Multilink traffic shaping

Abstract

A method for performing multilink communications may include applying a quality-of-service (QoS) policy to incoming traffic, where the QoS policy operates to identify a first portion and a second portion of the incoming traffic. The method may include fragmenting the first portion of the incoming traffic into a group of fragments. The method may include sequencing the group of fragments and the second portion of the incoming traffic into a sequenced flow, where the sequencing causes the second portion to be interleaved among the group of fragments so that the sequenced flow can be made available to a first link and a second link as multilink traffic, where the first link carries a first portion of the multilink traffic and the second link carries a second portion of the multilink traffic.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]Implementations consistent with the principles of the invention relate generally to communication networks and, more particularly, to shaping traffic across multiple links without requiring backpressure from an egress interface.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Network devices, such as routers, may be configured to distribute incoming traffic received at an ingress interface, or port, across multiple output links associated with an egress interface. Incoming traffic may be distributed across multiple links in order to achieve an output bandwidth that is greater than the bandwidth associated with any one of the multiple links. Multilink networking protocols may be used to facilitate distributing incoming traffic across multiple output links and to facilitate reassembling multilink traffic received at a destination device.[0003]Existing multilink implementations may associate the control of output links with a board, such as an egress interface board, in a m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a network device that can prioritize and organize traffic for transmission over multiple networks. The device applies a quality-of-service policy to incoming traffic, assigning a higher priority to certain parts of the traffic. It then fragments the traffic into smaller parts and sequences them to ensure smooth transmission over multiple links. This results in a more efficient and reliable communication network.

Problems solved by technology

Existing multilink implementations may associate the control of output links with a board, such as an egress interface board, in a manner that does not allow reconfiguration of output links.

Existing implementations may not provide flexibility in selecting links for use in multilink transmission implementations.

The lack of flexibility in reconfiguring and / or selecting links for use in multilink implementations may prevent communication networks from operating efficiently.

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