Automatic method for dynamically matching the capacities of connections in a SDH/SONET network combined with fair sharing of network resources
OwnerMark Henrik Sandstrominventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method described in this document enables building a (logical) SDH/SONET ring where the connections between the packet-switched Access Interfaces of the SDH/SONET ring are automatically and dynamically (at 1 ms time-scale) arranged based on the actual volumes of the packet traffic flows between the Access Interfaces of the SDH/SONET ring and fair sharing of network resources. Traffic prioritizing is possible within the Access Interface to Access Interface traffic flows. No packets are lost in the SDH/SONET ring, unless temporarily in case of line or equipment failure.
Claims10
A dynamic integrated router and transport network system comprising:
- a logical SDH ring, the SDH ring comprising a set of access interfaces, the set of access interfaces corresponding to a set of network interfaces of a logical router, wherein a connection can be dynamically formed uni-directionally between a pair of access interfaces;
- a set of connections, with each connection having an associated capacity, wherein the network system dynamically adapts the capacity associated with each connection to a inbound volume of a packet flow routed via the connection between a pair of access interfaces of the SDH ring;
- a plurality of packet terminals coupled by the SDH ring, each of the plurality of packet terminals comprising one or more access interfaces and one or more SDH ring interfaces for transceiving the plurality of packet flows between the other packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring, the set of access interfaces of the plurality of packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring serving as the access interfaces of the SDH ring, and wherein there is one active master connection controller controlling the packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring;
- wherein the active master connection controller periodically receives a set of packet terminal reports, one report from each of the packet terminals on the SDH ring, the reports indicating the inbound volumes associated with the plurality of packet flows routed over the SDH ring between the access interfaces of the packet terminals on the SDH ring, and in response thereto, the active master connection controller provides a set of connection map instructions to the packet terminals on the SDH ring for dynamically adapting the capacity of each of the connections in the SDH ring to the actual volumes of the packet flows associated with the connections.
A dynamic integrated routing and transport networking method implemented on an SDH ring, wherein the SDH ring comprises a set of access interfaces, each access interface comprising an ingress direction interface and an egress direction interface, the set of access interfaces corresponding to a set of network interfaces of a logical router, wherein a connection can be dynamically formed uni-directionally between any pair of the set of access interfaces of the SDH ring, the SDH ring coupling a plurality of packet terminals, each of the plurality of packet terminals comprising one or more access interfaces and one or more SDH ring interfaces for transceiving the set of packet flows between the other packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring, the set of access interfaces of the plurality of packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring serving as the access interfaces of the SDH ring, and wherein there is one active master connection controller controlling the packet terminals coupled with the SDH ring, the method comprising:
- receiving via the ingress access interface of a packet terminal a sequence of packets;
- forming at each of the packet terminals by an associated packet processor the set of packet flows by de-multiplexing by the packet processor each packet accepted from the ingress access interface to one or more of a set of packet sources of the packet terminal based on a SDH ring-scope destinations of the packets received from the ingress access interface, wherein each packet flow starts from one of the packet sources, wherein each packet source comprises a packet source buffer;
- mapping by a packet mapper the sequence of packets from the packet source buffers of the packet terminal to a set of virtual-concatenated SDH containers on a per-flow basis, and de-mapping by the packet mapper the packets transported through the SDH ring from the virtual-concatenated SDH containers to a packet sink buffer associated with each packet terminal and forwarding the packets onto the egress access interface;
- measuring in real-time the inbound traffic volume of each individual packet flow in the SDH ring, the packet flows being formed at each of the packet terminals on the SDH ring;
- based on the volumes of the packet flows and fair sharing of a set of resources of the SDH ring, allocating the SDH ring transport and access capacity among the packet flows between the packet terminals of the SDH ring, and thereupon computing a set of connection maps for a subsequent over-frame period by the master connection controller, wherein a dedicated connection map is generated for each individual packet terminal of the SDH ring, and delivering the composed connection maps to the packet terminals of the SDH ring;
- and
- forming and terminating at each packet terminal a set of virtual-concatenated SDH paths and controlling and performing a set of SDH path cross-connections according to the set of connection maps as provided by the active master connection controller of the SDH ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.