Gcc and dcc hybrid networking communication method and system

Abstract

The invention discloses a gcc and dcc hybrid networking communication method and system, and relates to the technical field of network communication, and the method comprises the steps: maintaining a route through a ppp protocol, obtaining an opposite end dcnip, building the route, and enabling the route to serve as an external route to be introduced into a rip protocol for publishing after the devices which are directly connected with each other in an in-band DCN are in gcc butt joint; if dcc docking is carried out, a route is maintained through a dldp protocol, and after an opposite-end dcnip is obtained and the route is established, the route is used as an external route to be introduced into an ospf protocol to be published. According to the gcc and dcc hybrid networking communication method and system provided by the invention, seamless hybrid networking and routing intercommunication of the gcc and the dcc in an in-band DCN network is realized by innovatively combining the advantages of ospf and rip routing protocols, the problem of routing obstruction caused by incompatibility of protocols in traditional networking is solved, and the communication efficiency is improved. And the flexibility and deployment efficiency of network management are also remarkably improved, and the reliability and robustness of the whole network are enhanced by distinguishing direct connection and non-direct connection routes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of network communication technology, specifically to a hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method and system. Background Technology

[0002] DCN (Data Communication Network) is the core communication carrier supporting centralized management of network elements, mainly divided into two networking forms: out-of-band DCN and in-band DCN. Out-of-band DCN encapsulates management information into Ethernet data frames for transmission via Ethernet management interfaces, relying on the network provided by the operator to achieve device management. In-band DCN, on the other hand, does not occupy service bandwidth, utilizing fixed overhead bytes (such as DCC and GCC channels) in the service frame structure to transmit network element monitoring information, and can directly connect to OTU or SDH line boards to achieve inter-network element communication. Specifically, in-band DCN connected via OTU interfaces uses the GCC channel to transmit management information, maintaining link status using the PPP protocol and maintaining routing using the OSPF protocol; in-band DCN connected via SDH interfaces transmits via the DCC channel, managing links using the DLDP protocol and maintaining routing using the RIP protocol. Both types of channels can meet basic management requirements in their respective interface scenarios.

[0003] In complex networking scenarios, when the network needs to simultaneously include GCC and DCC segmented interconnections, the incompatibility of the link protocols (PPP and DLDP) and routing maintenance protocols (OSPF and RIP) of the two types of channels prevents routing interoperability. This makes it difficult for some network elements to establish management connections with other devices or network management systems through the in-band DCN. Furthermore, existing technologies do not clearly distinguish between the maintenance mechanisms of directly connected routes and non-directly connected routes. When non-directly connected routes experience fluctuations, it may interfere with the stability of directly connected routes, affecting the reliability of in-band DCN management. To address this, we propose a hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method and system. Summary of the Invention

[0004] To address the aforementioned technical issues, a hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method and system are provided. This technical solution resolves the problems encountered when GCC and DCC are segmented and hybrid networks, where incompatibility in their link protocols and routing maintenance protocols prevents routing interoperability, making it difficult for some network elements to be managed through in-band DCN. Furthermore, the lack of differentiation between directly connected and non-directly connected routing maintenance mechanisms means that non-directly connected route oscillations may interfere with the stability of directly connected routes, affecting the reliability of in-band DCN management.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows: A hybrid network communication method using GCC and DCC includes: For devices directly connected to each other in the DCN network within the band, if they are connected via GCC, the route is maintained through the PPP protocol. After obtaining the DCNIP of the other end and establishing the route, the route is introduced as an external route and published through the RIP protocol. If it is a DCC connection, the route is maintained through the DLDP protocol. After obtaining the DCNIP of the peer and establishing the route, the route is introduced as an external route and published through the OSPF protocol. For non-directly connected devices, if the route is maintained by OSPF, it should be introduced into RIP as an external route for advertising. If the route is maintained by RIP, it will be introduced into OSPF as an external route for advertising. The introduced routes are flooded in the DCN network within the band by using the route flooding mechanisms of OSPF and RIP.

[0006] Preferably, when directly connected devices perform GCC connection, before performing the PPP protocol route maintenance operation, the DCN channel configuration operation must be completed first: set the GCC connection port of the two directly connected devices to the GCC overhead channel based on OTN frames, and the GCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices are consistent. The specific process of PPP protocol maintaining routes is as follows: through the steps of link establishment, authentication, and network layer protocol negotiation, the DCNIP of the other end is obtained, and a directly connected route entry is generated. The update of the directly connected route entry is only controlled by the state of the PPP link. When the PPP link is disconnected, the directly connected route entry is automatically deleted. When a directly connected route is introduced into RIP, the route introduction module adds an external route identifier to the directly connected route, so that RIP is only responsible for publishing the directly connected route and does not participate in the generation and deletion process of the directly connected route.

