Method and apparatus for interfacing applications to LCAS for efficient SONET traffic flow control

A method for interfacing high-layer applications to a Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) signaling protocol on Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) edge nodes for efficient traffic flow control, the method comprising:

• encapsulating packet payloads into SONET/SDH containers using a Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) protocol;
• dividing the SONET/SDH containers into Virtual Containers (VCs) that are part of a Virtual Concatenated Groups (VCG) using a Virtual Concatenation (VCAT) protocol;
• hitlessly, dynamically, and selectively adding/removing members to/from the VCG using the LCAS signaling protocol;
• monitoring the operational condition of and selectively assigning a state to time-slots associated with the VCG and one or more diverse routes using a Time-Slot Manager;
• providing an interface for users to specify the VCG in terms of time-slots and communicating time-slot changes between the Time-Slot Manager and the LCAS signaling protocol using a VCG Manager;
• generating a request to suspend traffic on selected time-slots using the application;
• receiving the request on the Time-Slot Manager;
• relaying the request to the VCG Manager;
• and
• informing a data plane to trigger the LCAS signaling protocol to shut down traffic on multiple directions;
• wherein the Time-Slot Manager manages all of the time-slots, and wherein the Time Slot Manager provides an interface to the high-level applications thereby making VCG and LCAS operations transparent to the high-level applications.

An apparatus for interfacing high-layer applications to a Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) signaling protocol on Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) edge nodes for efficient traffic flow control, the apparatus comprising:

• a Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) protocol for encapsulating packet payloads into SONET/SDH containers;
• a Virtual Concatenation (VCAT) protocol for dividing the SONET/SDH containers into Virtual Containers (VCs) that are part of a Virtual Concatenated Groups (VCG);
• the LCAS signaling protocol for hitlessly, dynamically, and selectively adding/removing members to/from the VCG;
• a Time-Slot manager for monitoring the operational condition of and selectively assigning a state to time-slots associated with the VCG and one or more diverse routes;
• and
• a VCG Manager for providing an interface for users to specify the VCG in terms of time-slots and communicating time-slot changes between the Time-Slot Manager and the LCAS signaling protocol;
• wherein the Time-Slot Manager manages all of the time-slots, and wherein the Time Slot Manager provides an interface to the high-level applications thereby making VCG and LCAS operations transparent to the high-level applications.