Alarm transfer method and wide area ethernet network
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorToru Takamichi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An alarm transfer method for use in a wide area Ethernet network has the steps of generating a plurality of fixed-length frames from an Ethernet frame sent from a client terminal, generating capsules each comprised of each of the fixed-length frames, a type field for notifying a fault, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying the fault in a backward direction, multiplexing the capsules to generate a frame which is transferred to an Ethernet network, and demultiplexing capsules from a received frame to recognize a fault for each Ethernet path.
Claims16
An alarm transfer method in a wide area Ethernet network which has Ethernet networks each for accommodating client lines from client terminals and a plurality of types of transmission networks for connecting said Ethernet networks to one another, said alarm transfer method used for mutually notifying said client terminals placed in communication that a fault occurs in said wide area Ethernet network, said alarm transfer method comprising the steps of:
- dividing an Ethernet frame sent from one of said client terminal every predetermined fixed length to generate a plurality of fixed-length frames;
- generating a capsule comprised of each of said fixed-length frames, a type field for notifying a fault occurring on one of said client lines, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault occurring in said transmission network in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying the fault in a backward direction;
- multiplexing said generated capsules for each of a plurality of Ethernet paths set between client terminals placed in communication to generate a frame adapted for said transmission network, and transferring said frame to an Ethernet network which accommodates a destination client terminal;
- and
- demultiplexing said respective capsules from the received frame, and referencing said type field, said forward relay line fault notification field, and said backward relay line fault notification field to recognize the fault occurring on said one client line or the fault occurring in said transmission network for each of said Ethernet paths.
A wide area Ethernet network having Ethernet networks each for accommodating client lines from client terminals, and a plurality of types of transmission networks for interconnecting said Ethernet networks, wherein a fault occurring on one of said client line or in said transmission network is mutually notified between said client terminals placed in communication, said wide area Ethernet network comprising:
- a multiplexer which functions as an edge node of said Ethernet network, wherein:
- said multiplexer, upon receipt of an Ethernet frame sent from one of said client terminals, divides said Ethernet frame every predetermined fixed length to generate a plurality of fixed-length frames, generates a capsule comprised of each of said fixed-length frames, a type field for notifying a fault occurring on one of said client lines, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault occurring in said transmission network in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying the fault in a backward direction, multiplexes said generated capsules for each of a plurality of Ethernet paths set between client terminals placed in communication to generate a frame adapted for said transmission network, and transfers said frame to an Ethernet network which accommodates a destination client terminal;
- and
- said multiplexer, upon receipt of a frame from said transmission network, demultiplexes said respective capsules from said frame for each of Ethernet paths set between client terminals placed in communication, and references said type field, said forward relay line fault notification field, and said backward relay line fault notification field to recognize the fault occurring on said one client line or the fault occurring in said transmission network for each of said Ethernet paths.
A wide area Ethernet network comprising:
- an ingress node for dividing a higher-level protocol data sent from each of a plurality of client terminals every predetermined fixed length to generate a plurality of fixed-length frames, generating a capsule comprised of each of said fixed-length frames, a CRC field for detecting whether or not the data sent from said each client terminal is normal, a type field for notifying a fault occurring on a client line, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault occurring in a transmission network in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying said fault in a backward direction, multiplexing said capsules in a predefined order and adding an FCS field for detecting whether or not data in said capsules is normal to generate a multiplexed MAC frame, and sending said multiplexed MAC frame;
- and
- an egress node for detecting a defective data reception for each Ethernet path from the result of checking said CRC field added to said fixed-length frame, detecting a relay line fault in the forward direction and in the backward direction for each Ethernet path from information in said type field, said forward relay line fault notification field, and said backward relay line fault notification field, identifying an alarm for a path network layer from said detected defective data reception and said relay line fault information, detecting a defective data reception for each line from the result of checking said FCS field added to said multiplexed MAC frame, and detecting loss of signal and link-down for each line to identify an alarm for a transmission medium network layer.
An Ethernet multiplexer for relaying information transmitted/received between Ethernet networks for accommodating client lines from client terminals and a plurality of types of transmission networks for connecting said Ethernet networks to each other, said Ethernet multiplexer serving as an edge node of each of said Ethernet networks, comprising:
- a GbE_MAC processing circuit for transmitting and receiving a frame to and from said transmission networks, and for detecting a fault occurring on any of said transmission networks;
- a TDM_MUX/DEMUX circuit for time-division-multiplexing or demultiplexing frames transmitted in an upstream direction or in a downstream direction in units of a plurality of Ethernet paths set between client terminals placed in communication;
- an FE_MAC processing circuit for detecting transmission/reception of an Ethernet frame to/from one of said client lines, and detecting a fault occurring on said one client line;
- and
- a GBP processing circuit, in response to a received Ethernet frame sent from one of said client terminals, for dividing said Ethernet frame every predetermined length to generate fixed-length frames, generating a capsule including a core block composed of each of said fixed-length frames and a type field added thereto for notifying a fault occurring on said one client line, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault occurring in said transmission networks in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying said fault in a backward direction, said GBP processing circuit, upon detection of a fault occurring on one of said client lines, adding a code indicative of the fault on said one client line to said type field, and overwriting a payload with a predefined idle frame, said GBP processing circuit, upon receipt of a frame from one of said transmission networks, monitors said core block, said forward relay line fault notification field, and said backward relay line fault notification field, respectively, to identify a fault occurring on said one client line or a fault occurring in said transmission networks for each of said Ethernet paths.
An Ethernet multiplexer for relaying a capsule transmitted/received between Ethernet networks each for accommodating client lines from client terminals and a transmission network for interconnecting said Ethernet networks, said capsule including a type field for notifying a fault occurring on one of said client lines, a forward relay line fault notification field for notifying a fault occurring in said transmission network in a forward direction, and a backward relay line fault notification field for notifying said fault in a backward direction, said Ethernet multiplexer comprising:
- a terminator circuit for transmitting/receiving frames to/from said transmission network, and detecting a line fault in said transmission network;
- a TDM_MUX/DEMUX circuit for time-division-multiplexing or demultiplexing frames transmitted in an upstream direction or in a downstream direction in a predefined order in units of a plurality of Ethernet paths which are set between client terminals placed in communication;
- a MAC processing circuit for transmitting/receiving frames to/from said Ethernet networks, and detecting a line fault in said Ethernet networks;
- and
- GBP relay processing circuit for relaying said capsule for each of said Ethernet paths, and in response to a fault detected by said terminator circuit or said MAC processing circuit, setting a code indicative of the presence of a line fault in said forward relay line fault notification field, setting a code indicative of the absence of a line fault in said backward relay line fault notification field, setting a code indicative of no fault on said client lines in said type field, and setting a predefined idle frame in a payload.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.