Network Peering for Disaster Recovery Failover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Implementing site diversity in network service providers' networks to ensure reliable service availability during equipment failures is costly, as it requires geographical redundancy that can be financially burdensome for a single provider.
Innovation Solution
Establishing peering arrangements with other network providers to enable failover to partner networks in the event of a site failure, allowing cost-sharing and using partner networks' Application Servers to process calls, thereby diversifying call control and border elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single network provider implements site diversity with geographical redundancy, then service availability and reliability are improved, but implementation cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges redundancy resources across multiple network providers through peering arrangements. Instead of each provider building separate redundant infrastructure, they share Application Servers and network resources across geographical locations, achieving collective site diversity while distributing costs among participants.
Solution Approach 2:
The peering arrangement creates a universal disaster recovery system where Application Servers can serve multiple network providers simultaneously. The same infrastructure serves multiple functions: primary service delivery for one provider and backup/disaster recovery for another, maximizing resource utilization efficiency.
2Reliability
If a network provider builds redundant infrastructure at every network element, then service continuity during failures is ensured, but cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces peering arrangements as an intermediary mechanism between network providers. This intermediary layer enables failover capability without requiring each provider to maintain full redundancy at every network element, as the peering infrastructure acts as a shared mediator for disaster recovery operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of creating complete physical copies of all network elements at every site, the patent uses virtualization and software-based Application Servers that can be replicated and migrated across locations. This allows service continuity through software-based failover rather than requiring identical hardware copies everywhere.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention enables network providers to create peering arrangements with other providers that allow them to fail over to other networks in the event of a site failure. This invention would lower the cost to provide site diversity within a provider's network by allowing cost sharing between the provider's network and other networks. For example, when an Application Server (AS) in a network fails, the network provider can send a call to a partner's network and uses an AS in the partner's network to process the call request.