Method and apparatus for instantiating a path with the minimum number of segments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10326688-B2
Application number	US-201715605712-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 25, 2017
Priority date	May 25, 2017
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

Various embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for computing a minimum segment labeling of a given path on a segment cover graph, the method including receiving a connection request for a connection between a source node and a destination node, generating a Shortest Path Directed Acyclic Graph (“SPDAG”) from the source node to the destination node by running a shortest path algorithm from the source node, determining an end node, between the source node and the destination node, at which the SPDAG deviates from the given path, determining whether the end node is the end of an Equal Cost Multipath (“ECMP”) and terminating the shortest path algorithm at a predecessor node to the end node if the end node is the end of an ECMP and making the predecessor node to the end node the source node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for computing a minimum segment labeling of a given path on a segment cover graph, the method comprising:
receiving a connection request for a connection between a source node and a destination node;
generating a Shortest Path Directed Acyclic Graph (“SPDAG”) from the source node by running a shortest path algorithm;
determining an end node, between the source node and the destination node, at which the SPDAG deviates from the given path; and
determining whether the end node is the end of an Equal Cost Multipath (“ECMP”); terminating the shortest path algorithm at a predecessor node to the end node, wherein a counter provides a number of predecessor nodes and determines whether a shortest path from the source node to the end node is unique, when the end node is the end of the ECMP.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
terminating the shortest path algorithm at the end node when the end node is not the end of the ECMP; and
making the end node the source node.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the destination node has been reached.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the minimum segment labeling of the given path.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein after a number of predecessor nodes from the end node is greater than 1, then the end node is the end of the ECMP.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the end node is the end of the ECMP is determining whether the shortest path from the source node to the end node is unique.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable to perform a method by a processor on a router for computing a minimum segment labeling of a given path on a segment cover graph, the machine-readable storage medium comprising:
instructions for receiving a connection request for a connection between a source node and a destination node;
instructions for generating a Shortest Path Directed Acyclic Graph (“SPDAG”) from the source node by running a shortest path algorithm;
instructions for determining an end node, between the source node and the destination node, at which the SPDAG deviates from the given path;
instructions for determining whether the end node is the end of an Equal Cost Multipath (“ECMP”), and
instructions for terminating the shortest path algorithm at a predecessor node to the end node, wherein a counter provides a number of predecessor nodes and determines whether a shortest path from the source node to the end node is unique, when the end node is the end of the ECMP.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
instructions for terminating the shortest path algorithm at the end node when the end node is not the end of the ECMP and making the end node the source node.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
instructions for storing the minimum segment labeling of the given path.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
instructions for determining whether the destination node has been reached.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein after a number of predecessor nodes from the end node is greater than 1, then the end node is the end of the ECMP.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein determining whether the end node is the end of the ECMP is determining whether the shortest path from the source node to the end node is unique.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
making the predecessor node to the end node the source node.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7 , further comprising:
instructions for making the predecessor node to the end node the source node.

Assignees

• Hao Fang
• Kodialam Murali
• Lakshman T V
• Rezaaifar Ehsan
• Nokia America Corp
• Alcatel Lucent Canada Inc

Inventors

• Hao Fang
• Kodialam Murali
• Lakshman T V
• Rezaaifar Ehsan

Classifications

• H04L45/123 Primary

  Evaluation of link metrics (techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08) · CPC title

• H04Q2213/13138

  Least cost routing, LCR · CPC title

• H04L45/50

  using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS] · CPC title

• H04L45/12

  Shortest path evaluation · CPC title

• H04L45/14

  Routing performance; Theoretical aspects · CPC title