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US 10,142,387 B2Granted
Distributed coordination of network elements for packet encapsulation
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsAli C. Begen, William C. Ver Steeg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one embodiment, an encapsulator device receives a source stream of encoded packets in a first transport format and converts the source stream to packets of an output stream in a second transport format for communication over a data network. The encapsulator device generates a mapping stream with information indicating which packets in the source stream are used to generate the output stream. The output stream of the encapsulator device is coordinated with the output stream of other encapsulator devices by sending the mapping stream to the other encapsulator devices in the network. The other encapsulator devices use the mapping stream to generate identical output streams.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- at each of a plurality of encapsulator devices comprising a master encapsulator device and one or more slave encapsulator devices, receiving a source stream of encoded packets in a first transport format;
- at the master encapsulator device, generating a preliminary plan for converting the encoded packets of the source stream to packets of a master output stream in a second transport format for communication over a data network, wherein the preliminary plan identifies a plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream corresponding to each packet of the master output stream;
- at the master encapsulator device, generating a preliminary mapping stream that comprises information identifying the plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of the packets of the master output stream according to the preliminary plan;
- sending the preliminary mapping stream from the master encapsulator device to the one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- receiving feedback from the one or more slave encapsulator devices, the feedback comprising an evaluation of the preliminary plan at the one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- updating the preliminary plan with the feedback received from the one or more slave encapsulator devices to generate a finalized plan;
- generating a finalized mapping stream that comprises updated information identifying an updated plurality of encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of the packets of the master output stream according to the finalized plan;
- sending the finalized mapping stream from the master encapsulator device to the one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- and
- at each of the one or more slave encapsulator devices, using the updated information in the finalized mapping stream to generate a slave output stream according to the finalized plan, wherein each slave output stream is identical to the master output stream.
7 more elements
A device comprising:
- a network interface unit configured to receive a source stream of encoded packets in a first transport format;
- and
- a processor coupled to the first network interface unit, wherein the processor is configured to:
- generate a preliminary plan for converting the encoded packets of the source stream to packets of a master output stream in a second transform format for communication over a data network, wherein the preliminary plan identifies a plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream corresponding to each packet of the master output stream;
- generate a preliminary mapping stream that comprises information identifying the plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of packets of the master output stream according to the preliminary plan;
- cause the network interface unit to send the preliminary mapping stream to one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- receive via the network interface unit, feedback from the one or more slave encapsulator devices, the feedback comprising an evaluation of the preliminary plan at the one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- update the preliminary plan with the feedback to generate a finalized plan;
- generate a finalized mapping stream that comprises updated information identifying an updated plurality of encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of the packets of the master output stream according to the finalized plan;
- and
- cause the network interface unit to send the finalized mapping stream to the one or more slave encapsulator devices so that each of the one or more slave encapsulator devices uses the updated information in the finalized mapping stream to generate a slave output stream that is identical to the master output stream.
8 more elements
A non-transitory processor readable memory medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
- receive at a master encapsulator device, a source stream of encoded packets in a first transport format;
- generate a preliminary plan for converting the encoded packets of the source stream to packets of a master output stream in a second transport format for communication over a data network, wherein the preliminary plan identifies a plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream corresponding to each packet of the master output stream;
- generate a preliminary mapping stream that comprises information identifying the plurality of the encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of the packets of the master output stream according to the preliminary plan;
- send the preliminary mapping stream to one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- receive feedback from the one or more slave encapsulator devices, the feedback comprising an evaluation of the preliminary plan at the one or more slave encapsulator devices;
- update the preliminary plan with the feedback to generate a finalized plan;
- generate a finalized mapping stream that comprises updated information identifying an updated plurality of encoded packets of the source stream that are used to generate each of the packets of the master output stream according to the finalized plan;
- and
- send the finalized mapping stream to the one or more slave encapsulator devices so that each of the one or more slave encapsulator devices can use the updated information in the updated mapping stream to generate a slave output stream that is identical to the master output stream.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.