[0007] Preferably, when directly connected devices perform DCC docking, before performing the DLDP protocol route maintenance operation, the DCN channel configuration operation must be completed first: the DCC docking ports of the two directly connected devices are set to DCC overhead channels based on STM frames, and the DCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices are kept consistent. The specific process of DLDP protocol maintaining routes is as follows: the link status is detected by sending probe frames and receiving response frames. When the link status is detected to be normal, the DCNIP of the peer is obtained and a directly connected route entry is generated. The update of the directly connected route entry depends only on the link status detected by DLDP. When a link failure is detected, the directly connected route entry is deleted immediately. When a directly connected route is introduced into OSPF, the route introduction module adds an external route identifier to the directly connected route, so that OSPF is only responsible for advertising the directly connected route and does not participate in the generation and deletion process of the directly connected route; The DLDP protocol sends probe frames periodically. The probe period is adjusted according to the network size. When the network size is small, the probe period is set to 10 seconds, and when the network size is large, the probe period is set to 5 seconds.

[0008] Preferably, when the routes of non-directly connected devices are maintained by OSPF, the specific process of OSPF maintaining routes is as follows: the OSPF module of the non-directly connected device first completes the operation of neighbor discovery and adjacency establishment, obtains the network topology information of the GCC interface area by exchanging link state advertisements, and then calculates the route entries to other non-directly connected devices based on the shortest path first algorithm. The update of the route entries is automatically triggered by OSPF according to changes in network topology. When importing routes maintained by OSPF into RIP, the route import module first filters the routes maintained by OSPF, importing only the routes corresponding to the DCNIP used for in-band DCN management and excluding routes unrelated to in-band DCN management. Then, the filtered routes are converted into a format supported by RIP and external route tags are added to the converted routes. After receiving the route, RIP publishes the route to directly connected devices by periodically sending route update messages, with the sending period of the route update messages set to 30 seconds. OSPF also calculates the cost value of the calculated routes, identifies the route with the lowest cost value as the optimal route, and introduces this optimal route into RIP.

[0009] When the routing of non-directly connected devices is maintained by RIP, the specific process of RIP maintaining the routing is as follows: The RIP module of the non-directly connected device obtains the routing information of the DCC docking area by receiving the routing update message sent by the neighboring device, and then determines the optimal route entry to other non-directly connected devices according to the hop count algorithm, where the hop count does not exceed 15. The update of this route entry is triggered by the RIP update cycle or the routing changes of the neighboring devices. When importing routes maintained by RIP into OSPF, the route import module first verifies the routes maintained by RIP to confirm that the dcnip in the route belongs to the in-band DCN management network segment, removes invalid routes that do not belong to the in-band DCN management network segment, converts the verified routes into the external route format supported by OSPF, and assigns a type identifier to the converted routes. The default type 2 identifier is assigned. After receiving the route, OSPF encapsulates it into a link-state advertisement and sends the link-state advertisement to all devices within the OSPF area through a flooding mechanism. RIP verifies received route update messages. If it detects that the message content has been tampered with, it discards the route update message.

[0010] Preferably, it also includes an independent maintenance mechanism for directly connected routes and non-directly connected routes: the generation, updating and deletion operations of directly connected routes are controlled only by the underlying link protocol, wherein the directly connected routes connected by gcc are controlled by the PPP protocol, the directly connected routes connected by DCC are controlled by the DLDP protocol, and the OSPF protocol and RIP protocol do not participate in the maintenance process of directly connected routes. The generation, update, and deletion of non-directly connected routes are controlled by the corresponding routing protocols. Specifically, non-directly connected routes in the GCC interface area are controlled by the OSPF protocol, while non-directly connected routes in the DCC interface area are controlled by the RIP protocol. When a non-directly connected route changes, it only triggers the update operation of its own routing protocol and does not send instructions to the underlying link protocol. When non-directly connected routes experience oscillations, the directly connected routes maintained by the underlying link protocol are not affected by these oscillations. The system will count the number of oscillations of non-directly connected routes. When the number of oscillations of a non-directly connected route exceeds 5 times within 1 minute, the route suppression mechanism will be triggered to temporarily stop the introduction and publication of the non-directly connected route. The introduction and publication of the non-directly connected route will be resumed after the oscillation phenomenon subsides.

[0011] Preferably, it also includes the access and management steps of the network management device: establishing a physical connection between the network management device and any network element device in the in-band DCN network through the NMS port, and the network element device that establishes a physical connection with the network management device serves as the network management access point; Access point devices obtain DCNIP routes from all other network element devices through their own stored routing tables. These routes include directly connected routes from PPP protocol to RIP protocol, directly connected routes from DLDP protocol to OSPF protocol, non-directly connected routes from OSPF protocol to RIP protocol, and non-directly connected routes from RIP protocol to OSPF protocol. The network management device sends management commands to the target network element device based on the route provided by the access point device. The telnet command is used to remotely log in to the target network element device to perform configuration operations, and the ping command is used to detect the connectivity with the target network element device. When the target network element device belongs to the GCC interface area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through the routes maintained by the OSPF protocol; When the target network element device belongs to the DCC interface area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through the routes maintained by the RIP protocol; The network management device uses the AES-128 encryption algorithm to encrypt the transmitted management commands.

