Underlay Network Tracing Across Mixed Protocol Paths
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network tracing methods fail to identify network devices supporting different protocols, leading to incomplete and sub-optimal path tracing due to incompatibility between probing devices and network devices with diverse protocols.
Innovation Solution
A network tracing logic that generates encoding objects from error response packets, allowing extraction and transmission of device addresses across different network protocols, using Type-Length-Value (TLV) objects and encapsulations to facilitate complete path tracing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a probing device uses a specific network protocol for tracing, then it can successfully communicate with devices supporting that protocol, but it fails to identify devices supporting different protocols
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an intermediary device (edge device or gateway) that supports multiple protocols to translate between different network protocols. When the probing device sends probe messages, the intermediary converts them to the appropriate protocol for the target device, and converts response messages back to the probing device's protocol, enabling communication across protocol boundaries without requiring the probing device itself to support multiple protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediary device is designed with multi-functionality to support multiple network protocols simultaneously. It can receive messages in one protocol, process them, and send responses in another protocol, making it a universal bridge that enables the probing device to trace paths through devices with different protocol support
2Device complexity
If the probing device only recognizes devices supporting its native protocol, then it maintains simple device compatibility rules, but it produces incomplete path tracing results
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary device acts as a translator that converts protocol-specific message formats into a universal format that the probing device can understand. It extracts path information from responses received from devices with different protocols and reformats it into the probing device's expected format, preventing information loss while keeping the probing device itself simple
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediary device creates a copy or representation of the path information in the probing device's native format. Instead of requiring the probing device to directly interpret multiple protocols, the intermediary captures the essential path tracing information and reproduces it in a format compatible with the probing device, preserving completeness without increasing the probing device's complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Devices, systems, methods, and processes for multi-protocol underlay network tracing are described herein. A network device associated with a first network protocol usually fails to detect other network devices that support a second network protocol, during trace routing. This can lead to incomplete and inaccurate path tracing. Thus, an edge device upon receiving an error response packet may determine whether the error response packet conforms to a network protocol supported by a host device. If the error response packet conforms to a different network protocol, the edge device may extract information required for path tracing from the error response packet. The extracted information may be included in a protocol agnostic encoding object and transmitted to the host device. The encoding object can be transmitted as a standalone message or can be appended in an error response packet. Thus, enabling underlay path tracing in end-to-end managed networks.