MPLS and GMPLS tunnel flap dampening in traffic engineered networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9667559-B2
Application number	US-201414171206-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2014
Priority date	Feb 3, 2014
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to tunnel flap damping in a traffic engineered network. One exemplary method for tracking a re-routing history of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (“MPLS”)/Generalized MPLS (“GMPLS”) tunnels over intervals includes measuring a number of policy-based re-routes during at least one measurement interval; determining a tunnel re-route frequency based on the measurement; comparing the tunnel re-route frequency to a frequency threshold; and determining if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold and, if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold, delaying at least one tunnel re-route.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for tracking a re-routing history of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (“MPLS”)/Generalized MPLS (“GMPLS”) tunnels over intervals, the method comprising:
measuring a number of policy-based re-routes of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels during at least one measurement interval, wherein the policy-based re-routes comprise re-routing of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels based on policy to optimize associated traffic engineering resources;
determining a tunnel re-route frequency based on the measurement;
comparing the tunnel re-route frequency to a frequency threshold;
determining if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold; and
delaying at least one tunnel re-route using an exponential back-off time with a duration derived as a function of a re-route dampening factor if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold avoiding tunnel flapping of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the tunnel re-route frequency comprises calculating an average number of re-routes over the at least one measurement interval.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the calculating the tunnel re-route frequency comprises using an Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“ARMA”) model.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the calculating the tunnel re-route frequency comprises using a Periodic Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“PARMA”) model.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein using the PARMA model comprising estimating the average number of re-routes using a finite approximation based on a predetermined number of observations.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising tuning the value of the re-route dampening factor.

7. A system for tracking a re-routing history of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (“MPLS”)/Generalized MPLS (“GMPLS”) tunnels over intervals, the system comprising:
a measuring module configured to measure a number of policy-based re-routes of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels during at least one measurement interval, wherein the policy-based re-routes comprise re-routing of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels based on policy to optimize associated traffic engineering resources;
a tunnel re-route frequency module configured to determine a tunnel re-route frequency based on the measurement;
a comparison module configured to compare the tunnel re-route frequency to a frequency threshold; and
a delaying module configured to delay at least one tunnel re-route using an exponential back-off time with a duration derived as a function of a re-route dampening factor if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold avoiding tunnel flapping of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the tunnel re-route frequency module is configured to calculate an average number of re-routes over the at least one measurement interval.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the tunnel re-route frequency module is configured to use an Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“ARMA”) model.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the tunnel re-route frequency module is configured to use a Periodic Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“PARMA”) model.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the tunnel re-route frequency module is configured to estimate the average number of re-routes using a finite approximation based on a predetermined number of observations.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the exponential back-off timer is configured to tune the value of the re-route dampening factor.

13. A non-transitory computer program product residing on a processor-executable computer storage medium, the computer program product comprising processor-executable instructions configured to cause a processor to:
measure a number of policy-based re-routes of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (“MPLS”)/Generalized MPLS (“GMPLS”) tunnels during at least one measurement interval;
determine a tunnel re-route frequency based on the measurement, wherein the policy-based re-routes comprise re-routing of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels based on policy to optimize associated traffic engineering resources;
compare the tunnel re-route frequency to a frequency threshold;
determine if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold; and
delay at least one tunnel re-route using an exponential back-off time with a duration derived as a function of a re-route dampening factor if the tunnel re-route frequency exceeds the frequency threshold avoiding tunnel flapping of the MPLS/GMPLS tunnels.

14. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 13 , wherein determine the tunnel re-route frequency comprises calculating an average number of re-routes over the at least one measurement interval.

15. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the calculate the tunnel re-route frequency comprises using an Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“ARMA”) model.

16. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the calculate the tunnel re-route frequency comprises using a Periodic Auto-Regressive Moving Average (“PARMA”) model.

Assignees

• Ciena Corp

Inventors

• Bhattacharya Somen

Classifications

• H04L45/22

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• H04L41/00

  Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks · CPC title

• H04L45/50

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

• H04L47/32 Primary

  by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames · CPC title

• H04L45/38

  Flow based routing · CPC title