Ring Network VLAN Isolation for Link-Flapping Recovery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Frequent link flapping in ring networks causes unnecessary switching between idle and signal fail states, affecting network management and customer data traffic, leading to forwarding and uplink issues.
Innovation Solution
A system that monitors link flapping at the hardware level of switches, disabling network management and customer data traffic on affected VLANs when flapping occurs, maintaining a signal fail state until both link flapping and CCP message communication reach acceptable thresholds, reducing frequent switching.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the ring network switches state based on CCP message communication rate, then the network can respond to link failures, but frequent link flapping causes unnecessary frequent switching between idle and signal fail states
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces link flapping detection as an intermediary mechanism between physical link status and ring state switching. The system monitors link flapping metrics separately and uses this intermediate information to modulate the state switching decision, preventing direct triggering of state changes by transient link fluctuations while still responding to genuine failures through CCP message analysis
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection and monitoring of link flapping conditions before allowing state transitions to occur. By continuously monitoring link stability metrics in advance and establishing flapping thresholds, the network prepares to filter out premature state changes, ensuring that only sustained link failures trigger ring state transitions
2Device complexity
If the network monitors only CCP message rates for state switching, then the system remains simple, but it cannot distinguish between genuine link failures and transient flapping
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring function is segmented into two independent components: CCP message communication rate monitoring and link flapping metric monitoring. Each component operates separately with its own thresholds and detection logic, allowing the system to achieve higher measurement precision by combining multiple independent measurements without proportionally increasing overall system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A system monitors metrics relating to link flapping associated with a physical link in a ring network. Network management traffic is transported via a first VLAN and customer data traffic is transported via a second VLAN. The system maintains a signal fail state for the ring network based on the monitored metrics. If a first condition associated with the first VLAN is detected, the system disallows customer data traffic on the second VLAN. If a second condition associated with the monitored metrics is detected, the system disallows network management traffic on the first VLAN and disallows customer data traffic on the second VLAN, resulting in the signal fail state. If the second condition is no longer met, the system allows network management traffic on the first VLAN. If the first condition is no longer met, the system allows customer data traffic on the second VLAN, resulting in the idle state.