[0012] A hybrid GCC and DCC network communication system includes multiple network element devices, which are divided into directly connected devices and non-directly connected devices. Each network element is configured with a PPP protocol module, a DLDP protocol module, an OSPF protocol module, a RIP protocol module, a route import module, and a route flooding module; In a directly connected device, the GCC-connected device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the PPP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the RIP protocol module; The DCC interface device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the DLDDP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the OSPF protocol module. In non-directly connected devices, the route import module imports routes maintained by the OSPF protocol module into the RIP protocol module, or imports routes maintained by the RIP protocol module into the OSPF protocol module. The routing flooding module publishes routes through the flooding mechanisms of the OSPF and RIP protocols.

[0013] Preferably, each network element is also equipped with a protocol fault detection module and a channel switching module; The protocol fault detection module monitors the operating status of the PPP, DLDP, OSPF, and RIP protocol modules in real time. When a fault is detected in any protocol module, a fault notification containing the faulty protocol type and the corresponding docking channel information is sent to the channel switching module. After receiving a fault notification, the channel switching module checks whether the network element device is configured with a backup DCN channel. If a backup DCN channel is found, and the connection type of the backup DCN channel is different from that of the faulty channel (i.e., the backup channel is DCC when the faulty channel is GCC connection, or the backup channel is GCC connection when the faulty channel is DCC connection), then the protocol module corresponding to the backup DCN channel is automatically activated. When the corresponding PPP protocol module connected to GCC fails, the channel switching module enables the corresponding DLDP protocol module and RIP protocol module connected to DCC. The DLDP protocol module obtains the peer's DCN IP through the backup DCN channel and generates a direct route. Then, the route import module imports the direct route into the OSPF protocol module for publication. The channel switching module also records the time of the fault, the fault protocol type, the status of the backup channel, the fault information and the switching process, and stores this information in the device log.

[0014] Preferably, the routing module of each network element device is also configured with a routing priority management module; This route priority management module sets priorities for different types of routes: directly connected routes have higher priority than non-directly connected routes. Directly connected routes include those generated by the PPP protocol module and those generated by the DLDP protocol module. For non-directly connected routes of the same type, by default, non-directly connected routes generated by the OSPF protocol module have higher priority than non-directly connected routes generated by the RIP protocol module. When there are multiple routes to the same target network element in the routing table of a network element, the routing priority management module selects the route with the highest priority as the data forwarding route according to the preset priority rules. The route priority management module periodically checks the route priority configuration. If it detects that the route priority configuration has been tampered with, it will automatically restore the default priority configuration. The route priority management module also supports manually adjusting the priority of specific routes.

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: The proposed method and system for hybrid networking of GCC and DCC in this invention innovatively combines the advantages of OSPF and RIP routing protocols, achieving seamless hybrid networking and routing interoperability of GCC and DCC in in-band DCN networks. This not only solves the routing incompatibility problem caused by protocol incompatibility in traditional networking but also significantly improves the flexibility and deployment efficiency of network management. By differentiating between directly connected and non-directly connected routes through independent maintenance mechanisms, it effectively prevents the impact of non-directly connected route oscillations on the stability of directly connected routes, enhancing the overall reliability and robustness of the network. Furthermore, it supports convenient access and management of network management devices and employs encryption algorithms to ensure the secure transmission of management commands, further improving the security and efficiency of network management. This provides an efficient, stable, and secure solution for hybrid networking of in-band DCN networks. Attached Figure Description

[0016] Figure 1 A flowchart is introduced for routing protocol selection and routing in hybrid GCC and DCC networks; Figure 2 Flowchart for routing configuration and protocol flooding in GCC and DCC hybrid networking. Detailed Implementation

[0017] The following description is intended to disclose the invention and enable those skilled in the art to implement it. The preferred embodiments described below are merely examples, and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art.

[0018] Reference Figure 1As shown, a hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method includes, for devices directly connected to each other in an in-band DCN network, if it is a GCC connection, the DCN channel configuration operation must be completed first. The GCC connection ports of the two directly connected devices are set as GCC overhead channels based on OTN frames. OTN frames are chosen because the GCC channel in the in-band DCN network relies on the OTU line board. The GCC overhead bytes in the OTU frame structure are specifically used to transmit network element monitoring information, and the GCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices must be consistent. Only in this way can it be ensured that the two devices can correctly parse the monitoring information and avoid the management channel from being unable to connect due to parameter mismatch. After completing the DCN channel configuration, routes are maintained via the PPP protocol. The specific process of maintaining routes via the PPP protocol requires the sequential execution of three steps: link establishment, authentication, and network layer protocol negotiation. Link establishment is completed through the LCP protocol to initialize the link, laying the foundation for subsequent data transmission. The authentication step can use PAP or CHAP methods to prevent unauthorized devices from accessing the in-band DCN network and ensure the security of the management channel. Network layer protocol negotiation mainly relies on the IPCP protocol to obtain the DCN IP of the peer and generate directly connected route entries. The update of these directly connected route entries is controlled only by the state of the PPP link. When the PPP link is disconnected, the directly connected route entry is automatically deleted. This is because the PPP protocol itself has real-time link state detection capabilities, which can ensure that the route entry is consistent with the actual link connectivity and avoid invalid route residues affecting network efficiency. After obtaining the peer's DCNIP and establishing a route, the route is introduced as an external route into the RIP protocol for publication. During the introduction process, the route introduction module adds an external route identifier to the directly connected route. This setting allows RIP to only be responsible for publishing the directly connected route and not to participate in the generation and deletion of the directly connected route. This ensures that the maintenance of the directly connected route is still controlled by the underlying PPP protocol, which is in line with the principle of independent maintenance of directly connected and non-directly connected routes and improves the stability of route maintenance.

