Flexible ethernet and multi link gearbox mapping procedure to optical transport network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016119075-A1
Application number	US-201414564987-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	Oct 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A flexible mapping method to map a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) structure from Flexible Ethernet and/or Multi Link Gearbox (MLG) to Optical Transport Network (OTN), includes receiving one or more Virtual Lanes; and mapping each of the one or more Virtual Lanes into a Tributary Slot, wherein a rate and number of the Tributary Slot(s) in OTN is set based on a rate and number of the one or more Virtual Lanes. A transport system and a flexible de-mapping method are also described. The systems and methods map the generalized MLG-style group of lanes (virtual PHYs/PMDs) into an OPUflex Tributary Slot (TS) structure, keeping PCS structures intact, and creates a single ODUflex container with a matching rate of FlexE for end-to-end flow.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A flexible mapping method, implemented in circuitry, to map a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) structure from Flexible Ethernet and/or Multi Link Gearbox (MLG) to Optical Transport Network (OTN), the flexible mapping method comprising:
receiving one or more Virtual Lanes; and mapping each of the one or more Virtual Lanes into an associated Tributary Slot, wherein a rate and number of the Tributary Slots in OTN is set based on a rate and number of the one or more Virtual Lanes.

2 . The flexible mapping method of claim 1 , wherein Remote Management (RM) channels or specific Alignment Markers (AM) are used to communicate a status of the one or more virtual lanes comprising use, assignment and a number of Virtual Lanes.

3 . The flexible mapping method of claim 1 , wherein the Tributary Slots are in an Optical channel Payload Unit flex (OPUflex) that is mapped into an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex).

4 . The flexible mapping method of claim 3 , further comprising:
resizing the ODUflex responsive to a change in a number of the one or more Virtual Lanes.

5 . The flexible mapping method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mapping the associated Tributary Slots into an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex); performing one of providing the ODUflex to an OTN switch, mapping the ODUflex into an Optical channel Transport Unit k (k=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, flex) or C=100×n (n=1, 2, 3, . . . ) (OTUk/Cn), or aggregating the ODUflex with other signals in the OTUk/Cn.

6 . The flexible mapping method of claim 1 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 5 Gb/s, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 5 Gb/s.

7 . The flexible mapping method of claim 1 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 25 Gb/s or greater, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 25 Gb/s or greater.

8 . A transport system configured to map a Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS) from Flexible Ethernet and/or Multi Link Gearbox (MLG) to Optical Transport Network (OTN), the transport system comprising:
circuitry configured to receive one or more Virtual Lanes; and circuitry to map each of the one or more Virtual Lanes into an associated Tributary Slot, wherein a rate and number of the Tributary Slots in OTN is set based on a rate and number of the one or more Virtual Lanes.

9 . The transport system of claim 8 , wherein Remote Management (RM) channels or specific Alignment Markers (AM) are used to communicate a status of the one or more virtual lanes comprising use, assignment and a number of Virtual Lanes.

10 . The transport system of claim 8 , wherein the Tributary Slots are in an Optical channel Payload Unit flex (OPUflex) that is mapped into an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex).

11 . The transport system of claim 10 , further comprising:
circuitry configured to resize the ODUflex responsive to a change in a number of the one or more Virtual Lanes.

12 . The transport system of claim 8 , further comprising:
circuity configured to map the associated Tributary Slots into an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex); and circuity configured to perform one of providing the ODUflex to an OTN switch, mapping the ODUflex into an Optical channel Transport Unit k (k=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, flex) or C=100×n (n=1, 2, 3, . . . ) (OTUk/Cn), or aggregating the ODUflex with other signals in the OTUk/Cn.

13 . The transport system of claim 8 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 5 Gb/s, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 5 Gb/s.

14 . The transport system of claim 8 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 25 Gb/s or greater, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 25 Gb/s or greater.

15 . A flexible de-mapping method, implemented in circuitry, to de-map Optical Transport Network (OTN) with Tributary Slots to Virtual Lanes for Flexible Ethernet and/or Multi Link Gearbox (MLG), the flexible de-mapping method comprising:
receiving an OTN signal with one or more Tributary Slots contained therein; and de-mapping each of the one or more Tributary Slots to output a Virtual Lane for each of the one or more Tributary Slots, wherein a rate and number of the one or more Tributary Slots in OTN is set based on a rate and number of the Virtual Lane.

16 . The flexible de-mapping method of claim 15 , wherein Remote Management (RM) channels or specific Alignment Markers (AM) are used to communicate a status of the one or more virtual lanes comprising use, assignment and a number of Virtual Lanes.

17 . The flexible de-mapping method of claim 15 , wherein the Tributary Slots are in an Optical channel Payload Unit flex (OPUflex) that is mapped into an Optical channel Data Unit flex (ODUflex).

18 . The flexible de-mapping method of claim 15 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 5 Gb/s, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 5 Gb/s.

19 . The flexible de-mapping method of claim 15 , wherein the Virtual Lane is about 25 Gb/s or greater, and wherein a Payload Type (PT) is defined in OTN designating a Tributary Slot of about 25 Gb/s or greater.

20 . The flexible de-mapping method of claim 15 , further comprising:
providing each of the Virtual Lanes to a router.

Assignees

• Gareau Sebastien
• Maniloff Eric
• Ciena Corp

Inventors

• Gareau Sebastien
• Maniloff Eric

Classifications

• H04J2203/0085

  Support of Ethernet · CPC title

• H04B10/27

  Arrangements for networking · CPC title

• H04J14/0227 Primary

  Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation · CPC title

• H04J3/1658

  carrying packets or ATM cells; (H04J3/1664 takes precedence for payloads with different packet types) · CPC title

• H04J3/1652

  Optical Transport Network [OTN] · CPC title