Co-routed Bidirectional Paths in Segment Routing Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current communications networks face challenges in providing guaranteed bandwidth, latency, and end-to-end path protection in packet switching environments, which are typically offered by circuit and time-division multiplexing networks, but these guarantees are difficult to maintain in packet switching technologies.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a segment routing (SR) network with a circuit-style architecture that uses co-routed bidirectional connections, network management systems, and path computation elements to reserve and manage bandwidth, ensuring connection-oriented services by encoding explicit paths in packet headers and using adjacency segment identifiers for traffic routing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If packet switching technology is used to increase network speed and capacity, then network bandwidth and processing efficiency are improved, but guaranteed bandwidth, latency, and end-to-end path protection become difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network path into discrete segment identifiers (SIDs) that are encoded in the packet header. Each SID represents a specific network node or link, allowing the network to divide the end-to-end path into controllable segments. This segmentation enables packet switching to maintain circuit-like guarantees by explicitly defining and protecting each segment of the path while still using packet-based forwarding.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes explicit paths and reserves bandwidth before data transmission begins. The source node computes and encodes the complete path through segment identifiers in advance, and network resources are reserved along this predetermined path. This preliminary action ensures that when packets are transmitted, the bandwidth, latency, and path protection guarantees are already in place, similar to circuit switching but within a packet switching framework.
2Ease of operation
If source routing paradigm is used to encode paths in packet headers, then explicit path control is improved, but device complexity and routing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the routing parameter from traditional IP addresses to segment identifiers (SIDs) in the packet header. Each SID is a compact identifier that represents a network segment or node. This parameter change simplifies the routing decision process at each network node, as nodes only need to match the incoming packet's SID with their forwarding table entries, rather than performing complex longest-prefix-matching on IP addresses. This reduces routing overhead while maintaining explicit path control.
3Reliability
If circuit-style architecture is implemented to provide guaranteed bandwidth and latency, then service reliability is improved, but adaptability to dynamic traffic patterns deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamics into the circuit-style architecture by allowing the segment routing paths to be computed and updated based on current network conditions. While each individual path maintains guaranteed bandwidth and latency characteristics, the network can dynamically recompute paths using segment identifiers when traffic patterns change or network conditions deteriorate. This enables the system to adapt to dynamic traffic patterns while preserving the reliability guarantees of circuit-style service through the explicit path control provided by segment routing.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media to implement circuit-style network with co-routed bidirectional network paths. A method includes receiving a request for a circuit policy between a source node and a destination node, the circuit policy defining a co-routed bidirectional policy between the source node and the destination node; requesting a path compute service to identify a path between the source node and the destination node that satisfies the circuit policy through a first network; receiving a path identifying a first set of network nodes that satisfy the circuit policy; configuring each node in the first set of network nodes within the first network with the circuit policy; and establishing a connection using the path that satisfies the circuit policy between the source node and the destination node.