Fate-Sharing Group Aggregation for Network Route Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Shared-media communication networks, such as wireless and power-line communication networks, are susceptible to environmental interference and 'fate-sharing' where links are affected by the same perturbations, leading to potential failures of both primary and backup next-hop routes, necessitating a more efficient method to minimize fate-sharing in route selection.
Innovation Solution
A management device aggregates fate-sharing reports from nodes to determine global fate-sharing groups, allowing nodes to select next-hops that minimize fate-sharing, thereby reducing the likelihood of simultaneous failures and enhancing network robustness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If nodes select next-hop routes based on advertised cost and objective function without considering fate-sharing, then route selection is simple and fast, but the likelihood of simultaneous failures of primary and backup routes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing and storing fate-sharing groups before route selection occurs. Nodes aggregate fate-sharing reports from neighbors, determine which neighbors belong to the same fate-sharing groups, and store this information in advance. When selecting backup next-hops, nodes can directly query these pre-computed groups to avoid simultaneous failures, eliminating the need for complex real-time analysis during route selection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces fate-sharing groups as an intermediary concept between individual link quality metrics and route selection decisions. Instead of directly analyzing complex correlations between multiple links, the system uses fate-sharing groups as a mediator that aggregates this complexity into discrete, manageable categories. Nodes select backup next-hops from different fate-sharing groups, using these groups as an intermediate layer that simplifies the decision-making process while improving reliability.
2Reliability
If nodes maintain backup next-hop routes without considering fate-sharing, then routing is efficient, but backup routes may fail simultaneously with primary routes due to shared environmental perturbations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-identifying and storing fate-sharing groups before any route failure occurs. When a primary route fails, nodes already have the information needed to quickly select alternative next-hops from different fate-sharing groups, avoiding time-consuming route searches. The fate-sharing reports and group assignments are maintained continuously, enabling rapid recovery without losing time analyzing link correlations during the failure event.
3Ease of operation
If routing protocols treat links independently without fate-sharing awareness, then route selection is straightforward, but environmental perturbations affect multiple links simultaneously causing cascading failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the network into fate-sharing groups, where each group represents a set of links that are likely to fail together due to shared environmental conditions. This segmentation transforms the complex problem of analyzing all possible link correlations into manageable discrete groups. Nodes select next-hops from different segments (fate-sharing groups), making route selection easier while improving robustness against cascading failures within each segment.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a management device receives one or more fate-sharing reports locally generated by one or more corresponding reporting nodes in a shared-media communication network, the fate-sharing reports indicating a degree of localized fate-sharing between one or more pairs of nodes local to the corresponding reporting nodes. The management device may then determine, globally from aggregating the fate-sharing reports, one or more fate-sharing groups indicating sets of nodes having a global degree of fate-sharing within the communication network. As such, the management device may then advertise the fate-sharing groups within the communication network, wherein nodes of the communication network are configured to select a plurality of next-hops that minimizes fate-sharing between the plurality of next-hops.