Dual-Uplink Tangent Ring MAC Entry Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
In dual-uplink tangent ring networks, a failure in one ring can cause unnecessary updates in other rings, leading to traffic interruptions and long service disruptions, especially with a large number of users.
Innovation Solution
Classifying ports into conjugate and non-conjugate ports, where conjugate ports are access-side ports and non-conjugate ports are common tangent edge ports, and implementing a method to clear and update MAC and ARP entries only for the affected ring, while retaining entries for other rings, and initiating ARP requests on non-conjugate ports to prevent unnecessary updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If loop-breaking protocols clear/update MAC entries on a VLAN basis, then loop prevention is achieved, but traffic interruption occurs in other normal rings due to unnecessary entry clearing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into multiple dual-uplink tangent rings and introduces ring identifiers to distinguish between different rings. When a fault occurs, the loop-breaking protocol clears MAC entries only within the affected ring rather than clearing all VLAN-wide entries, thus preventing unnecessary traffic interruptions in other normal rings while maintaining loop prevention capability.
2Reliability
If loop-breaking protocols update all MAC entries when a fault occurs, then loop prevention is ensured, but service interruption time increases due to many entry updates
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the network into distinct rings with unique identifiers, the patent enables selective MAC entry clearing only in the affected ring. This segmentation approach dramatically reduces the number of entry updates required during fault recovery, thereby minimizing service interruption time while maintaining loop prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by applying the loop-breaking action only to the specific ring where a fault is detected, rather than uniformly clearing all MAC entries across the entire VLAN. This localized approach reduces the scope of updates and accelerates service recovery.
3Reliability
If dual-uplink scheme is implemented, then network reliability is improved, but loop problems are introduced requiring loop-breaking protocols
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces protocol complexity by segmenting the network into rings with unique identifiers. This segmentation allows the loop-breaking protocol to operate more efficiently by targeting only the affected ring, thereby reducing the computational overhead and complexity of MAC entry management while maintaining the reliability benefits of dual-uplink.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, device, and system for dual-uplink tangent ring convergence, where ports on a network device are classified into conjugate ports and non-conjugate ports. When receiving an entry update packet from a first port or perceiving a state change of a first port, when it is determined that the first port of the network device is a conjugate port, the network device clears a media access control (MAC) entry and an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) entry that use the first port as an outbound interface and clears all MAC entries that use a non-conjugate port as an outbound interface, in a MAC table and an ARP table of the network device. In this way, traffic interruption can be avoided, wherein a failure of one dual-uplink tangent ring does not cause an entry of one or more other normal dual-uplink tangent rings to be cleared/updated.