Method for providing protection switching service in virtual tenant network and controller therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016112349-A1
Application number	US-201514837212-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 27, 2015
Priority date	Oct 16, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for providing a protection switching service in a virtual tenant network (VTN) and a controller are provided. The method enables a real-time protection switching setup on a VTN path in order to provide reliability of a VTN service.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for providing a protection switching service, comprising:
receiving a protection switching setup request message from a client entity that requests setup of protection switching on a path in a virtual tenant network (VTN); analyzing the protection switching setup request message to check whether or not the client entity requests to share a protection switching group with other client entities; in response to a check result indicating that the client entity does not request to share the protection switching group, setting up protection switching for a single client entity to exclusively use the protection switching group; and in response to a check result indicating that the client entity requests to share the protection switching group, setting up protection switching for a plurality of client entities to share the protection switching group.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein in the receiving of the protection switching request message, path characteristic information, protection switching type information and protection switching setup selection information are also received from the client entity, and the protection switching setup selection information contains information indicating the following: whether to specify a protection switching group, whether to share a protection switching group, whether to exclusively use a protection switching group, and whether to use a protection path in an event of sharing a protection switching group.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the setting up of the protection switching for a single client entity to exclusively use the protection switching group comprises,
in response to the check result indicating that the client entity does not request to share the protection switching group, determining whether or not an existing protection switching group is available to use, setting up, in response to a determination that a new protection switching group needs to be used, the protection switching by creating the new protection switching group, and setting up, in response to a determination that the existing protection switching group is available to use intact, the protection switching by joining a working path to the existing protection switching group.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein in the determining of whether the existing protection switching group is available to use,
it is determined whether the existing protection switching group is available to use based on the path characteristic information, the protection switching type information, and the protection switching setup selection information, which are received from the client entity, it is determined to use the existing protection switching group when the client entity specifies a protection switching group or when a protection switching group capable of receiving a working path is present, and the new protection switching group is created when there is no available protection switching group.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the setting up of the protection switching by creating the new protection switching group comprises
creating the new protection switching group and registering a working path and a protection path belonging to the created protection switching group, requesting a server entity that a protection path passes through to establish a connection to the protection path, and setting up a method for performing protection switching against a working path failure.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein in the setting up of the method for performing protection switching, the server entity is set to report a failure event to the controller in a reactive protection mode, in order to enable the controller to perform protection switching.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein in the setting up of the method for performing protection switching, the server entity is set to switch from a working path to a protection path autonomously in order to perform protection switching in the occurrence of a failure in a proactive protection mode.

8 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the setting up oldie protection switching by joining the working path to the existing protection switching group comprises
joining the working path to the existing protection switching group, setting the server entity to report a failure event to the controller in a reactive protection mode, in order to enable the controller to perform protection switching, and setting the server entity to switch from a working path to a protection path autonomously in order to perform protection switching in the occurrence of a failure in a proactive protection mode.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the setting up of the protection switching for the plurality of client entities to share the protection switching group comprises
checking whether or not the plurality of client entities that share the protection switching group request to use a protection path, in response to a determination that the plurality of client entities do not request to use the protection path, determining whether the existing protection switching group is available to use, creating the new protection switching group and setting up a working path and a protection path in response to a determination that a new protection switching group needs to be used, and joining a working path to the existing protection group in response to a determination that the existing protection switching group is available to use, and in response to a determination that the plurality of client entities request to use the protection path, determining whether the existing protection switching group is available to use, creating the new protection switching group and setting up a working path and a protection path in response to a determination that a new protection switching group needs to be used, and joining a working path to the existing protection group in response to a determination that the existing protection switching group is available to use.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the setting up of the protection switching for the plurality of client entities to share the protection switching group comprises
once the setup of the protection switching is completed, notifying the client entity of a result of setup of the protection switching, and notifying the client entity of protection switching information, as well, which includes a working path identifier, a protection path identifier, a protection switching group identifier, a type of protection switching and state information of the protection switching group.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing protection switching in the occurrence of a failure in a working path.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the performing of the protection switching comprises,
in the occurrence of a failure in a working path, receiving a failure event alarm message from the server entity in a reactive protection mode, looking up routing information of a protection path that corresponds to the working path in which the failure occurs in a path information table by using protection switching information in the received failure event alarm message, switching from the working path to the protection path using the routing information of the protection path, and notifying the client entity that the protection switching has been performed.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the performing of the protection switching comprises,
in a proactive protection mode, receiving a notification that the server entity performs the protection switching without intervention of the controller when a failure has occurred in a

Assignees

• Korea Electronics Telecomm

Inventors

• Yoon Bin Yeong
• Kim Tae Il
• Park Soo Myung
• Lee Jong Hyun

Classifications

• H04L45/22

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• H04L49/70

  Virtual switches · CPC title

• H04L49/354

  for supporting virtual local area networks [VLAN] · CPC title

• H04L49/552 Primary

  by ensuring the integrity of packets received through redundant connections · CPC title