Method of protecting as against span failures in a communication network
AssigneeCiena Corporation
InventorsBiao Lu, Christopher Liou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for protecting a span that connects a first node to a second node in a communication network includes the steps of creating a first protection virtual path connecting the first node with the second node through at least a third node using a routing-protocol and a signaling-protocol and monitoring a failure condition in the span. Upon detecting the failure condition in the span, the method also includes the steps of switching automatically to the first protection virtual path, and creating a new protection virtual path, using the routing-protocol and the signaling-protocol, for each span in the first protection virtual path, connecting two nodes at each end of the given span through at least another node.
Claims4
A smart span in a communication network comprising:
- a first node;
- a second node;
- a span connecting the first node with the second node with a direct path;
- a path type indicator, stored in one of the two nodes, having a value of either a working type or a protecting type adapted to specify a type of the direct path;
- electronic path-creating circuitry in one of the first and second nodes;
- and
- when the path type indicator being the working type,
- a protection virtual path connecting the first and second nodes through a third node, created by the electronic path-creating circuitry, and
- an automatic protection switch in one of the first and second nodes adapted to automatically switch to the protection virtual path upon detecting a failure condition in the span
- wherein the electronic path-creating circuitry includes
- electronic circuitry adapted to support a routing-protocol;
- and
- electronic circuitry adapted to support a signaling-protocol
- wherein the protection virtual path comprises an additional smart span including:
- an additional direct path connecting two adjacent nodes in the protection virtual path;
- an additional path type indicator for the additional direct path adapted to change the value from the protecting type to the working type upon detecting a failure condition in the span connecting the first node with the second node;
- and
- additional electronic path-creating circuitry in one of the two adjacent nodes adapted to create an additional protection virtual path connecting the two adjacent nodes through at least another node upon detecting a failure condition in the span connecting the first node with the second node, and
- said routing protocol is responsible for discovery of neighbors and link status, reliable distribution of routing topology information and optimal route determination, and
- said signaling protocol provides the capability of establishing, tearing down and modifying connections across network nodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.