Floating Spare Cards for Best-Effort Traffic in Optical Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current metro optical networks face inefficiencies in resource utilization and limited growth due to traditional 1+1 protection architectures, which require doubling network capacity to ensure traffic protection against failures.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network configuration with floating spare cards that can carry low-priority traffic when not needed for failure recovery, allowing for optimized resource allocation and reduced idle capacity, using network monitoring devices to manage light paths and provision spare transport cards dynamically.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If 1+1 protection architecture is used to ensure traffic protection against failures, then network reliability is improved, but network capacity utilization deteriorates due to doubling network capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic allocation of spare card resources where the state of spare cards changes from static reservation to dynamic provisioning. Network monitoring devices continuously monitor traffic conditions and dynamically provision spare transport cards to carry best-effort traffic when not needed for protection, and switch to protection mode when failures occur. This dynamic state transition resolves the contradiction by making protection capacity available only when needed while utilizing it for revenue-generating traffic during normal operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes spare transport cards multi-functional by enabling them to serve dual purposes: providing failure protection when activated and carrying best-effort traffic when idle. The same physical infrastructure and transport cards that are reserved for protection purposes are also utilized to carry low-priority traffic, thereby eliminating the waste of dedicated protection capacity and improving overall network capacity utilization without compromising reliability.
2Reliability
If 1+1 protection architecture is used to ensure traffic protection, then network reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional hardware requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the protection function and best-effort traffic carrying function into a single unified resource pool of spare transport cards. Instead of having separate dedicated protection hardware and separate best-effort traffic hardware, the invention combines both functions into the same physical infrastructure. Network monitoring devices manage this unified pool, dynamically assigning cards to protection or best-effort traffic based on real-time needs, thereby reducing overall hardware requirements while maintaining protection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements self-service mechanisms where the network monitoring devices automatically monitor traffic conditions, detect when spare cards are needed for protection, and dynamically provision or de-provision spare transport cards without manual intervention. The system autonomously manages the allocation of protection resources, switching them between protection mode and best-effort traffic carrying mode based on failure conditions, thereby simplifying hardware management and reducing operational complexity.
3Productivity
If floating spare cards are used to carry best-effort traffic, then network productivity is improved through better resource utilization, but network reliability may deteriorate if protection capacity is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms through network monitoring devices that continuously monitor both traffic conditions and the state of spare transport cards. When a failure occurs, the monitoring device detects the condition and triggers the re-provisioning of floating spare cards to provide protection for affected traffic. This feedback loop ensures that while floating spare cards are utilized for best-effort traffic during normal operations, they can be rapidly reallocated to maintain protection capacity when needed, thus balancing productivity improvement with reliability maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent prepares protection capacity in advance by maintaining a pool of floating spare cards that are pre-configured and ready to be activated. These cards are kept in a standby state where they can be quickly provisioned for protection purposes when failures occur, rather than having to allocate protection resources after failures happen. This preliminary preparation ensures that protection capacity is available when needed while allowing the cards to carry best-effort traffic during normal operations, thus maintaining both productivity and reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A network management device monitors an optical network that is configured for a required bandwidth. The optical network includes multiple optical nodes and a plurality of light paths between the multiple optical nodes. The multiple optical nodes include transport cards with a majority of the transport cards provisioned as active cards to receive a traffic load of up to full capacity of the transport cards, and with a minority of the transport cards provisioned as floating spare cards for the active cards. The network management device identifies an unused first floating spare card and an unused second floating spare card in a pair of the multiple optical nodes and automatically provisions, by the network management device, the first floating spare card and the second floating spare card to service a light path for best-effort traffic between the pair of the multiple optical nodes.