System and method for network wide guaranteed delivery of frames

A system for guaranteed delivery of frames across a packet transmission network, the system comprising:

• a packet transmission network comprising a plurality of network switches, the plurality of network switches interconnected to define a plurality of frame transmission pathways therebetween;
• a plurality of virtual circuits, each virtual circuit defined between two endpoints of the packet transmission network and configured to transmit one or more sets of sequential frames between the two endpoints, wherein each set of sequential frames comprises an initial frame, one or more subsequent frames, and a final frame;
• wherein each virtual circuit of the plurality of virtual circuits is created by a network controller to conform to one or more predetermined maximum allowable quality of service requirements;
• wherein the network controller configures each network switch of the plurality of network switches to execute a frame replication and elimination process for each virtual circuit corresponding to an enabled identification flag on a forwarding table of each network switch to meet at least one of the one or more predetermined maximum allowable quality of service requirements;
• wherein the frame replication and elimination process is not performed on each virtual circuit that lacks the enabled identification flag;
• wherein the frame replication and elimination process comprises, for each of the one or more sets of sequential frames, the steps of:
• receiving a frame of an instant set of sequential frames at an instant network switch of the plurality of network switches;
• querying the forwarding table of the instant network switch for the enabled identification flag associated with an instant virtual circuit, wherein the enabled identification flag comprises one of:
• an entry point flag identifying the instant network switch as a replication ingress switch, an exit point flag identifying the instant network switch as a replication egress switch, and a transit flag identifying the instant network switch as a replication intermediary switch;
• wherein if the enabled identification flag is the entry point flag, the instant network switch of the plurality of network switches executes the following steps:
• inserting a compound stream sequence number into the frame, wherein the compound stream sequence number identifies a position of the frame within the instant set of sequential frames;
• replicating the frame a number of times equivalent to a quantity of member streams sufficient to meet the one or more predetermined quality of service requirements, defining a plurality of replicated frames, wherein each member stream corresponds to a set of contiguous frame transmission pathways disposed between the replication ingress switch and the replication egress switch;
• wherein each member stream together defines a compound stream;
• inserting a compound stream member number into each replicated frame of the plurality of replicated frames, wherein the compound stream member number identifies the member stream each replicated frame is associated with;
• egressing each replicated frame through an egress port of the instant network switch associated with the corresponding member stream;
• incrementing the compound stream sequence number for a subsequent frame of the instant set of sequential frames;
• wherein if the enabled identification flag is the transit flag, the instant network switch of the plurality of network switches executes the following steps:
• querying the frame for the compound stream member number inserted therein;
• egressing the frame through an egress port of the instant network switch associated with the member stream corresponding to the compound stream member number;
• wherein if the identification flag is the exit point flag, the instant switch of the plurality of network switches executes the following steps:
• inserting a compound stream number into the frame, wherein the compound stream number comprises an index indicating decision logic for selecting which replicated frames of the plurality of replicated frames are to be eliminated;
• processing each replicated frame from each member stream according to a compound stream processing algorithm to enqueue a first arriving replicated frame across each of the member streams and eliminate all duplicate frames arriving from one or more different member streams;
• egressing the first arriving replicated frame of the instant set of sequential frames from an egress port of the instant network switch once the compound stream processing algorithm identifies that the first arriving replicated frame is next in the sequence of the instant set of sequential frames;
• repeating each step of the frame replication and elimination process for each subsequent frame of the instant set of sequential frames until the final frame of the instant set of sequential frames is egressed from the replication egress switch.