Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Cristiano Zema

Paola Iovanna

Fabio Ubaldi

Gianpaolo Oriolo

Aspects of the invention relate to a method of adapting an association of physical resources in a network with a summarized resource corresponding to one or more class of service. The method comprises monitoring at least one parameter of the summarized resources. The method further comprises comparing the at least one parameter between a plurality of summarized resources, and comparing the class of service of the summarized resources. Based on the comparing of the at least one parameter and based on the comparing of the class of service of the summarized resources, the method comprises determining one or more summarized resources to be a source for providing physical resources and determining one or more summarized resources to be a destination for receiving physical resources. Based on the determining, the method comprises modifying an allocation of physical resources to transfer an association of physical resources from the source summarized resource to the destination summarized resource.

Method and apparatus for allocating physical resources to a summarized resource

The present proposal provides a specific solution for communications network topology summarization with a good trade-off between high scalability, good stability and resources utilization efficiency.

Building topology in communications networks

A nodeof a multi-layer communication is capable of routing a message signal via one or more different layers (for example a PSC layer, TDM layer, LSC layer) in the multi-layer communication network. The nodecomprises a first interfacefor receiving a path messagecontaining routing information for routing an associated message signal through the multi-layer communication network. One or more second interfacestoN are provided for transmitting a message signal to one or more respective layers in the multi-layer communication network. A processing unitis adapted to determine if the path messagecontains protection informationindicating that protection switching is to be performed in one or more different layers of the multi-layer communication network, and if so, establish a protection switching mechanism in the one or more different layers using the protection informationprovided in the path message

Apparatus and method for a communication network

A path computation element for a communications network, receives link advertisements from hybrid nodes () of the network and selects paths for new traffic flows based on the received link advertisements. The hybrid node has switching matrices () operable using different protocols, and has internal links between the switching matrices. The link advertisements indicate a maximum and in a minimum bandwidth on any one of the internal links for a new traffic flow. The element can select a path via the hybrid node for a new traffic flow according to the bandwidth of the requested new traffic flow and according to the maximum and the minimum bandwidth indicated by the link advertisements. Advertising the maximum and minimum bandwidths available for a single new traffic flow for the internal links can enable more efficient path computation with little additional cost and hence maintain scalability of the link advertisements for larger networks.

Link advertisement for path computation in a communications network

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of constructing an end-to-end routing path across multiple packet switched domains. The method comprises generating a domains topology identifying all possible domains, the border elements of those domains and the inter-domain links. When a request is received for computation of a path from a source entity in a first domain to a destination entity in a second domain, all domains and inter-domain links that cannot or are unlikely to feature in the requested path are removed from the domains topology. Candidate intra-domain paths for each remaining domain are then computed, with each candidate intra-domain path being mapped to a logical link defined by its two ends, at least one end being a border element and the other being a border element or the source or destination entity. Attributes for each logical link are determined, together with attributes of the remaining inter-domain links. A virtual network topology is generated by combining the logical links and their associated attributes with the remaining inter-domain links and their associated attributes. This allows a best end-to-end route to be determined by analyzing the virtual network topology.

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Pisa, Italy

Cristiano Zema