Traffic flow migration in backhaul networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10136359-B2
Application number	US-201514952660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 30, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure relate to network management and routing protocols in communication networks, including but not limited to wireless communication networks including Integrated-Access-Backhaul (IAB) nodes within an IAB network. In some examples, one or more traffic flows between an IAB node and a remote network may be migrated from a first tunnel associated with a first network routing domain to a second tunnel associated with a second routing domain in accordance with route information pertaining to each of the network routing domains. In various examples, the migration may be performed in response to a failure of a wireless link in the IAB network, while in other examples, the migration may be performed in response to congestion or overloading of an IAB node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method operable at a network node within a wireless communication network, comprising:
providing a first interface associated with a first network routing domain, the first interface having a first network address associated therewith, wherein the first network routing domain is rooted at a first border node between a local backhaul network and a main backhaul network;
providing a second interface associated with a second network routing domain, the second interface having a second network address associated therewith, wherein the second network routing domain is rooted at a second border node between the local backhaul network and the main backhaul network, wherein the local backhaul network comprises a plurality of network nodes including the network node, the first border node, and the second border node;
communicating a first traffic flow with a remote network over a first tunnel between the network node and the remote network via the first interface utilizing the first network address, wherein the first traffic flow includes access traffic communicated between the network node and a mobile node over a wireless communication link;
determining first information relating to a first route between the network node and the remote network via the first network routing domain;
determining second information relating to a second route between the network node and the remote network via the second network routing domain;
determining to migrate the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to a second tunnel between the network node and the remote network via the second interface and the second network routing domain based on the first information and the second information, the second tunnel utilizing the second network address;
transmitting a message to a control plane node in the remote network to trigger a migration of the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to the second tunnel; and
communicating the first traffic flow with the remote network utilizing the second tunnel.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first interface is a first logical interface and the second interface is a second logical interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining third information about at least one physical link that supports the first and second logical interfaces,
wherein the determining to migrate the first traffic flow to the second tunnel is further based on the third information.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the third information includes link metrics related to a physical link quality of the at least one physical link.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first information further includes first route metrics related to a first set of link metrics pertaining to the first route and the second information further includes second route metrics related to a second set of link metrics pertaining to the second route.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the first route metrics include a first cost metric for the first route and the second route metrics include a second cost metric for the second route; and
the determining to migrate the first traffic flow to the second tunnel comprises determining to migrate the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to the second tunnel when the second cost metric is less than the first cost metric.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first logical interface and the second logical interface are supported by a common physical interface.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein at least one of the first logical interface or the second logical interface is supported by a wireless interface.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first network address includes a first network prefix associated with the first network routing domain, and the second network address includes a second network prefix associated with the second network routing domain.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message transmitted to the control plane node is configured to indicate a reason for migrating the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to the second tunnel to be at least one of: a link failure, a path failure, a failover, or load balancing.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first traffic flow is one of a plurality of traffic flows exchanged over the first tunnel.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining to migrate the first traffic flow comprises selecting the first traffic flow from the plurality of traffic flows for migrating to the second tunnel based on the first information and the second information.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
maintaining at least one of the plurality of traffic flows on the first tunnel based on the first information and the second information after migration of the first traffic flow to continue communicating the at least one of the plurality of traffic flows between the network node and the remote network over the first tunnel.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining to migrate the first traffic flow comprises selecting the second tunnel from a plurality of tunnels based on the first information and the second information.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node comprises a base station configured as an integrated access backhaul (IAB) node and the remote network comprises a core network communicatively coupled to the local backhaul network via the main backhaul network.

16. A network node within a wireless communication network, comprising:
a wireless transceiver configured to communicate a first traffic flow with a mobile node over a wireless communication link between the network node and the mobile node;
a first interface associated with a first network routing domain and configured to communicate with a remote network via a first tunnel utilizing a first network address, wherein the first network routing domain is rooted at a first border node between a local backhaul network and a main backhaul network;
a second interface associated with a second network routing domain and configured to communicate with the remote network via a second tunnel utilizing a second network address, wherein the second network routing domain is rooted at a second border node between the local backhaul network and the main backhaul network, wherein the local backhaul network comprises a plurality of network nodes including the network node, the first border node, and the second border node; and
at least one processor communicatively coupled to the wireless transceiver, the first interface and the second interface;
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
communicate the first traffic flow with the remote network over the first tunnel;
determine first information relating to a first route between the network node and the remote network via the first network routing domain;
determine second information relating to a second route between the network node and the remote network via the second network routing domain;
determine to migrate the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to the second tunnel based on the first information and the second information;
transmit a message to a control plane node in the remote network to trigger a migration of the first traffic flow from the first tunnel to the second tunnel; and
communicate the first traffic flow with the remote network utilizing the second tunnel.

17. The network node of claim 16 , wherein the first interface is a first logical interface and the second interface is a second logical interface.

18. The network node of claim 17 , wherein the at l

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Hampel Karl Georg
• Park Vincent

Classifications

• H04W40/12

  based on transmission quality or channel quality · CPC title

• H04L45/04

  Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing · CPC title

• H04W40/02

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title