ECMP path tracing in an MPLS enabled network
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorRaymond Washburn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A network tracing engine is configured to trace and depict a topology (i.e., a network configuration) of a network using, for example, a network diagram. The network tracing engine preferably queries/telnets to interfaces of routers associated with one or more source-to-destination paths in a network concurrently and independently to ensure proper configuration of the routers and/or to generate a true depiction of a routing configuration without redundantly querying routers.
Claims18
A label switching network device, the device comprising:
- a processing device;
- and
- a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device, perform operations comprising:
- transmitting a parent trace thread to a first edge router;
- generating a child trace thread according to trace information obtained from the first edge router;
- receiving trace information associated with a plurality of paths, the trace information received by tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread that hops from the first edge router to a second edge router;
- terminating the child trace thread to identify a terminated trace thread in response to two of the plurality of paths converging, the trace information of the terminated trace thread stored in another trace thread;
- generating a network configuration representation using the trace information associated with the plurality of paths;
- and
- displaying the network configuration representation on a graphical user interface, wherein the plurality of paths are equal cost paths, and wherein the trace information is obtained by independently and concurrently tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread.
A method of representing a network configuration in a label switching network, the method comprising:
- transmitting, by a system comprising a processing device, a parent trace thread to a first edge router;
- generating, by the system, a child trace thread according to trace information obtained from the first edge router;
- obtaining, by the system, trace information associated with a plurality of paths, the trace information obtained by tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread that hop from the first edge router to a second edge router;
- terminating, by the system, the child trace thread to identify a terminated trace thread in response to two of the plurality of paths converging, the trace information of the terminated trace thread stored in another trace thread;
- generating, by the system, a network configuration representation using the trace information associated with the plurality of paths;
- and
- displaying, by the system, the network configuration representation on a graphical user interface, wherein the plurality of paths are equal cost paths, and wherein the trace information is obtained by independently and concurrently tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread.
A machine-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processing device, perform operations in a label switching network, the operations comprising:
- transmitting a parent trace thread to a first edge router;
- generating a child thread according to trace information obtained from the first edge router;
- receiving trace information associated with a plurality of paths, the trace information received by tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread that hops from the first edge router to a second edge router;
- terminating the child trace thread to identify a terminated trace thread in response to two of the plurality of paths converging, the trace information of the terminated trace thread stored in another trace thread;
- generating a network configuration representation using the trace information associated with the plurality of paths;
- and
- displaying the network configuration representation on a graphical user interface, wherein the plurality of paths are equal cost paths, and wherein the trace information is obtained by independently and concurrently tracing the plurality of paths using the child trace thread.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.