International Business Machines Corporation

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Laurent Nicolas

Claude R Galand

Olivier Bertin

Olivier Maurel

Aline Fichou

Pierre-Andre Foriel

Jean-Marc Berthaud

Gerard Brun

Stephane Lengelle

Claude Basso

Eric Michel Levy-Abegnoli

Alain R Blanc

Rene J Glaise

Gerald Lebizay

Bernard Y Pucci

Maurice Duault

Francois Kermarec

Jean-Paul Chobert

Sylvie Gohl

Yves Ouvry

Benoit Sirot

Andre Cretegny

Philippe Michel Bazot

Gilles Wozelka

Catherine Gallian

Denis Jean Albert Chevalier

A method for operating a node in a computer network is disclosed, where the network is made up of nodes connected by links. The method has the steps: determining an alternate path for one or more links; reserving resources for the alternate path; and rerouting traffic on the alternate path in case of a link failure. The alternate path may be periodically updated. A plurality of alternate paths may be maintained. The alternate paths may not have any links in common. User traffic may be rerouted substantially simultaneously to each link of the alternate path in the event of failure of a primary path.

Method and system for a local and fast non-disruptive path switching in high speed packet switching networks

The present invention is directed to a high speed packet switching network and, in particular to a method and system for minimizing the time to establish a connection between an origin and a destination node. Due to high dynamicity of the traffic on transmission links, it is important to select a routing path according to a fully up-to-date information on all network resources. The simpler approach is to calculate a new path for each new connection request. This solution may be very time consuming because there are as many path selection operations as connection set up operations. On another hand, the calculation of paths based on an exhaustive exploration of the network topology, is a complex operation which may also take an inordinate amount of resources in large networks. Many of connections originated from a network node flow to the same destination network node. It is therefore possible to take a serious benefit in reusing the same already calculated paths for several connections towards the same node. The path calculated at the time the connection is requested is recorded in a Routing Database and updated each time a modification occurs in the network. Furthermore, alternate paths for supporting non-disruptive path switch on failure or preemption, and new paths towards potential destination nodes can be calculated and stored when the connection set up process is idle. These last operations are executed in background with a low processing priority and in absence of connection request.

Method and system for minimizing the connection set up time in high speed packet switching networks

The present invention relates to a system and method for dynamically adjusting the bandwidth of a continuous bit rate virtual path connection established between a source node and a destination node within a packet or cell switching network comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected with transmission links. In the network, a bandwidth management server having access to information concerning network nodes and transmission links is defined. This server is informed each time a virtual path connection or a virtual channel connection is established on the network with an indication concerning the initial bandwidth reserved for said connection. The server detects and shares, on a continuous or periodical mode, the bandwidth which is available on transmission links among the bandwidth adjustable continuous bit rate virtual path connections and determines for each connection a new bandwidth. The source node is informed each time a new bandwidth is computed. It adjusts the bandwidth of the corresponding bandwidth adjustable continuous bit rate virtual path connection accordingly.

Method and system in a packet switching network for dynamically adjusting the bandwidth of a continuous bit rate virtual path connection according to the network load

The present invention is directed to a high speed packet switching network and, in particular to a method and system for minimizing the time to establish a connection between an origin and a destination node. A path calculated at the time the connection is requested is recorded in a Routing Database and updated each time a modification occurs in the network. Furthermore, alternate paths for supporting non-disruptive path switch on failure or preemption, and new paths towards potential destination nodes can be calculated and stored when the connection set up process is idle. These last operations are executed in background with a low processing priority and in absence of connection request.

A method and system for optimizing transmission links bandwidth utilization in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) packet switching network including switching nodes interconnected by high speed transmission links, said network being made to transport user data traffic including PTM traffic organized into variable length packets, each packet comprising a variable length data payload and an original fixed length PTM packet header. The original PTM header is converted into an ATM-like header including a flag (F) identifying the packet as being a PTM packet, a label indication made to orient the currently-considered PTM packet within the ATM network nodes, a count (CNT) field for storing the PTM payload length indication therein to enable locating the PTM payload end position and a Header Error Control (HEC) field for storing an ATM-like error control byte (HEC) therein, which enables transporting the PTM packets over the ATM network links without having to chop the PTM payload into predefined fixed length segments by adding dummy bits to the last segment if required.

