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US 7,453,884 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for scalable and dynamic traffic engineering in a data communication network
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorQingming Ma
Life of this patent
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AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorQingming Ma
Estimating the term…
A global path identifier is assigned to each explicit route through a data communication network. The global path identifier is inserted into each packet as the packet enters a network and is used in selecting the next hop. When encountering a new selected path, an ingress router sends an explicit object to downstream nodes of the path to set up explicit routes by caching the next hop in an Explicit Forwarding Information Base (“EFIB”) table. Ingress routers maintain an Explicit Route Table (“ERT”) that tracks the global path identifier associated with each flow through the network. Multiple flows using the same path can be implemented by sharing the same global path identifier. In case of sudden network load changes, rerouting can be performed by changing the global path identifier associated with those flows that need to be rerouted and by then transmitting a new path object to downstream nodes.
A method for routing a data packet through an explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having an incoming global path identifier corresponding to the explicit path, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, each of the plurality of network nodes including a network device, the explicit path comprising a plurality of hops including a prior hop, a current hop, and a next hop, each of the plurality of hops being associated with one of the plurality of network nodes, the method comprising:
An apparatus for routing a data packet through an explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having an incoming global path identifier corresponding to the explicit path, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, each of the plurality of network nodes including a network device, the explicit path comprising a plurality of hops including a prior hop, a current hop, and a next hop, each of the plurality of hops being associated with one of the plurality of network nodes, the apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for routing a data packet through an explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having an incoming global path identifier corresponding to the explicit path, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, each of the plurality of network nodes including a network device, the explicit path comprising a plurality of hops including a prior hop, a current hop, and a next hop, each of the plurality of hops being associated with one of the plurality of network nodes, the apparatus comprising:
A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of routing a data packet through an explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having an incoming global path identifier corresponding to the explicit path, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, each of the plurality of network nodes including a network device, the explicit path comprising a plurality of hops including a prior hop, a current hop, and a next hop, each of the plurality of hops being associated with one of the plurality of network nodes, the method comprising:
A method for routing a data packet through at least one explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having a source/destination data pair, the at least one explicit path having specified a plurality of network nodes that form a route from a source network node to a destination network node, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the method comprising:
An apparatus for routing a data packet through at least one explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having a source/destination data pair, the at least one explicit path having specified a plurality of network nodes that form a route from a source network node to a destination network node, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the apparatus comprising:
An apparatus for routing a data packet through at least one explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having a source/destination data pair, the at least one explicit path having specified a plurality of network nodes that form a route from a source network node to a destination network node, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the apparatus comprising:
A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for routing a data packet through at least one explicit path in a data communication network, the data packet having a source/destination data pair, the at least one explicit path having specified a plurality of network nodes that form a route from a source network node to a destination network node, the data communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.