Chain Network Redundancy via Pre-assigned Port States
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current redundancy mechanisms in network architectures, such as IEEE 802.1D-STP and 802.1W-RSTP, are inefficient for large-scale industrial control networks, leading to prolonged recovery times and reduced reliability due to complex setups and incompatibilities, especially in ring network topologies, which can cause significant losses and disruptions.
Innovation Solution
A method for a chain network that sets communication ports of switches to forwarding and blocking states, allowing control packets to switch these states without recalculating the best path, enabling quick network recovery and reducing complexity and costs by eliminating the need for complex coordinating mechanisms and additional connections between switches.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If STP or RSTP is used to eliminate network looping problems, then network stability is improved, but the recalculation time to recover from network device failure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-assigns forwarding and blocking states to ports before network failures occur. The root switch designates specific ports as forwarding ports in advance, and backup switches pre-configure their corresponding ports as blocking ports. When a network failure occurs, the pre-configured blocking ports can immediately transition to forwarding state without requiring recalculation, thus reducing recovery time while maintaining network stability
2Reliability
If backup network devices are added to establish redundancy, then network reliability is improved, but network complexity increases due to potential looping
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into a hierarchical structure with root switches and backup switches. Each switch is assigned specific roles and port states (forwarding or blocking), creating a clear division of responsibilities. This segmentation allows multiple backup devices to be added to enhance redundancy while maintaining manageable complexity through defined roles and states
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a control packet mechanism as an intermediary to manage the state transitions of switch ports. The control packets carry instructions for port state changes, allowing the network to coordinate redundancy activation without complex recalculations. This intermediary simplifies the coordination between multiple backup devices
3Productivity
If ring network topology is used to meet recovery requirements, then network recovery capability is improved, but setup complexity and coordination requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having all switches actively participate in complex ring-based redundancy protocols with mutual coordination, the patent inverts the approach by designating one root switch to control the port states of all backup switches. This inversion simplifies the coordination mechanism from many-to-many to one-to-many, reducing setup complexity while maintaining fast recovery capability
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method for conducting redundancy checks in a chain network, wherein the two ends of the chain network are equipped with a first switch and a second switch respectively, and a port of the first or second switch used for communicating with an external network is set to be blocked, so that when an link failure happens to any switch of the chain network, the two switches close to the link failure port sends control packets to the first and second switches respectively to forward the port that is originally blocking, thus making the network to return to normal state quickly. Besides, as the first and second switches are used to connect other chain networks, external network devices or external redundant network architectures, it allows more network nodes to be included in single network architecture and provides flexibility and compatibility in use by including different redundancy mechanisms.