System and method for distributed resource reservation protocol-traffic engineering (RSVP-TE) hitless restart in multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network

Abstract

The present invention defines a system and methods for distributed RSVP-TE (resource reservation protocol-traffic engineering) hitless graceful restart for a MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) network. The system comprises a plurality of ingress and egress cards, each card having an MPLS control plane forwarding table for reverse and forward traffic outgoing and incoming labels for LSPs (Label Switched Paths) in the MPLS network; the cards having data planes, each card data plane having said forwarding table stored thereon; and a means for providing messaging between the ingress card MPLS control plane, ingress card data plane, egress card MPLS control plane, and egress card data plane. The methods of the embodiments of this invention do not require hitless graceful restart in telecommunications networks with no requirement for GMPLS stack and therefore can be used in both traditional and generalized MPLS networks. The system and methods for distributed RSVP-TE hitless graceful restart for a MPLS network do not require any new hardware and software resources.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.