US 11,689,959 B2 · Generating path usability state for different sub-paths offered by a network link

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for quantifying quality of several service classes provided by a link between first and second forwarding nodes in a wide area network (WAN). At a first forwarding node, the method computes and stores first and second path quality metric (PQM) values based on packets sent from the second forwarding node for the first and second service classes. The different service classes in some embodiments are associated with different quality of service (QoS) guarantees that the WAN offers to the packets. In some embodiments, the computed PQM value for each service class quantifies the QoS provided to packets processed through the service class. In some embodiments, the first forwarding node adjusts the first and second PQM values as it processes more packets associated with the first and second service classes. The first forwarding node also periodically forwards to the second forwarding node the first and second PQM values that it maintains for the first and second service classes. In some embodiments, the second forwarding node performs a similar set of operations to compute first and second PQM values for packets sent from the first forwarding node for the first and second service classes, and to provide these PQM values to the first forwarding node periodically.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method of forwarding packets associated with a plurality of service classes of a physical L1 (layer 1) QoS (quality of service) aware network link between a first forwarding node at a first physical site of a wide area network (WAN) and a second forwarding node at a second physical site of the WAN, the method comprising:

at the first forwarding node:
designating an operational state of each service class of the physical L1 QoS aware network link, which has the plurality of associated service classes, to be an operational first state, wherein at least two different service classes of the physical L1 QoS aware network link are associated with at least two different QoS guarantees;
identifying path quantifying metric (PQM) values for each service class of the plurality of service classes while forwarding packets from the first forwarding node at the first physical site to the second forwarding node at the second physical site for each service class;
and
based on a particular PQM value of a particular service class, changing the operational state of the particular service class to a degraded or failed second state in order to reduce a number of packets forwarded to the second forwarding node at the second physical site for the particular service class, a degraded state signifying that the particular service class should be used less and a failed state signifying that the particular service class should not be used.

2 more elements

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program that when executed by at least one processing unit forwards packets associated with a plurality of service classes of a physical L1 (layer 1) QoS (quality of service) aware network link between a first forwarding node at a first physical site of a wide area network (WAN) and a second forwarding node at a second physical site of the WAN, the program further comprising sets of instructions for:

at the first forwarding node:
designating an operational state of each service class of the physical L1 QoS aware network link to be a first state;
forwarding packets from the first forwarding node at the first physical site to the second forwarding node at the second physical site for each service class;
receiving, from the second forwarding node, path quantifying metric (PQM) values for each service class of the plurality of service classes, the PQM values computed by the second forwarding node;
and
based on a particular PQM value of a particular service class, changing the operational state of the particular service class to a second state in order to reduce a number of packets forwarded to the second forwarding node at the second physical site for the particular service class.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Generating path usability state for different sub-paths offered by a network link

Life of this patent

Generating path usability state for different sub-paths offered by a network link

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17