[0019] For DCC interconnection, the DCN channel configuration must also be completed first. The DCC interconnection ports of the two directly connected devices must be set to a DCC overhead channel based on STM frames. STM frames are chosen because the DCC channel relies on the SDH line board. The DCC overhead bytes in the SDH frame structure are a dedicated carrier for transmitting network element management information, and the DCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices must be consistent to ensure that both ends can accurately parse management information and avoid communication anomalies caused by parameter differences. After completing the DCC channel configuration, routes are maintained through the DLDP protocol. The specific process of DLDP route maintenance involves detecting link status by sending probe frames and receiving response frames. The probe frame actively confirms whether the link is in a normal connectivity state. When a response frame is received, it indicates that the link status is normal. At this time, the DCN IP of the other end is obtained, and a directly connected route entry is generated. The update of this directly connected route entry depends only on the link status detected by DLDP. When a link failure is detected, the directly connected route entry is immediately deleted. This is because the DLDP protocol is a dedicated link detection protocol designed for SDH links, possessing rapid fault detection capabilities and ensuring real-time synchronization of routing information and link status. Meanwhile, the DLDP protocol periodically sends probe frames. The probe period needs to be adjusted according to the network size. For smaller networks, the probe period is set to 10 seconds because smaller networks have fewer devices and links, and a longer probe period can reduce network data overhead. For larger networks, the probe period is set to 5 seconds because larger networks have more devices and more complex links, and a shorter probe period can detect link failures more quickly, reducing the impact of failures on the overall network. After obtaining the peer's DCNIP and establishing a route, this route is introduced as an external route into the OSPF protocol for publication. The route introduction module adds an external route identifier to this directly connected route, so that OSPF is only responsible for publishing this directly connected route and does not participate in the generation and deletion of this directly connected route. This ensures that the maintenance of directly connected routes is independently controlled by the underlying DLDP protocol, avoiding interference from OSPF update operations on the stability of directly connected routes.

[0020] For non-directly connected devices, if the routing is maintained by OSPF, the specific process of OSPF maintaining the routing requires the OSPF module of the non-directly connected device to complete the neighbor discovery and adjacency establishment operations. Neighbor discovery is achieved by periodically sending Hello messages. In broadcast or point-to-point network types, the Hello message sending period is 10 seconds by default. Adjacency establishment is based on the exchange of DD messages, LSR messages, and LSU messages on the basis of neighbors. Through these messages, the network topology information of the GCC interface area is obtained. Then, the route entries to other non-directly connected devices are calculated based on the shortest path first algorithm. The shortest path first algorithm can calculate the optimal transmission path based on parameters such as link bandwidth to ensure the efficiency of management command transmission. The update of this route entry is automatically triggered by OSPF according to network topology changes and can respond to topology adjustments in real time. Simultaneously, OSPF calculates the Cost value for the calculated routes. The Cost value is inversely proportional to the link bandwidth; the higher the link bandwidth, the lower the Cost value. The route with the lowest Cost value is identified as the optimal route and introduced into the RIP. This ensures that the route introduced into the RIP is the current optimal path, improving the communication quality of the management channel. When introducing routes maintained by OSPF into the RIP, the route introduction module first filters the routes maintained by OSPF, only introducing routes corresponding to DCNIPs used for in-band DCN management, excluding service data routes unrelated to in-band DCN management. This reduces the number of routes advertised by the RIP protocol, lowers network data overhead, and avoids irrelevant routes consuming bandwidth resources. After filtering, the filtered routes are converted to a format supported by RIP. Since there are differences between OSPF and RIP route data formats, the conversion operation ensures that the RIP protocol correctly identifies the route information. At the same time, an external route tag is added to the converted routes to distinguish between routes generated internally by the RIP and externally introduced routes, facilitating subsequent route management and maintenance. After receiving the route, RIP publishes it to directly connected devices by periodically sending route update messages. The sending period of the route update messages is set to 30 seconds, which conforms to the standard specification of the RIP protocol in RFC 1058. This ensures that non-directly connected devices can synchronize route information in a timely manner, while balancing route real-time performance and network overhead.

