ethernet network with a second private Ethernet network based on information received from a respective first service provider and second service provider, wherein the information is received via a web portal through one or more templates, where the one or more templates are configured to enable the first and second respective service providers to create profile information and provide other information about their first and second private Ethernet networks, wherein the profile information provided by the service providers is configured to be extracted automatically from the one or more templates via a first extraction routine, which then stores the profile information in a database, where the virtual circuit established in the Ethernet exchanger couples with the web portal which is hosted on a server and accessible via a web browser on a client machine;

translating a frame received from the first private Ethernet network from a first Ethernet protocol into a second Ethernet protocol to form a translated frame, the second Ethernet protocol selected based on the information received from the second service provider, wherein the translating comprises virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation, and frame type translation, and wherein the translating is performed by the Ethernet exchanger while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of the frame;

transmitting the translated frame to the second private Ethernet network via the virtual circuit; and

allowing configuring to i) qualify the first and second service providers, i) enable the first and second service providers to search for other service providers and their services, iii) buy and sell services to the other service providers, and iv) provide bandwidth translation and Quality of Service (QoS) mapping.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

performing maximum transmission unit (MTU) adaptation on the frame; and

performing necessary handshaking, mapping, and conversion operations between different protocols associated with the first private Ethernet network and the second private Ethernet network, wherein the translated frame is transmitted to a destination located in a different geographical area as compared to a location of the first private Ethernet network.

18. A system comprising:

means for enabling a plurality of Ethernet service providers to become qualified and participate in an Ethernet switch platform configured to provide a many-to-many Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) to enable the plurality of Ethernet service providers to connect to the Ethernet switch platform and be interconnected with other Ethernet service providers also connected to the Ethernet switch platform;

means for translating frames received from a first private Ethernet network of a first Ethernet service provider from a first Ethernet protocol into a second Ethernet protocol to form said translated frames to be transmitted to a second private Ethernet network of a second Ethernet service provider, wherein said translating the frames includes virtual local area network identifier (VLAN ID) translation, and frame type translation, and wherein said translating is to be performed while preserving a protocol data unit (PDU) portion of the frames, and wherein the second Ethernet protocol is selected from a plurality of potential Ethernet protocols based on information associated with the second private Ethernet network, the information stored in a database of an Ethernet exchanger;

means for transmitting translated frames to the second private Ethernet network via a virtual circuit in the Ethernet switch platform, the virtual circuit interconnecting the first Ethernet network with the second Ethernet network via a port of the first Ethernet service provider and a separate port of the second Ethernet service provider;

means for presenting web pages and templates to a browser application on a client machine to solicit information from participating carriers, where the templates are configured to enable the participating carriers to create profile information and provide other information about their respective first or second private Ethernet networks, wherein the profile information provided by the participating carriers is configured to be extracted automatically from the templates and then stored in the database associated with the Ethernet exchanger; and

means for configuring to qualify the participating carriers, means for enabling the participating carriers to search for other participating carriers and their services, means for buying and selling services to the other participating carriers, means for monitoring and troubleshooting private Ethernet networks end-to-end, means for providing bandwidth translation and means for Quality of Service (QoS) mapping.