Service prioritization in link state controlled layer two networks

• US 8,873,401 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2011
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ashwood-Smith, Peter, Guoli, Yin, Xuejiang, Zhang
• Primary Examiner(s): Banks Harold, Marsha D
• Assistant Examiner(s): WYLLIE, CHRISTOPHER T
• Application Number:
  US13/013,394
• Publication Number:
  US 20110228780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/242
• 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 45/026 Details of "hello" or keep-alive messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery

Abstract

An apparatus comprising a node configured to maintain a plurality of downloaded forwarding states for a plurality of link state based services that are associated with the node and a plurality of other nodes in a network comprising the node, and a plurality of advertised service identifiers (IDs) that correspond to the link state based services, wherein the service IDs are ordered in sequence from higher priority to lower priority link state based services, and wherein work is instantiated at the node according to the ordered sequence from higher priority to lower priority link state based services.

Claims

1. An apparatus for service prioritization after a failure within a network, comprising:

a processor configured to;

maintain a plurality of downloaded forwarding states for a plurality of link state based services that originate from a plurality of nodes in the network and a plurality of advertised service identifiers (IDs) that correspond to the link state based services, wherein each of the nodes are associated with at least one of the service IDs;

detect a failure within the network;

prioritize the link state based services based on the advertised service IDs associated with the link state based services;

advertise one or more priority levels of the link state based services to the plurality of nodes;

order the plurality of nodes based on the priority levels of the service IDs associated with each of the nodes and based on a number of higher priority level services that originate from the nodes,

wherein ordering the nodes based on the priority levels of the service IDs associated with each of the nodes comprises ordering the nodes from highest priority level to lowest priority level; and

restore at least one of the link state based services using the priority level of the link state based services subsequent to detecting the failure within the network,

wherein restoring the at least one of the link state based services is based on the ordering of the nodes, and

wherein services for link state based services that have higher priority level are restored before the link state based services that have lower priority level.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the service IDs are ordered based on values of the service IDs such that the service IDs that have the lower values have higher priority than the service IDs that have higher values.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the service IDs are ordered based on a plurality of advertised fields that correspond to the service IDs and indicate the priority level of the corresponding link state based services, and wherein the network is a distributed computation system.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the link state based services comprise Ethernet-Local Area Network (E-LAN) services, E-TREE services, E-LINE services, or combinations thereof, wherein the link state based services are configured in a tree topology.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the link state based services are Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1aq based services at the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network Layer Two (layer 2) or Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) based services (VPLS).

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the link state based services are established using an Intermediate System-Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol, an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol, or a Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein restoring the link state based services comprises calculating the forwarding states for the link state based services, and wherein ordering the nodes is based on the priority level of the link state based service that is originated at each of the nodes.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to compute a plurality of forwarding states for one or more of the nodes that follows the ordering of the nodes.

19. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein restoring the link state based services further comprises installing the calculated forwarding states.

9. A network component comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a plurality of ordered service identifiers (IDs) that correspond to a plurality of services, wherein the network component is associated with at least one of the services;

a circuit configured to;

detect a fault within a network;

order the service IDs in sequence based on priorities of the corresponding services from higher priority to lower priority services;

determine an order value for the network component based on the priorities of the services that are associated with the network component;

calculate a plurality of forwarding states that correspond to at least one of the services after detecting the fault, wherein the forwarding states for services with the higher priorities are calculated before the services with the lower priorities; and

restore the network component in order based on an order value of the network component; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the ordered service IDs and the forwarding states that correspond to the services in a sequence from higher priority to lower priority services,

wherein the order value is used to provide a sequence order for the network component and a plurality of nodes,

wherein determining the order value for the network component comprises;

ordering the network component with respect to the nodes based on the priority of the services associated with the network components and the nodes from the higher priorities to the lower priorities; and

ordering the network component based on a number of higher priority services that originate from the network component.

10. The network component of claim 9, wherein the service IDs correspond to a plurality of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1aq Intermediate System ID (ISID) values, and wherein the service IDs are ordered according to the corresponding IEEE 802.1aq ISID values from lower ISID values to higher ISID values.

11. The network component of claim 10, wherein a plurality of rank fields associated with the ISID values are received with the ISID values, and wherein the service IDs are ordered according to the rank fields from higher rank values to lower rank values.

12. The network component of claim 9, wherein some of the services are affected by the fault, wherein the circuit is further configured to calculate forwarding tables for only the services affected by the fault, and wherein the services comprise Ethernet Local Area Network (E-LAN) services.

13. The network component of claim 9, wherein the service IDs are prioritized based on the order the receiver received the service IDs, and wherein the order value is based on the service that is originated from the network component.

14. The network component of claim 9, wherein the plurality of forwarding states are calculated for each of the nodes based on the priorities of the nodes and the network component.

15. A computer-implemented method for service prioritization after a failure within a network, wherein the method comprises:

detecting a fault within the network that comprises a plurality of nodes;

ordering a plurality of link state based services based on a plurality of advertised ranks for the link state based services;

ordering the nodes based on priority levels of the link state based services that are associated with each of the nodes, wherein each node is associated with at least one link state based service;

computing a plurality of forwarding states for the link state based services using the order of the nodes in response to the fault, wherein the forwarding states for the nodes that have lower ranks are computed after the forwarding states for the nodes that have higher ranks; and

downloading the computed forwarding states for the higher ranked services before downloading the computed forwarding states for the lower ranked services, wherein ordering the nodes based on the priority levels of the link state based services comprises;

ordering the nodes from a higher priority to a lower priority; and

ordering the nodes based on a number of higher priority services that originate from the nodes.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the ranks for the link state based services are advertised after detecting a network fault, and wherein the link state based services comprise Ethernet Local Area Network (E-LAN) services.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the forwarding states for the link state based services that have higher ranks are restored first after downloading the forwarding states to the nodes, and wherein ordering the nodes is based on the priority level of the link state based service that is originated from each of the nodes.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

ordering the plurality of link state based services per node;

computing the plurality of forwarding states for the link state based services based on the ordered link state based services per node; and

downloading the computed forwarding states based on ordering the nodes from the higher priority to the lower priority.