Hard Pipe Stratum for Leased Line Bandwidth Isolation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current network technologies fail to ensure stable bandwidth for leased line services due to shared bandwidth with other services, leading to instability and increased operating costs for providers.

Innovation Solution

A network management system allocates a fixed bandwidth and static MPLS labels to form a hard pipe stratum, ensuring only leased line service packets with these labels are forwarded through it, thereby isolating bandwidth from other services.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If network bandwidth is shared between leased line service and other services, then network resource utilization is improved, but bandwidth stability for leased line service deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenetwork resource utilizationVSAvoidbandwidth stability
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The network bandwidth is segmented into two distinct parts: a guaranteed bandwidth portion allocated exclusively to leased line services and a shared bandwidth portion available for other services. This segmentation is implemented through separate queue structures (guaranteed queue and shared queue) and dedicated forwarding resources, ensuring that leased line services receive stable bandwidth while other services can utilize remaining network capacity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If total network bandwidth is set large to ensure leased line bandwidth, then bandwidth availability is improved, but network cost and complexity deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebandwidth availabilityVSAvoidnetwork configuration complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The network employs dynamic bandwidth allocation within the shared bandwidth portion, where available bandwidth is flexibly assigned to different services based on real-time demand. The system dynamically adjusts forwarding rates and queue priorities without requiring manual reconfiguration, allowing the network to adapt to varying traffic patterns while maintaining guaranteed bandwidth for leased line services.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Reliability

If static MPLS labels are allocated to hard pipe stratum, then bandwidth isolation is improved, but label management complexity deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebandwidth isolationVSAvoidlabel management complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The MPLS label space is segmented into two distinct sets: static labels reserved exclusively for leased line services in the hard pipe stratum, and dynamic labels for other services. This label segmentation enables straightforward bandwidth isolation at each network node, where forwarding decisions are made based on label type without requiring complex cross-service management.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP3687113B1Method and apparatus for establishing hard pipe in a network
Publication Date: 2021.09.15 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3687113B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2b
  • EP3687113B1 patent drawingFigure 2c~4
  • EP3687113B1 patent drawingFigure 4A~5

AI summary

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for establishing a hard pipe in a network, and a method and an apparatus for forwarding a packet in a network. The network includes multiple routers and a network management system. The method includes: acquiring, by the network management system, bandwidths of all links in the network; instructing, by the network management system, a router in the network topology to allocate a fixed bandwidth from a bandwidth of the link of the network topology, where a link to which the fixed bandwidth is allocated forms a sublink, and the sublink and the router that allocates the sublink form a hard pipe stratum, where the hard pipe stratum is used to carry a leased line service; and allocating, by the network management system, a static MPLS label set to the hard pipe stratum. It can be seen that only a service packet that has an MPLS label in the static MPLS label set is forwarded by using the hard pipe stratum, so that the hard pipe stratum carries only the leased line service, thereby ensuring that a bandwidth of the leased line service is not occupied by a non-leased line service, and providing a leased line service whose bandwidth is ensured.