[0021] If routing is maintained by RIP, the specific process involves the RIP module on a non-directly connected device receiving routing update messages from neighboring devices, obtaining routing information for the DCC interface area, and then determining the optimal route to other non-directly connected devices based on a hop count algorithm. The fewer hops, the better the route. The hop count cannot exceed 15, as the RIP protocol itself has a maximum hop limit; routes exceeding 15 are considered unreachable. This limit effectively prevents routing loops, avoiding repeated transmission of routing information and wasting network resources. The update of this route entry is triggered by the RIP update cycle or changes in routing on neighboring devices. The RIP update cycle ensures regular synchronization of routing information, while updates triggered by changes in routing on neighboring devices quickly respond to network topology adjustments, ensuring the timeliness of routing information. Simultaneously, RIP verifies received routing update messages. If tampering is detected, the message is immediately discarded. This verification mechanism ensures the integrity and security of routing information, preventing malicious tampering that could lead to management channel interruption or incorrect routing. When importing routes maintained by RIP into OSPF, the route import module first verifies the routes maintained by RIP to confirm that the DCN IP in the route belongs to the in-band DCN management network segment. Invalid routes that do not belong to the in-band DCN management network segment are removed to prevent invalid routes from entering the OSPF protocol and save storage space in the link-state database within the OSPF area. After verification, the verified routes are converted into an external route format supported by OSPF. Since OSPF has specific format requirements for external routes, the conversion operation ensures that OSPF processes the route correctly and assigns a type identifier to the converted route. The default is to assign a type 2 identifier. The Cost value of OSPF external route type 2 only considers the cost of the external route itself and does not add the cost of internal OSPF links. This setting is because the routes imported by RIP have already been determined to be optimal through the hop count algorithm, and there is no need to recalculate through OSPF internal cost addition, simplifying the route calculation process. After receiving the route, OSPF encapsulates it into a Link-State Advertisement (LSA). Since OSPF is a link-state protocol, the LSA is the core carrier for OSPF to transmit topology and routing information. Through a flooding mechanism, the LSA is sent to all devices within the OSPF area. The flooding mechanism ensures that all devices within the OSPF area obtain the routing information synchronously, enabling routing communication between non-directly connected devices.

[0022] Reference Figure 2As shown, the method also includes independent maintenance mechanisms for directly connected routes and non-directly connected routes. The generation, updating, and deletion of directly connected routes are controlled solely by the underlying link protocols. Directly connected routes connected to GCC are controlled by the PPP protocol, and those connected to DCC are controlled by the DLDP protocol. The OSPF and RIP protocols do not participate in the maintenance process of directly connected routes. As the foundational routes of the in-band DCN network, the stability of directly connected routes directly affects the connectivity of the overall management channel. Independent maintenance by the underlying link protocols ensures that directly connected routes are not interfered with by the update operations of upper-layer routing protocols, thus improving their stability. The generation, updating, and deletion of non-directly connected routes are controlled by the corresponding routing protocols. Non-directly connected routes in the GCC-connected area are controlled by the OSPF protocol, and those in the DCC-connected area are controlled by the RIP protocol. When a non-directly connected route changes, only the update operation of its own routing protocol is triggered; no instructions are sent to the underlying link protocols. This setting prevents changes to non-directly connected routes from being propagated to the underlying link protocols, thus preventing frequent adjustments by the underlying link protocols from affecting directly connected routes. When non-directly connected routes experience oscillations, the directly connected routes maintained by the underlying link protocol are unaffected. These oscillations are typically caused by frequent changes in network topology. An independent maintenance mechanism isolates the impact of these oscillations, ensuring the stable operation of directly connected routes. Simultaneously, the system tracks the number of oscillations in non-directly connected routes. When the number exceeds five times within one minute, a route suppression mechanism is triggered, temporarily halting the introduction and publication of that non-directly connected route. Frequent route oscillations lead to repeated route introductions and publications, increasing network data overhead and potentially causing routing table corruption. The suppression mechanism effectively mitigates this problem. Once the oscillation subsides, the introduction and publication of the non-directly connected route resume, ensuring timely synchronization of routing information once the network returns to normal.

[0023] The method also includes access and management steps for network management devices. The network management device establishes a physical connection with any network element in the in-band DCN network via its NMS port. The NMS port is a dedicated interface for connecting the network management device to the network element. Selecting any network element as the network management access point improves the flexibility of network deployment, eliminates the need for a fixed access location, and reduces network limitations. The network element that establishes the physical connection with the network management device serves as the network management access point. The access point device obtains DCNIP routes from all other network elements through its stored routing table. These routes include directly connected routes from PPP to RIP, directly connected routes from DLDP to OSPF, non-directly connected routes from OSPF to RIP, and non-directly connected routes from RIP to OSPF. The access point device must possess all routing information to act as a communication bridge between the network management system and other network elements, ensuring that network management commands are accurately forwarded to the target network element. The network management device sends management commands to the target network element device based on the routes provided by the access point device. The telnet command is used for remote login to the target network element device for configuration operations. Remote configuration via telnet significantly improves network element management efficiency and reduces on-site maintenance workload. The ping command is used to test connectivity with the target network element device. By sending ICMP packets and receiving responses, the ping command quickly determines whether the management channel is normal, facilitating timely detection of connectivity issues. When the target network element device is in the GCC interfacing area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through routes maintained by the OSPF protocol. Because the OSPF protocol is responsible for route management in the GCC interfacing area, transmission via OSPF routes ensures that commands arrive at the target network element along the optimal path. When the target network element device is in the DCC interfacing area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through routes maintained by the RIP protocol. Since the RIP protocol is responsible for route management in the DCC interfacing area, transmission via RIP routes ensures accurate delivery of commands. Meanwhile, the network management equipment uses the AES-128 encryption algorithm to encrypt the transmitted management commands. AES-128 is an internationally recognized secure encryption algorithm with high encryption strength and moderate computational efficiency. It can effectively prevent management commands from being stolen or tampered with during transmission, ensuring the management security of the in-band DCN network.

