Micro-flow management
AssigneeCaspian Networks, Inc.
InventorLawrence G. Roberts
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
New switching technology relies upon state information for providing a previously unavailable degree of quality of service. In particular, by providing the ability to give service guarantees to uniquely identifiable sets of packets (“micro-flows”), different qualities of service can be offered for each transmission. The QoS associated with each micro-flow is characterized by a set of descriptors. These descriptors are communicated to each switch by the first packet of the micro-flow associated with the descriptors.
Claims93
A micro-flow manager comprising:
- a micro-flow recognizer adapted to receive a first data signal and to identify a flow block corresponding to the first data signal;
- and
- a scheduler, coupled to the micro-flow classifier, adapted to trigger the transmission of a second data signal corresponding to the identified flow block associated with the first data signal.
A micro-flow linecard comprising:
- a memory including a flow block table, wherein said flow block table includes a flow block including state information;
- and
- an ingress micro-flow manager, coupled to the memory, adapted to receive a data signal and adapted to transmit a micro-flow data signal corresponding to the flow block.
A micro-flow linecard comprising:
- a flow block table including a plurality of flow blocks, wherein each of said flow blocks includes state information;
- and
- a micro-flow recognizer adapted to receive a data signal and to search the flow block table for one of the plurality of flow blocks corresponding to information retrieved from the data signal.
A micro-flow switch comprising:
- a switch core adapted to route a micro-flow data signal;
- and
- an ingress linecard, coupled to the switch core, adapted to receive a data signal and to transmit the micro-flow data signal to the switch core.
A micro-flow linecard comprising:
- a flow block table including a plurality of flow blocks, wherein each of said flow blocks includes state information;
- and
- a micro-flow classifier, coupled to the micro-flow recognizer, adapted to retrieve information from a data signal and to associate a flow block with the retrieved information.
A micro-flow network comprising:
- a first micro-flow switch, adapted to receive a first data signal and to transmit a micro-flow data signal;
- and
- a second micro-flow switch, coupled to the first micro-flow switch, adapted to receive the micro-flow data signal and to transmit a second data signal.
A flow block comprising:
- a transmission rate value;
- and a delay variation value.
A micro-flow data packet including:
- a label field;
- and
- a quality of service field.
A method for generating a flow block corresponding to a data signal, the method comprising the steps of:
- retrieving information from the data signal;
- determining state information corresponding to the retrieved information;
- and
- associating the state information with the data signal.
A method for routing a micro-flow comprising the steps of:
- receiving a data signal;
- and
- associating the data signal with a flow block.
A method for routing a micro-flow comprising the steps of:
- receiving a plurality of data signals;
- associating a flow block to the plurality of data signals;
- transmitting a plurality of micro-flow data signals, wherein the plurality of micro-flow data signals includes a label field corresponding to the flow block and wherein the first micro-flow data signal of the plurality of micro-flow data signals also includes a quality of service field including state information from the flow block.
A method for routing a plurality of micro-flows comprising the steps of:
- receiving a first micro-flow data signal and a second micro-flow data signal at a first switch;
- transmitting a micro-flow data signal corresponding to a first micro-flow of the plurality of micro-flows to a second switch;
- and
- transmitting a micro-flow data signal corresponding to a second micro-flow of the plurality of micro-flows to a third switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.