Fast protection path activation using control plane messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9800495-B2
Application number	US-57102909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2009
Priority date	Sep 30, 2009
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A method, performed in a network that includes a group of nodes, includes identifying a path through a set of the nodes, where each node, in the set of nodes, has a data plane and a control plane; establishing a control plane tunnel, associated with the path, within the control plane of the nodes in the set of nodes; establishing a data plane tunnel, associated with the path, within the data plane of the nodes in the set of nodes, where the data plane tunnel is associated with the control plane tunnel and established through the same set of nodes; and transmitting a control message through the control plane tunnel to change a state of the data plane tunnel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed in a network that comprises a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:
identifying a path through a set of nodes, of the plurality of nodes, in the network, where each node, in the set of nodes, has a data plane and a control plane;
establishing a control plane tunnel, associated with the path, within the control plane of the nodes in the set of nodes; establishing a data plane tunnel, associated with the path, within the data plane of the nodes in the set of nodes, where the data plane tunnel is associated with the control plane tunnel and established through the same set of nodes;
transmitting a first control message through the control plane tunnel to change a state of the data plane tunnel;
receiving a second control message at said each node in the set of nodes; and
making a copy of the second control message at said each node in the set of the nodes,
where establishing the control plane tunnel and setting up the data plane tunnel include: sending a Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) control message to said each node in the set of nodes, and a plurality of control plane labels and first information for setting up the control plane tunnel, and a plurality of data plane labels and second information for setting up the data plane tunnel, the plurality of control plane labels, the plurality of data plane labels, the first information, and the second information collectively being an extension of the GMPLS control message, and
where said each node in the set of nodes stores the plurality of control plane labels, a label that corresponds to a next hop node of the set of nodes, and the plurality of data plane lables in a look-up table in a memory, the plurality of data plane labels being a data plane tunnel identifier, which is associated with the plurality of control plane labels in the look-up table, such that received second control message including a received control plane label is used by said each of the nodes to identify the plurality of control plane labels and the corresponding data plane tunnel identifier in the look-up table, wherein a state of the data plane tunnel is changed based on the data plane identifier in the look-up table.

2. The method of claim 1 , where said each node in the set of nodes includes a data plane switching fabric; where the data plane tunnel is deactivated; and where changing the state of the data plane tunnel includes activating the data plane tunnel by establishing a connection, for the data plane tunnel, through the data plane switching fabric within the nodes in the set of nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 , where said each node in the set of nodes includes a data plane switching fabric; where the data plane tunnel is activated; and where changing the state of the data plane tunnel includes deactivating the data plane tunnel by removing a connection, for the data plane tunnel, through the data plane switching fabric within the nodes in the set of nodes.

4. The method of claim 1 , where transmitting the control message includes label switching the control message, through the control plane tunnel, based on the received control plane label.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: transmitting a message through the control plane tunnel to report a status of the data plane tunnel.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: transmitting a message through the control plane tunnel to report a status of the control plane tunnel.

7. A method performed in a network that comprises a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:
identifying a path through a set of nodes, of the plurality of nodes, in the network, where each node, in the set of nodes, has a data plane and a control plane, the data plane including a data plane switching fabric;
establishing a control plane tunnel, associated with the path, within the control plane of the nodes in the set of nodes;
setting up a data plane tunnel, associated with the path and within the data plane of the nodes in the set of nodes, without establishing a connection, for the data plane tunnel, through the data plane switching fabric within the nodes in the set of nodes; and
activating the data plane tunnel, within the data plane of the nodes in the set of nodes, by transmitting a control message, through the control plane tunnel, to the nodes in the set of nodes, the control message including a label used by the nodes, in the set of nodes, to forward the control message through the control plane tunnel and to identify the data plane tunnel to activate, where activating the data plane tunnel includes establishing a connection, for the data plane tunnel, through the data plane switching fabric within the nodes in the set of nodes; and
copy the control message at each of the nodes in the set of nodes,
where establishing the control plane tunnel and setting up the data plane tunnel include: sending a Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) control message to said each node in the set of nodes, where the GMPLS control message includes at least one control label and first information for setting up the control plane tunnel and at least one data label and second information for setting up the data plane tunnel, said at least one control plane label, said at least one data plane label, the first information, and the second information collectively being an extension of the GMPLS control message, and
where said each node in the set of nodes stores said at least one control plane label, a label that corresponds to a next hop node of the set of nodes, and said at least one data plane label in a look-up table in memory, said at least one data plane label being a data plane tunnel identifier that is associated with said at least one control plane label in the look-up table.

8. The method of claim 7 , where the path is a protection path that corresponds to a working path; where the method further comprises: establishing the working path through another set of nodes, of the plurality of nodes, in the network, where at least one node in the other set of nodes differs from any node in the set of nodes.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: detecting a failure on the working path, where activating the data plane tunnel is performed in response to detecting the failure on the working path.

10. The method of claim 7 , where activating the data plane tunnel includes: receiving, by a particular node in the set of nodes, the control message, comparing, by the particular node, the label to a plurality of labels stored in a memory of the particular node, and activating, by the particular node, the data plane tunnel upon finding a match between the label and one of the plurality of labels stored in the memory.

11. The method of claim 10 , where the control message includes an instruction to change a state of the data plane tunnel, and where activating the data plane tunnel includes activating, by the particular node, the data plane tunnel, based on the control message, when the data plane tunnel is deactivated.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: swapping another one of the plurality of labels stored in the memory for the label in the control message to form a modified control message; and forwarding the modified control message to another node in the set of nodes.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: setting up a plurality of data plane tunnels between a first node, in the set of nodes, and a second node, in the set of nodes, where the data plane tunnel is one of the plurality of data plane tunnels set up between the first node and the second node, and
where activating the data plane tunnel includes:
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Assignees

• Lu Biao
• Bialkowski Jan
• Sprague Edward E
• Kandappan Parthiban
• Infinera Corp

Inventors

• Lu Biao
• Bialkowski Jan
• Sprague Edward E
• Kandappan Parthiban

Classifications

• H04L45/22 Primary

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• G06F11/1423

  by reconfiguration of paths · CPC title

• H04L45/50

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

• H04L2212/00

  Encapsulation of packets · CPC title

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title