[0024] A hybrid GCC and DCC network communication system includes multiple network element devices, which are divided into directly connected devices and non-directly connected devices. Each network element device is configured with a PPP protocol module, a DLDP protocol module, an OSPF protocol module, a RIP protocol module, a route import module, and a route flooding module. The PPP and DLDP protocol modules are responsible for link management and directly connected route generation in GCC and DCC interoperation scenarios, respectively. The OSPF and RIP protocol modules are responsible for maintaining non-directly connected routes in the GCC and DCC interoperation areas, respectively. The route import module implements route import between different protocols, and the route flooding module is responsible for publishing route information. All modules work together to ensure route interoperability in the hybrid network. In the directly connected devices, the GCC interoperation device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the PPP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the RIP protocol module, enabling the RIP protocol to publish the directly connected route. The DCC interoperation device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the DLDP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the OSPF protocol module, enabling the OSPF protocol to publish the directly connected route. In non-directly connected devices, the route import module imports routes maintained by the OSPF protocol module into the RIP protocol module, or imports routes maintained by the RIP protocol module into the OSPF protocol module, to achieve interoperability between routes of different protocols; the route flooding module publishes routes through the flooding mechanisms of the OSPF and RIP protocols. OSPF publishes routes through flooded link state advertisements, and RIP publishes routes through flooded route update messages, ensuring that all network element devices can obtain the required routes.

[0025] Each network element is also equipped with a protocol fault detection module and a channel switching module. The protocol fault detection module monitors the operating status of the PPP, DLDP, OSPF, and RIP protocol modules in real time. It determines whether the protocols are working properly by periodically checking the protocol processes and link status messages. When a fault is detected in any protocol module, a fault notification containing the faulty protocol type and the corresponding docking channel information is sent to the channel switching module to promptly transmit fault information for rapid handling. After receiving the fault notification, the channel switching module checks whether the network element is configured with a backup DCN channel. If a backup DCN channel exists, and the docking type of the backup DCN channel is different from that of the faulty channel (i.e., the backup channel is DCC when the faulty channel is GCC docking, or vice versa), then the protocol module corresponding to the backup DCN channel is automatically activated. Switching between different types of docking channels can prevent the management channel from being completely interrupted due to common faults in the same type of channel, thus improving system reliability. When the PPP protocol module corresponding to the GCC interface fails, the channel switching module activates the corresponding DLDP and RIP protocol modules connected to the DCC interface. The DLDP protocol module obtains the peer's DCN IP through the backup DCN channel and generates a directly connected route. This directly connected route is then imported into the OSPF protocol module for publication via the route import module, ensuring rapid recovery of the management channel after a failure. The channel switching module also records fault information and the switching process, such as the time of the failure, the type of the faulty protocol, and the status of the backup channel activation. This information is stored in the device log. The information in the device log provides maintenance personnel with a basis for subsequent fault investigation, fault pattern analysis, and network configuration optimization, reducing maintenance difficulty.

[0026] Each network element's routing module is also equipped with a route priority management module. This module sets priorities for different types of routes, with directly connected routes having higher priority than non-directly connected routes. Directly connected routes include those generated by the PPP and DLDP protocol modules. Directly connected routes rely directly on physical links, offering the shortest path and minimal latency. Prioritizing directly connected routes ensures fast transmission of management commands and avoids the inefficiency caused by choosing non-directly connected, roundabout routes. For the same type of non-directly connected routes, by default, non-directly connected routes generated by the OSPF protocol module have higher priority than those generated by the RIP protocol module. OSPF, as a link-state protocol, can calculate the optimal path based on topology information, resulting in higher route stability and accuracy. RIP, as a distance-vector protocol, relies solely on hop count for route selection, which may lead to suboptimal paths. Default OSPF priority improves the rationality of route selection. When multiple routes to the same target network element exist in the network element's routing table, the route priority management module selects the highest-priority route as the data forwarding route according to preset priority rules. Clear priority rules prevent forwarding confusion caused by multiple routes coexisting in the routing table, ensuring a unique and optimal data transmission path. The route priority management module periodically checks the route priority configuration. By comparing the current configuration with the default configuration, if any tampering is detected, it automatically restores the default priority configuration to prevent malicious modification that could lead to incorrect route selection and ensure the correctness of the priority configuration. This module also supports manually adjusting the priority of specific routes. In special networking scenarios, such as when certain non-directly connected routes maintained by RIPs need to be used with priority, operations and maintenance personnel can manually adjust the priority, improving the system's adaptability to complex networking scenarios.

