VPLS Pseudo Wire Fast Failover via Unilateral Disabling
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Solution Overview
Problem
In Virtual Private Local Area Network Service (VPLS) environments, existing systems face challenges with data transmission due to PW flooding over inactive PWs, leading to unnecessary network congestion and inefficiencies in failover mechanisms, as network appliances are unaware of active and inactive PWs, causing looping and inefficient resource utilization.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a unilateral and bilateral PW disabling mechanism, where the User Side-Provider Edge (U-PE) can unilaterally disable active PWs in the data plane and signal remote Network Side-Provider Edge (N-PE) to do the same, ensuring only active PWs are used for data transmission, and enabling fast failover by selecting and enabling backup PWs without additional signaling, thereby preventing flooding and ensuring loop-free connections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If PW connections are maintained among network appliances in VPLS environment, then data transmission capability is improved, but network congestion and flooding occur over inactive PWs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by detecting PW failure and selecting a backup PW before the active PW becomes completely unavailable. The network appliance proactively switches to a standby PW connection, preventing data transmission interruptions and avoiding flooding on failed PWs by establishing an alternative path in advance.
2Reliability
If failover mechanisms are implemented for PW redundancy, then reliability is improved, but convergence time and switching efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The network appliance maintains multiple PW connections in a standby state with pre-configured routing information. When failure is detected, the system immediately activates a pre-selected backup PW without requiring time-consuming route recalculation or signaling exchanges, achieving fast convergence while ensuring reliable failover.
Solution Approach 2:
The network appliance autonomously detects PW failures and performs self-healing by switching to backup connections without external intervention. The system monitors its own PW status and automatically executes failover decisions, eliminating delays associated with manual configuration or complex inter-device coordination.
3Reliability
If multiple PW connections are established for redundancy, then network resilience is improved, but device complexity and control difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple PW connections into a unified management framework where the network appliance treats active and standby PWs as a single logical entity. This consolidation simplifies control by implementing centralized PW status monitoring and unified failover logic, reducing the operational complexity of managing multiple redundant connections.
Data Source
AI summary
In one example embodiment, a system and method is provided that includes establishing a plurality of Pseudo Wire (PW) connections between a first network appliance region and a second network appliance region to transmit data from the first network appliance region to the second network appliance region along an active PW. Further, the method includes disabling the active PW when a failure of the active PW is detected. Additionally, the method may include selecting an inactive PW to become a new active PW such that the data may be transmitted from the first network appliance region to the second network appliance region. Moreover, the method includes switching from the active PW to the new active PW.