Conditional routing technique

• US 9,451,500 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2012
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Edstam, Jonas, Mller, Karl-Magnus, Rcz, Sndor, Ger, Balzs Peter, Harmatos, Jnos, Ndas, Szilveszter
• Primary Examiner(s): Elpenord, Candal
• Application Number:
  US14/357,719
• Publication Number:
  US 20140341042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,464 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

A technique for controlling network routing in a network (100) is provided. The network (100) includes a first end node (102) and a second end note (104). The end nodes are connectable along a first routing path (106) by at least one link (113). The network (100) further provides a second routing path (108) including the first end node (102) and the second end nodes (104). As to a method aspect of the technique, one or more queues (402) are provided. Each of the queues (402) serves at least one tunnel (Tunnel_1; Tunnel_2) along the first routing path (106). A switching of the tunnel (Tunnel_1) to the second routing path (108) is triggered based on a combination of two pieces of information. A piece of information includes information as to a queue build-up at the queue (504) serving the tunnel (Tunnel_1). Another piece of information includes information as to a capacity of the link (113) of the first routing path (106).

Claims

1. A method of controlling network routing in a network including a first end node and a second end node connectable along a first routing path via at least one link, wherein the network includes at least one intermediate node along the first routing path between the end nodes, the network further providing a second routing path including the first end node and the second end node, the method comprising:

providing one or more queues, each of which serves at least one tunnel along the first routing path, wherein the one or more queues are associated to one of the at least one intermediate node along the first routing path; and

triggering a switching of at least a portion of the at least one tunnel to the second routing path based on a combination of information as to a queue build-up at the queue serving the tunnel and information as to a link capacity of at least one of the links of the first routing path, wherein triggering the switching comprises the intermediate node providing a control signal reflecting a result of the combination of information to at least one of the end nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information as to the queue build-up is obtained by checking a queue length.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a queue threshold is set for each of the one or more queues.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the switching of the tunnel is triggered when a queue length of the queue serving the tunnel exceeds the respective queue threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the switching is triggered during a case of reduced link capacity of the at least one of the links of the first routing path.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the queue build-up is checked continuously while the link capacity remains reduced.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a reduction in the link capacity is monitored while the information indicates the queue build-up.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the queue build-up information and the link capacity information is generated or available at the intermediate node.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the queue build-up information and the link capacity information are combined at the intermediate node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate node triggers the switching by dropping data frames including a connectivity check message.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of queues is provided at the intermediate node and controlled by a scheduler of the intermediate node.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one intermediate node along the first routing path includes a table containing information as to which of the tunnels is to be switched in case of a given link capacity.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the table associates a queue to a given tunnel.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the table associates a minimum link capacity to a given tunnel.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the switching is triggered immediately when the information indicates the queue build-up.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering of the switching includes starting a timer, the switching being further subject to the queue build-up remaining until the timer expires.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the switched tunnel is switched back from the second routing path to the first routing path when the link capacity fulfills for a certain time a minimum link capacity associated to the switched tunnel.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one link along the first routing path includes a microwave link.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is a telecommunications backhaul network.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program product comprising program code portions that, when executed by a processor in a device, configures the device to:

provide one or more queues, each of which serves at least one tunnel along a first routing path that includes one or more links and further includes at least one intermediate node between first and second end nodes, wherein the first and second end nodes are further interconnected by one or more links along a second routing path that includes one or more links and one or more intermediate nodes; and

trigger a switching of at least a portion of the at least one tunnel to the second routing path based on a combination of information as to a queue build-up at the queue serving the tunnel and information as to a link capacity of at least one of the links of the first routing path, wherein the device is configured to trigger the switching by providing a control signal reflecting a result of the combination of information to at least one of the end nodes.

21. A device for controlling network routing in a network including a first end node and a second end node connectable along a first routing path via at least one link, wherein the network includes at least one intermediate node along the first routing path between the end nodes, the network further providing a second routing path including the first end node and the second end node, the device being adapted to:

provide one or more queues, each of which serves at least one tunnel along the first routing path, wherein the one or more queues are associated to one of the at least one intermediate node along the first routing path; and

trigger a switching of at least a portion of the at least one tunnel to the second routing path based on a combination of information as to a queue build-up at the queue serving the tunnel and information as to a link capacity of at least one of the links of the first routing path, wherein the device is configured to trigger the switching by providing a control signal reflecting a result of the combination of information to at least one of the end nodes.

22. A network comprising:

a first end node and a second end node connectable along a first routing path via at least one link, wherein the network includes at least one intermediate node along the first routing path between the end nodes, wherein the network further provides a second routing path including the first end node and the second end node; and

a device configured to;

provide one or more queues, each of which serves at least one tunnel along the first routing path, wherein the one or more queues are associated to one of the at least one intermediate node along the first routing path; and

trigger a switching of at least a portion of the at least one tunnel to the second routing path, based on a combination of information as to a queue build-up at the queue serving the tunnel and information as to a link capacity of at least one of the links of the first routing path, wherein the device is configured to trigger the switching by providing a control signal reflecting a result of the combination of information to at least one of the end nodes.