[0027] The foregoing has shown and described the basic principles, main features, and advantages of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. The embodiments and descriptions in the specification are merely principles of the invention. Various changes and modifications can be made to the invention without departing from its spirit and scope, and all such changes and modifications fall within the scope of the claimed invention. The scope of protection claimed by the appended claims and their equivalents is defined.

Claims

1. A hybrid network communication method using GCC and DCC, characterized in that, include: For devices directly connected to each other in the DCN network within the band, if they are connected via GCC, the route is maintained through the PPP protocol. After obtaining the DCNIP of the other end and establishing the route, the route is introduced as an external route and published through the RIP protocol. If it is a DCC connection, the route is maintained through the DLDP protocol. After obtaining the DCNIP of the peer and establishing the route, the route is introduced as an external route and published through the OSPF protocol. For non-directly connected devices, if the route is maintained by OSPF, it should be introduced into RIP as an external route for advertising. If the route is maintained by RIP, it will be introduced into OSPF as an external route for advertising. The introduced routes are flooded in the DCN network within the band by using the route flooding mechanisms of OSPF and RIP.

2. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When directly connected devices perform GCC connection, before performing the PPP protocol route maintenance operation, the DCN channel configuration operation must be completed first: set the GCC connection port of the two directly connected devices to the GCC overhead channel based on OTN frames, and the GCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices must be consistent. The specific process of PPP protocol maintaining routes is as follows: through the steps of link establishment, authentication, and network layer protocol negotiation, the DCNIP of the other end is obtained, and a directly connected route entry is generated. The update of the directly connected route entry is only controlled by the state of the PPP link. When the PPP link is disconnected, the directly connected route entry is automatically deleted. When a directly connected route is introduced into RIP, the route introduction module adds an external route identifier to the directly connected route, so that RIP is only responsible for publishing the directly connected route and does not participate in the generation and deletion process of the directly connected route.

3. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When directly connected devices perform DCC connection, before performing the DLDP protocol route maintenance operation, the DCN channel configuration operation must be completed first: set the DCC connection port of the two directly connected devices to the DCC overhead channel based on STM frames, and keep the DCC overhead parameters of the two directly connected devices consistent. The specific process of DLDP protocol maintaining routes is as follows: the link status is detected by sending probe frames and receiving response frames. When the link status is detected to be normal, the DCNIP of the peer is obtained and a directly connected route entry is generated. The update of the directly connected route entry depends only on the link status detected by DLDP. When a link failure is detected, the directly connected route entry is deleted immediately. When a directly connected route is introduced into OSPF, the route introduction module adds an external route identifier to the directly connected route, so that OSPF is only responsible for advertising the directly connected route and does not participate in the generation and deletion process of the directly connected route; The DLDP protocol sends probe frames periodically. The probe period is adjusted according to the network size. When the network size is small, the probe period is set to 10 seconds, and when the network size is large, the probe period is set to 5 seconds.

4. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the routes of non-directly connected devices are maintained by OSPF, the specific process of OSPF maintaining routes is as follows: The OSPF module of the non-directly connected device first completes the operation of neighbor discovery and adjacency relationship establishment, obtains the network topology information of the GCC interface area by exchanging link state advertisements, and then calculates the route entries to other non-directly connected devices based on the shortest path first algorithm. The update of the route entries is automatically triggered by OSPF according to changes in network topology. When importing routes maintained by OSPF into RIP, the route import module first filters the routes maintained by OSPF, importing only the routes corresponding to the DCNIP used for in-band DCN management and excluding routes unrelated to in-band DCN management. Then, the filtered routes are converted into a format supported by RIP and external route tags are added to the converted routes. After receiving the route, RIP publishes the route to directly connected devices by periodically sending route update messages, with the sending period of the route update messages set to 30 seconds. OSPF also calculates the cost value of the calculated routes, identifies the route with the lowest cost value as the optimal route, and introduces this optimal route into RIP.

5. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the routing of non-directly connected devices is maintained by RIP, the specific process of RIP maintaining the routing is as follows: The RIP module of the non-directly connected device obtains the routing information of the DCC docking area by receiving the routing update message sent by the neighboring device, and then determines the optimal route entry to other non-directly connected devices according to the hop count algorithm, where the hop count does not exceed 15. The update of this route entry is triggered by the RIP update cycle or the routing changes of the neighboring devices. When importing routes maintained by RIP into OSPF, the route import module first verifies the routes maintained by RIP to confirm that the dcnip in the route belongs to the in-band DCN management network segment, removes invalid routes that do not belong to the in-band DCN management network segment, converts the verified routes into the external route format supported by OSPF, and assigns a type identifier to the converted routes. The default type 2 identifier is assigned. After receiving the route, OSPF encapsulates it into a link-state advertisement and sends the link-state advertisement to all devices within the OSPF area through a flooding mechanism. RIP verifies received route update messages. If it detects that the message content has been tampered with, it discards the route update message.

6. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method also includes independent maintenance mechanisms for directly connected routes and non-directly connected routes: the generation, updating, and deletion of directly connected routes are controlled only by the underlying link protocol, where the directly connected routes connected to gcc are controlled by the PPP protocol, the directly connected routes connected to DCC are controlled by the DLDP protocol, and the OSPF and RIP protocols do not participate in the maintenance process of directly connected routes. The generation, update, and deletion of non-directly connected routes are controlled by the corresponding routing protocols. Specifically, non-directly connected routes in the GCC interface area are controlled by the OSPF protocol, while non-directly connected routes in the DCC interface area are controlled by the RIP protocol. When a non-directly connected route changes, it only triggers the update operation of its own routing protocol and does not send instructions to the underlying link protocol. When non-directly connected routes experience oscillations, the directly connected routes maintained by the underlying link protocol are not affected by these oscillations. The system will count the number of oscillations of non-directly connected routes. When the number of oscillations of a non-directly connected route exceeds 5 times within 1 minute, the route suppression mechanism will be triggered to temporarily stop the introduction and publication of the non-directly connected route. The introduction and publication of the non-directly connected route will be resumed after the oscillation phenomenon subsides.

7. The hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method also includes the access and management steps of the network management device: establishing a physical connection between the network management device and any network element device in the in-band DCN network through the NMS port, and the network element device that establishes a physical connection with the network management device serves as the network management access point; Access point devices obtain DCNIP routes from all other network element devices through their own stored routing tables. These routes include directly connected routes from PPP protocol to RIP protocol, directly connected routes from DLDP protocol to OSPF protocol, non-directly connected routes from OSPF protocol to RIP protocol, and non-directly connected routes from RIP protocol to OSPF protocol. The network management device sends management commands to the target network element device based on the route provided by the access point device. The telnet command is used to remotely log in to the target network element device to perform configuration operations, and the ping command is used to detect the connectivity with the target network element device. When the target network element device belongs to the GCC interface area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through the routes maintained by the OSPF protocol; When the target network element device belongs to the DCC interface area, the management commands sent by the network management device are transmitted through the routes maintained by the RIP protocol; The network management device uses the AES-128 encryption algorithm to encrypt the transmitted management commands.

8. A hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication system, characterized in that, It includes multiple network element devices, which are divided into directly connected devices and non-directly connected devices; Each network element is configured with a PPP protocol module, a DLDP protocol module, an OSPF protocol module, a RIP protocol module, a route import module, and a route flooding module; In a directly connected device, the GCC-connected device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the PPP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the RIP protocol module; The DCC interface device obtains the peer's DCNIP and maintains the route through the DLDDP protocol module, and the route import module imports the route into the OSPF protocol module. In non-directly connected devices, the route import module imports routes maintained by the OSPF protocol module into the RIP protocol module, or imports routes maintained by the RIP protocol module into the OSPF protocol module. The routing flooding module publishes routes through the flooding mechanisms of the OSPF and RIP protocols.

9. A hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication system according to claim 8, characterized in that, Each network element is also equipped with a protocol fault detection module and a channel switching module; The protocol fault detection module monitors the operating status of the PPP, DLDP, OSPF, and RIP protocol modules in real time. When a fault is detected in any protocol module, a fault notification containing the faulty protocol type and the corresponding docking channel information is sent to the channel switching module. After receiving a fault notification, the channel switching module checks whether the network element device is configured with a backup DCN channel. If a backup DCN channel is found, and the connection type of the backup DCN channel is different from that of the faulty channel (i.e., the backup channel is DCC when the faulty channel is GCC connection, or the backup channel is GCC connection when the faulty channel is DCC connection), then the protocol module corresponding to the backup DCN channel is automatically activated. When the corresponding PPP protocol module connected to GCC fails, the channel switching module enables the corresponding DLDP protocol module and RIP protocol module connected to DCC. The DLDP protocol module obtains the peer's DCN IP through the backup DCN channel and generates a direct route. Then, the route import module imports the direct route into the OSPF protocol module for publication. The channel switching module also records the time of the fault, the fault protocol type, the status of the backup channel, the fault information and the switching process, and stores this information in the device log.

10. A hybrid GCC and DCC networking communication system according to claim 8, characterized in that, Each network element device's routing module is also configured with a routing priority management module; This route priority management module sets priorities for different types of routes: directly connected routes have higher priority than non-directly connected routes. Directly connected routes include those generated by the PPP protocol module and those generated by the DLDP protocol module. For non-directly connected routes of the same type, by default, non-directly connected routes generated by the OSPF protocol module have higher priority than non-directly connected routes generated by the RIP protocol module. When there are multiple routes to the same target network element in the routing table of a network element, the routing priority management module selects the route with the highest priority as the data forwarding route according to the preset priority rules. The route priority management module periodically checks the route priority configuration. If it detects that the route priority configuration has been tampered with, it will automatically restore the default priority configuration. The route priority management module also supports manually adjusting the priority of specific routes.

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