Mesh Network Protection Resource Sharing via Precomputed Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network protection mechanisms either prioritize fast switching times, requiring significant resources, or reduce resource usage at the expense of longer switching times, failing to balance both effectively in arbitrary network topologies.
Innovation Solution
A mesh network design with precomputed protection paths that include intermediate nodes to assess and manage resource availability, allowing for flexible resource sharing and prioritization, enabling faster switching times while optimizing resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If data plane protection is used to provide fast switching times, then switching speed is improved, but a large number of network resources are required for protection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges protection paths for multiple services that share common endpoints, allowing a single protection path to serve multiple working paths. This consolidation reduces the total number of dedicated protection resources while maintaining fast switching capability through pre-established protection routes.
Solution Approach 2:
The protection path is designed to serve multiple functions by protecting multiple different services simultaneously. A single protection path can carry protected traffic for any of the N services that share its endpoints, making the protection resource universal rather than service-specific.
2Quantity of substance
If control plane restoration is used to reduce the number of network resources, then resource usage is improved, but switching time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The protection paths are pre-computed and resources are reserved in advance for potential failures. This preliminary action allows the system to maintain reduced resource usage while enabling fast switching, as the restoration path and resources are already prepared before any failure occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where protection paths are pre-established but resources are only fully activated when needed. This intermediary state allows the system to appear as if using control plane restoration (low resource usage) while actually having data plane readiness (fast switching) available when failures occur.
3Quantity of substance
If protection resources are shared among N services with M resources, then resource efficiency is improved, but resource availability management becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different services to have different priority levels and resource allocation characteristics. Each service can be configured with specific resource requirements and priorities, enabling efficient sharing while managing complexity through localized service-specific parameters rather than global complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
The embodiments disclosed herein provide a mechanism for sharing protection resources in an arbitrary network topology involving pre-computing the protection resources so that data-plane-based protection can be used to activate the protection resources upon detection of a failure, thus, providing faster switching times than typical control-plane-based solutions. This is accomplished by configuring a mesh network to include, for a working path in the network, one or more protection paths with the same end nodes as the working path, where each protection path includes at least one intermediate node that is not part of the working path. The intermediate node accepts a protection request from one of the end nodes and determines whether a local resource for a protection path is available. If the local resource is available, the intermediate node forwards the protection request along the protection path, but, if the local resource is unavailable, the intermediate node notifies the end node from which the protection request originated that the protection path is unavailable.