Transporting a multi-transport network context-identifier (MTNC- ID) across multiple domains

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11483733-B2
Application number	US-202016840113-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2020
Priority date	Jul 31, 2019
Publication date	Oct 25, 2022
Grant date	Oct 25, 2022

Abstract

A method performed by a Next Generation Node B (gNB) in a communications system implementing User Datagram Protocol (UDP) comprises indicating that a data packet comprises a multi-transport network context-identifier (MTNC-ID) corresponding to a forwarding path and being associated with a set of resource provisioning requirements for one or more transport networks on the forwarding path to provision transport resources for traffic forwarding on the forwarding path, inserting the MTNC-ID into a Generic UDP Encapsulation (GUE) header of the data packet, and transmitting the data packet to a network element (NE) in the communications system based on the forwarding path corresponding to the MTNC-ID.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a Next Generation Node B (gNB) in a communications system implementing User Datagram Protocol (UDP), comprising:
encapsulating a data packet to include a UDP header and a Generic UDP Encapsulation (GUE) header, with the GUE header comprising a first field and a multi-transport network context-identifier (MTNC-ID) field;
providing, in the first field of the GUE header, an indication that the data packet comprises a MTNC-ID corresponding to a forwarding path and being associated with a set of resource provisioning requirements for one or more transport networks on the forwarding path to provision transport resources for traffic forwarding on the forwarding path;
inserting the MTNC-ID into the MTNC-ID field of the GUE header; and
transmitting the data packet with the UDP header and the GUE header to a network element (NE) in the communications system based on the forwarding path corresponding to the MTNC-ID.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of resource provisioning requirements comprises a quality of service (QoS) requirement, a class of service (CoS) requirement, a resilience requirement, and an isolation requirement.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more transport networks comprises NEs configured to implement at least one of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Segment Routing over Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) data plane (SRv6), IP transport, or Enhanced Virtual Private Network.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing a forwarding table comprising a mapping between the MTNC-ID and the forwarding path.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, in a “C” flag field of the GUE header, a second indication that the data packet carries a data message, and wherein the first field is a “M” flag field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the GUE header comprises a “C” flag field set to indicate that the data packet carries a control message, and wherein the first field is a proto/ctype field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising encapsulating the data packet to further comprise an outer Internet Protocol (IP) header, a UDP extension header, a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol (GTP)-User Data Tunneling (GTP-U) header, and an inner IP header, wherein the UDP extension header comprises the UDP header and the GUE header carrying the MTNC-ID.

8. A method performed by a network element (NE) in a communications system implementing User Datagram Protocol (UDP), comprising:
receiving, from a previous NE in the communications system, a data packet including a UDP header and a Generic UDP Encapsulation (GUE) header, with the GUE header comprising a first field and a multi-transport network context-identifier (MTNC-ID) field, the first field in the GUE header indicating that the data packet comprises a MTNC-ID corresponding to a forwarding path and being associated with a set of resource provisioning requirements for one or more transport networks on the forwarding path to provision transport resources for traffic forwarding on the forwarding path, and the MTNC-ID field in the GUE header carrying the MTNC-ID of the data packet;
obtaining the forwarding path corresponding to the MTNC-ID from a local forwarding table; and
transmitting the data packet with the UDP header and the GUE header to a next NE in the communications system based on the forwarding path corresponding to the MTNC-ID.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of resource provisioning requirements comprises a quality of service (QoS) requirement, a class of service (CoS) requirement, a resilience requirement, and an isolation requirement.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the one or more transport networks comprises NEs configured to implement at least one of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Segment Routing over Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) data plane (SRv6), IP transport, or Enhanced Virtual Private Network.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the GUE header comprises a “C” flag field set to indicate that the data packet carries a data message, and wherein the first field is an “M” flag field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the GUE header comprises a “C” flag field set to indicate that the data packet carries a control message, and wherein the first field is a proto/ctype field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the data packet comprises an outer Internet Protocol (IP) header, a UDP extension header, a General Packet Radio Service Tunneling Protocol (GTP)-User Data Tunneling (GTP-U) header, and an inner IP header, wherein the UDP extension header comprises the UDP header and the GUE header carrying the MTNC-ID.

14. A Next Generation Node B (gNB) implemented in a communications system, comprising:
a memory having stored computer instructions; and
a processor coupled to the memory to retrieve and execute the computer instructions from the memory to prompt the gNB to:
encapsulate a data packet to include a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header and a Generic UDP Encapsulation (GUE) header, with the GUE header comprising a first field and a multi-transport network context-identifier (MTNC-ID) field;
provide, in the first field of the GUE header, an indication that the data packet comprises a MTNC-ID corresponding to a forwarding path and being associated with a set of resource provisioning requirements for one or more transport networks on the forwarding path to provision transport resources for traffic forwarding on the forwarding path;
insert the MTNC-ID into the MTNC-ID field of the GUE header; and
transmit the data packet with the UDP header and the GUE header to a network element (NE) in the communications system based on the forwarding path corresponding to the MTNC-ID.

15. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein the set of resource provisioning requirements comprises a quality of service (QoS) requirement, a class of service (CoS) requirement, a resilience requirement, and an isolation requirement.

16. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein each of the one or more transport networks comprises NEs configured to implement at least one of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Segment Routing over Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) data plane (SRv6), IP transport, or Enhanced Virtual Private Network.

17. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein the instructions further prompt the gNB to store a forwarding table comprising a mapping between the MTNC-ID and the forwarding path.

18. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein the GUE header comprises a “C” flag field set to indicate that the data packet carries a data message, and wherein the first field is an “M” flag field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

19. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein the GUE header comprises a “C” flag field set to indicate that the data packet carries a control message, and wherein the first field is a proto/ctype field comprising a value indicating that the data packet comprises the MTNC-ID.

20. The gNB of claim 14 , wherein the gNB further retrieves and executes the computer instructions from the memory to encapsulate the data packet to further comprise an outer Internet Protocol (IP) header, a UDP extension header, a General Packet Radio Ser

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Young
• Guichard James Neil
• John Kaippallimalil Mathew

Classifications

• H04L45/34 Primary

  Source routing · CPC title

• H04L45/50

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

• H04L45/04

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

• H04L2212/00

  Encapsulation of packets · CPC title

• H04L45/745

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title