US 6,442,694 B1 · Fault isolation for communication networks for isolating the source of faults comprising attacks, failures, and other network propagating errors

Abstract

A technique for isolating faults in a communication network is described. The techniques can be utilized in high speed communications networks such as all-optical networks (AONs). The technique is distributed, requires only local network node information and can localize attacks for a variety of network applications. The technique is particularly well suited to the problem of attack propagation which arises in AONs. The technique finds application in a variety of network restoration paradigms, including but not limited to automatic protection switching and loopback protection and provides proper network operation reduced, or in some cases no data loss and bounded delay time regardless of the location of the attack or the physical span of the network. Since the technique is distributed, and its associated delays do not depend on the number of nodes in the network. Hence the technique avoids the computational complexity inherent to centralized approaches. It is thus scalable and relatively rapid. Furthermore, the delays in attack isolation do not depend on the transmission delays in the network. A network management system can therefore offer hard upper-bounds on the loss of data due to failures or attacks. Fault localization with centralized algorithms depends on transmission delays, which are proportional to the distance traversed by the data. Since the described techniques for fault localization are not dependent on centralized computations, the techniques are equally applicable to local area networks, metropolitan area networks, or wide area networks.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method for performing attack localization in a network having a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of:

determining, at each of the plurality of nodes in the network, if there is an attack on the node;
transmitting one or more messages between first and second nodes wherein said first node is upstream from said second node and wherein each of the one or more messages indicates that the node transmitting the message detected an attack at the message transmitting node;
and
processing messages received in a message processing one of the first and second nodes to determine if the attack was passed to the message processing node from another node or if the message processing node is a first node to sustain an attack on a certain channel.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Fault isolation for communication networks for isolating the source of faults comprising attacks, failures, and other network propagating errors

Life of this patent

Fault isolation for communication networks for isolating the source of faults comprising attacks, failures, and other network propagating errors

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16