1:N sparing of router resources at geographically dispersed locations
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsRobert Duncan Doverspike, Rakesh Kumar Sinha, Peter D. Magill, Jennifer Yates
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are described that that dynamically configure high-speed data link lightpaths between access routers and backbone routers at geographically dispersed locations to reassign traffic when a backbone router fails or is removed from service. Embodiments reduce the quantity of backbone router ports used in dual backbone router-homed networks.
Claims21
A method for configuring a network comprising:
- examining a network topology;
- identifying Backbone Routers (BRs), their network locations and their associated Access Routers (ARs);
- identifying BR locations as heavily- and lightly-used;
- configuring each heavily- and lightly used location;
- connecting each BR and AR at heavily- and lightly-used locations to a router controller;
- connecting the router controller to a dynamic optical layer controller;
- and
- connecting Optical cross-Connects (OXCs) and Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) located at heavily- and lightly-used locations to the dynamic optical layer controller.
A network architecture that includes one or more Backbone Routers (BRs) having a client-side spare port and one or more Access Routers (ARs) having a network-side alternate port that provides network reliability by connecting an AR alternate port with a BR spare port over an optical network comprising:
- a configurable data link lightpath comprising:
- a first Optical cross-Connect (OXC) connected to a network-side AR alternate port and a first Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM), the first ROADM connected to the optical network;
- and
- a second OXC connected to a client-side BR spare port and a second ROADM, the second ROADM connected to the optical network;
- a router controller connected to each BR and AR;
- a dynamic optical layer controller connected to each OXC, ROADM and the optical network;
- and
- the router controller configured to provide data link control between ARs that have network-side alternate ports and BRs that have client-side spare ports and the dynamic optical layer controller configured to determine a data link lightpath between AR alternate ports connected OXCs and BR spare ports connected OXCs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.