Active panel demarcation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135688-B2
Application number	US-201815877969-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2018
Priority date	May 21, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

In general, this disclosure describes a configurable cable patch panel, or “active panel,” that serves as a demarcation point between a customer area of a communication facility and a provider area of the communication facility. As described herein, the active panel may be dynamically configured to interconnect existing customer-side and provider-side connections to active panel ports in order to facilitate on-demand virtual connections within the communication facility between facility customers and/or between a facility customer and communication facility services. In some examples, a programmable network platform for the communication facility exposes a collection of interfaces by which customers may request virtual connections, which the programmable network platform provisions, in part, by configuring the active panel to interconnect select customer-side ports of the active panel with select provider-side ports of the active panel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a programmable network platform (PNP) and via an interface that receives service requests for configuration of interconnection services within network infrastructure of one or more network data centers that are controlled by the PNP and administered by a communication facility provider, a service request to configure an interconnection service within the network infrastructure of the one or more network data centers, wherein the network infrastructure within the one or more network data centers connect through one or more switching fabrics of the one or more network data centers;
generating, by the PNP and based on the service request, configuration data defining a connection between at least one port of a first plurality of network interface ports of a cable patch panel and at least one port of a second plurality of network interface ports of the cable patch panel; and
sending, by the PNP, the configuration data to the cable patch panel to configure the cable patch panel with the connection.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration data includes first data that identifies the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and second data that identifies at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports.

3. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the first plurality of network interface ports comprises at least one Ethernet port and at least one optical port, and
wherein the second plurality of network interface ports comprises at least one Ethernet port and at least one optical port.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cable patch panel comprises:
a software-configurable network interface device having a first side, a second side, a switch, and the configuration interface,
the first side comprising the first plurality of network interface ports and accessible only to a communication facility provider for a communication facility having an infrastructure network configured to interconnect a plurality of customer networks,
the second side comprising the second plurality of network interface ports and accessible only to a customer of the communication facility provider, and
wherein the configuration interface, in response to receiving the configuration from the PNP, configures the switch to create the connection between the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and the at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports.

5. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein the configuration data defines a connection between multiple ports of the first plurality of network interface ports and a port of the second plurality of network interface ports, and
wherein to create the connection the configuration interface configures the switch to connect the multiple ports of the first plurality of network interface ports and the port of the second plurality of network interface ports.

6. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein the configuration data defines a port of the second plurality of network interface ports as associated with a second virtual network and defines a port of the first plurality of network interface ports as associated with a first virtual network, and
wherein to create the connection the configuration interface configures the switch to forward packets received via the second virtual network to the first virtual network.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second virtual network comprises a customer virtual local area network (VLAN) and the first virtual network comprises one of a provider VLAN and a provider VxLAN.

8. The method of claim 4 ,
wherein the switch comprises an optical switch,
wherein to create the connection the configuration interface configures the optical switch to establish a transmission path for optical signals between the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and the at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the optical switch comprises a photonic switch.

10. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports are coupled to a customer network for the customer, and
wherein the connection between the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and the at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports is part of a virtual circuit between the customer network and another customer network.

11. A programmable network platform comprising:
one or more processors coupled to a memory,
wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive, via a software interface that receives service requests for configuration of interconnection services within network infrastructure of one or more network data centers that are controlled by the PNP and administered by a communication facility provider, a service request to configure an interconnection service within the network infrastructure of the one or more network data centers, wherein the network infrastructure within the one or more network data centers connect through one or more switching fabrics of the one or more network data centers,
wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate, based on the service request, configuration data defining a connection between at least one port of a first plurality of network interface ports of a first side of a cable patch panel and at least one port of a second plurality of network interface ports of a second, opposite side of the cable patch panel, and
wherein the one or more processors are configured to send the configuration data to the cable patch panel to configure the cable patch panel with the connection.

12. The programmable network platform of claim 11 , wherein the configuration data includes first data that identifies the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and second data that identifies at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports.

13. A system comprising:
a cable patch panel comprising a software-configurable network interface device having a first side, a second side, a switch, and a configuration interface; the first side comprising a first plurality of network interface ports accessible only to a communication facility provider for a communication facility having an infrastructure network configured to interconnect a plurality of customer networks; the second side comprising a second plurality of network interface ports accessible only to a customer of the communication facility provider; and the configuration interface configured to, in response to receiving configuration data defining a connection between at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports, configure the switch to create the connection between the at least one port of the first plurality of network interface ports and the at least one port of the second plurality of network interface ports; and
a programmable network platform configured to receive, via an interface that receives service requests for configuration of interconnection services within network infrastructure of one or more network data centers that are controlled by the programmable network platform and administered by a communication facility provider, a service request to configure an interconnection service within the network infrastructure of the one or more network data centers, wherein the network infrastructure within the one or more network data centers connect through one or more switching fabrics of the

Assignees

• Equinix Inc

Inventors

• Huey Robert J
• Newell Jared

Classifications

• H04Q11/0071

  Provisions for the electrical-optical layer interface · CPC title

• H04L49/10

  characterised by the switching fabric construction · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0079

  Operation or maintenance aspects · CPC title

• H04L41/0893 Primary

  Assignment of logical groups to network elements · CPC title

• H04Q1/13 Primary

  Patch panels for monitoring, interconnecting or testing circuits, e.g. patch bay, patch field or jack field; Patching modules · CPC title