Connection-Oriented Communications Scheme For Connection-Less Communications Traffic
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Abstract
A communications scheme for configuring a network comprising a plurality of connected switching apparatus, each switching apparatus having functionality for implementing connectionless forwarding of received communications traffic to selectively provide a connection-oriented service for said received communications traffic, the scheme comprising: determining in a control plane index header field values to identify connectionless traffic received at switching apparatus for which a connection is to be established between a source node and a destination node; providing each switching apparatus necessary to implement the connection with information from the control plane, the information enabling the data forwarding tables of the switching to be populated with said index header field values in association with egress ports of the switching apparatus; and disabling all other functionality on said switching apparatus capable of populating the data forwarding tables with index information associated with said egress ports of the switching apparatus necessary to establish said connection.
673 Citations
157 Claims
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1-111. -111. (canceled)
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112. A switching apparatus in a communications network, the switching apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of ingress ports arranged to receive traffic in the form of protocol data units which conform to a connection-less communications protocol;
a plurality of egress ports for forwarding received traffic on;
interface means arranged to receive information from a control plane processor; and
data storage means, whereby information provided by the control plane is stored and arranged to associate an egress port of the switching apparatus with an index field, wherein the information received by the switching apparatus from the control plane enables the switching apparatus to operate to provide a connection-oriented mode of transport for the received traffic to establish a connection between a source node and an end node in said communications network via a plurality of other switching apparatus configured by the control plane, wherein said switching apparatus has no other functionality capable of controlling the data forwarding function for the interfaces of said switching apparatus configured by said control plane to provide a connection-oriented mode of transport for said received traffic, wherein the mode of transport for received traffic between said source and said destination is determinable by the control plane for the plurality of switching apparatus in the communications network. - View Dependent Claims (113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 143, 144, 145, 146)
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- 138. A method of modifying switching apparatus deployed in a communications network to provide a connectionless service over said communications network, wherein said method comprises the step of disabling the data forwarding functionality of the switching apparatus from using information calculated from connectionless routing protocols to implement connectionless routing, and wherein said information populating said forwarding table is provided by the control plane of the switching apparatus, wherein said provided information enables the switching apparatus to implement its data forwarding functionality for received packets.
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140. A method of modifying switching apparatus deployed in a communications network to provide a connectionless service over said communications network, wherein said method comprises the step of preventing data forwarding in connectionless mode by populating the forwarding table with connection-oriented entries which take precedence over connectionless forwarding entries, and wherein said information populating said forwarding table is provided by the control plane of the switching apparatus, wherein said provided information enables the switching apparatus to implement its data forwarding functionality for received packets.
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141. A method of switching packets over a communications network comprising a plurality of interconnected switching apparatus, the method comprising:
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receiving packets at a switching apparatus connected to said communications network, forwarding said packets at a switching apparatus by populating a data store arranged to associate information provided in at least one field of the header of a received packet with an egress port of the switching apparatus using information provided by one or more control plane processors associated with the switching apparatus, said one or more control plane processors comprising the control plane of said communications network, whereby the data forwarding and/or route filtering functionality of the switching apparatus are controlled by the control plane of the communications network.
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142. A communications network comprising a plurality of switching apparatus interconnected to provide switchable data transport between data sources and data sinks, wherein the data forwarding and data filtering functions each switch apparatus performs on received packets is controlled by a control plane comprising one or more control plane processors, said control plane providing each switch apparatus with control data enabling the switching apparatus to implement its data forwarding and data filtering functionality on received packets, said received packets including header information having address information conforming to a connectionless protocol, said control data enabling said switching apparatus to provide a connection-oriented service for said received packets.
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147. A method of generating an end-to-end connection over a communications network comprising a plurality of switching apparatus preconfigured to support a connectionless communications protocols the method comprising the steps of:
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reconfiguring the switching apparatus by;
disabling any functionality supporting forwarding a received communications traffic flow using said connectionless communications protocol;
enabling functionality supporting forwarding a received communications traffic flow using a connection-oriented communications protocol;
determining a path for said end-to-end connection from a source to a sink for said traffic flow;
communicating said path via a control interface to provide routing information for said received traffic flow, whereby said enabling functionality forwards said received traffic flow towards said sink across said communications network.
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148. In a communications network comprising a plurality of local area networks interconnected by a wide area network, a method of providing differentiated forwarding modes for packetised data received from a first one of said plurality of LANs to a second one of said plurality of LANs, the method comprising:
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at a first apparatus arranged to provide data from said first LAN with access to said WAN, performing a look-up operation on a plurality of header fields for said data;
determining if each of said plurality of header fields are associated with routing information stored in a data store populated by the control plane of said first apparatus;
routing said data across said wide area network to a second apparatus arranged to provide access to data from said WAN to said second LAN in accordance with the routing information provided by said control plane. - View Dependent Claims (149, 150, 151)
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152. A method of configuring switching apparatus to receive management and/or signalling information comprising the steps of:
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retaining a broadcast functionality on one or more specific ports of said switching apparatus, disabling all pre-existing functionality supporting pre-configured connectionless protocols from other ports of said switching apparatus, said other ports being re-configured by information derived from said management and signalling information received on said one or more specific ports to provide one or more connection-oriented modes of transport for traffic received at said other ports, said traffic received at said other ports conforming to a connectionless communications protocol, whereby, said one or more specific ports of said switching apparatus are configured to logically isolate said received management and/or signalling information from other traffic received by the switching apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (153, 154)
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155. A communications scheme for configuring a network comprising a plurality of connected switching apparatus, each switching apparatus having functionality for implementing connectionless forwarding of received communications traffic to selectively provide a connection-oriented service for said received communications traffic, the scheme comprising:
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determining index header field values to identify traffic received at switching apparatus for which a connection is to be established between a source node and a destination node;
providing each switching apparatus necessary to implement the connection with information which enables their data forwarding tables to be populated with said index header field values in association with egress ports of the switching apparatus; and
disabling all other functionality on said switching apparatus capable of populating the data forwarding tables with index information associated with said egress ports of the switching apparatus necessary to establish said connection. - View Dependent Claims (156, 157)
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Specification