Method and node equipment for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end quality of service framework

• US 20070201374A1
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Fan, Lingyuan, Chen, Yuepeng, Zou, Ting, Qing, Wu, Wu, Dengchao
• Granted Patent: US 7,706,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0836 to enhance reliability, e.g. reduce downtime
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]

Abstract

A method for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end Quality of Service framework, including: checking whether connection information held in all node equipment gone through by a session connection is consistent; if it is, finishing the consistency check; otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information from the node equipment. In this invention, consistency check is performed inside every node equipment, and between node equipment in the network, and thus, abnormal resources may be retrieved, so that network service ability will not be affected by abnormal situations. When the network is of large scope, consistency check can be done according to signaling flow sequence for establishing a session connection. When an inconsistent situation is detected, the node equipment gives a feedback to its upstream node equipment. Usually, there is a great quantity of sessions on a network, so it is better to carry out consistency check in batch for decreasing spending. With this method, degradation of service ability because of network abnormity can be avoided, and network reliability and availability can be improved, which is of great economic benefits.

Claims

1. A method for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end Quality of Service framework, comprising:

checking whether connection information held in all node equipment gone through by a session connection is consistent;

if it is, finishing the consistency check;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information from every node equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein checking whether connection information held in all node equipment gone through by a session connection is consistent comprises:

A1. selecting a piece of node equipment from all the node equipment gone through by the session connection, and sending a consistency check request to the selected node equipment;

B1. the selected node equipment, which has received the consistency check request, determining whether the connection information preserved in every module of itself is consistent;

if it is, executing Step C1;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information before executing Step C1;

C1. determining whether the consistency check request is sent from an adjacent node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if it is, returning a response message including connection information of the selected node equipment to the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step D1; and

if the selected node equipment has received a response message from one of its adjacent node equipment as well, executing Step D1;

otherwise, executing Step E1;

D1. based on the connection information carried in the received response message, the selected node equipment determining whether the connection information of itself is consistent with that of its adjacent node equipment;

if it is, executing Step E1;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information held in itself, informing to release the inconsistent connection information from the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step E1;

E1. deciding whether there is any other adjacent node equipment of the selected node equipment that has not implemented inter-node consistency check;

if there is, sending a consistency check request to the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step B1;

otherwise, ending the procedure of consistency check.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the adjacent node equipment is an upstream and/or downstream node equipment of the selected node equipment.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein checking whether connection information held in all node equipment gone through by a session connection is consistent comprises:

performing consistency check inside every node equipment, and performing inter-node consistency check between every two node equipment for all the node equipment gone through by the session connection.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein performing consistency check inside every piece of node equipment for all the node equipment gone through by the session connection comprises:

A2. selecting the most upstream node equipment among all the node equipment gone through by the session connection as a selected node equipment, and sending a consistency check request to the selected node equipment;

B2. the selected node equipment, which has received the consistency check request, determining whether the connection information preserved in every module of itself is consistent;

if it is, executing Step C2;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information;

C2. determining whether there is any downstream node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if there is, sending a consistency check request to the downstream node equipment, and executing Step B2;

otherwise, performing inter-node consistency check between every two node equipment.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein performing inter-node consistency check between every two pieces of node equipment comprises:

D2. determining whether there is any upstream node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if there is, the selected node equipment returning a consistency check response including check result of itself to the upstream node equipment, and executing E2;

otherwise, finishing the consistency check, and ending the procedure;

E2. the upstream node equipment, which has received the consistency check response, determining whether the connection information of itself is consistent with the connection information held in the selected node equipment based on the check result carried in the consistency check response;

if it is, taking the upstream node equipment as a new selected node equipment, and executing Step D2;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information of the upstream node equipment, informing to release the inconsistent connection information from the selected node equipment, taking the upstream node equipment as a new selected node equipment, and executing Step D2.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the consistency check request sent to the selected node equipment is initiated by a timer, which is set within a functional entity of application layer, or according to demands of an operator.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein performing consistency check inside every piece of node equipment for all the node equipment gone through by the session connection comprises:

A3. selecting the most downstream node equipment among all the node equipment gone through by the session connection as a selected node equipment, and sending a consistency check request to the selected node equipment;

B3. the selected node equipment, which has received the consistency check request, determining whether the connection information preserved in every module of itself is consistent;

if it is, executing Step C3;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information;

C3. determining whether there is any upstream node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if there is, sending a consistency check request to the upstream node equipment, and executing Step B3;

otherwise, performing inter-node consistency check between every two node equipment.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein performing inter-node consistency check between every two pieces of node equipment comprises:

D3. determining whether there is any downstream node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if there is, the selected node equipment returning a consistency check response including check result of itself to the downstream node equipment, and executing E3;

otherwise, finishing the consistency check, and ending the procedure;

E3. the downstream node equipment, which has received the consistency check response, determining whether the connection information of itself is consistent with the connection information held in the selected node equipment based on the check result carried in the consistency check response;

if it is, taking the downstream node equipment as a new selected node equipment, and executing Step D3;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information of the downstream node equipment, informing to release the inconsistent connection information from the selected node equipment, taking the downstream node equipment as a new selected node equipment, and executing Step D3.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the consistency check request sent to the selected node equipment is initiated by a timer, which is set within a functional entity of application layer, or according to demands of an operator.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the connection information comprises resource information allocated for the session connection by every piece of node equipment.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the resource information comprises the following one or more conditions:

occupation of bandwidth, usage of a memory and/or buffer, data consistency in a database, status consistency of an interface.

13. A method for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end Quality of Service framework, comprising:

A. selecting a piece of node equipment from all the node equipment gone through by the session connection, and sending a consistency check request to the selected node equipment;

B. the selected node equipment, which has received the consistency check request, determining whether the connection information preserved in every module of itself is consistent;

if it is, executing Step C;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information before executing Step C;

C. determining whether the consistency check request is sent from an adjacent node equipment of the selected node equipment;

if it is, returning a response message including connection information of the selected node equipment to the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step D; and

if the selected node equipment has received a response message from one of its adjacent node equipment as well, executing Step D;

otherwise, executing Step E;

D. based on the connection information carried in the received response message, the selected node equipment determining whether the connection information of itself is consistent with that of its adjacent node equipment;

if it is, executing Step E;

otherwise, releasing the inconsistent connection information held in itself, informing to release the inconsistent connection information from the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step E;

E. deciding whether there is any other adjacent node equipment of the selected node equipment that has not implemented inter-node consistency check;

if there is, sending a consistency check request to the adjacent node equipment, and executing Step B;

otherwise, ending the procedure of consistency check.

14. Node equipment for guaranteeing service reliability in an end-to-end Quality of Service framework, comprising:

means for determining whether connection information preserved in every module of the node equipment is consistent after receiving a consistency check request, and releasing the inconsistent connection information;

means for returning a response message including connection information of the node equipment to an adjacent node equipment when the consistency check request is sent from the adjacent node equipment; and

means for receiving a response message from the adjacent node equipment including connection information of the adjacent node equipment, determining whether the connection information of itself is consistent with that of the adjacent node equipment, and when the connection information of itself and that of the adjacent node equipment is inconsistent, releasing the inconsistent connection information held in itself, and informing the adjacent node equipment to release the inconsistent connection information.