Method and system for optimizing transmission link bandwidth occupation in high speed digital networks

In a high speed digital network including access nodes and network nodes each having topology data bases, a method for optimizing the connection set-up operations required for connecting a calling end-user attached to a local access node to a destination user attached to a remote access node, via a conventional connection set-up operation. An Access Node Connection Table (ANCT) in each access node stores a list of every remote access node for which the local access node has at least one user connection. A field in the locate reply message is defined for the destination remote Access Node Topology Database (ANTDB) and remote ANTDB information is inserted prior to sending the reply message. Locate reply message reception is monitored by the local access node, and upon reception an entry is created for the received remote ANTDB information in the local access node unless the remote access node was already identified in the local access node. An optimal path is then selected and connection set up. The ANCT is then updated accordingly.

Method and system for optimizing connection set-up operations in a high speed digital network

A switching system comprising a switching structure for routing cells from a set of M input ports towards a set of M output ports. The system includes a set of distributed individual Switch Core Access layer elements which communicate with one input and output port of the switching structure by means of a set of serial communication links. Each SCAL element provides attachment to at least one Protocol Adapter and comprises a set of circuits. The receive part of each circuit includes means for introducing at least one extra byte to every cell. The extra byte is reserved for carrying a routing header for controlling the switching structure in a first step, and then for use by the PINT circuit when the cell will be received by the transmit part in a second step. The transmit part of each PINT circuit comprises a control module that receives all the cells generated at the corresponding output port and controls whether to discard the cell based on the value of the extra byte.

Switching system comprising distributed elements allowing attachment to

In high speed cell switching networks, a Call Admission Control (CAC) procedure is performed on each connection according to a specified Traffic Descriptor. A mandatory parameter of the Traffic Descriptor is the Peak Cell Rate (PCR), associated with a Cell Delay Variation Tolerance (CDVT). Connections which specify a high CDVT value may potentially send into the network bursts of cells at a rate much higher than the declared Peak Cell Rate, which may lead to congestion in cell buffers of intermediate network nodes. Guaranteeing the Quality of Service (QoS) for such connections may require the reservation of a high amount of resources in the network, leading to poor utilization of those resources. A Call Admission Control procedure, associated with an Usage Parameter Control/Network Parameter Control mechanism, provides:

Flow control for very bursty connections in high speed cell switching

A system adapts access to a packet switching network. A dynamic bandwidth adaptation continuously monitors the mean bit rate of a signal source and the loss probability of a connection in the network. A filtering means removes noise from the mean bit rate and loss probabilty. A test means determine whether the values fall within a pre-defined acceptable adaptation region in a mean bit rate, loss probability plane. Triggering means initiate bandwidth adaptation procedures when the values fall outside of the region which in turn, initiate means for acquiring a new connection bandwidth, and determining new parameters for the adaptation mechanism.

Dynamic bandwidth estimation and adaptation in high speed packet

In case of a failure in a high speed packet switching network, the failure information provided by the multiplicity of resources is registered in the access nodes of the network. The failure information can be retrieved by the network management on request for fault correlation. A plurality of alarms flooding the network management when a failure occurs is thus avoided.

Fault correlation system and method in packet switching networks

A data processing method for efficiently transporting multimedia data packets of fixed and/or variable length over an Assynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network made to transport fixed length ATM cells including a fixed length user data payload and a fixed length ATM header. The data processing method includes concatenating said fixed and/or variable length user data and appending said concatenated data with a so-called trailer defining the various concatenated user data lengths and identifications, for being further split into ATM cells payloads before being transmitted over said ATM network.

Data processing method for efficiently transporting multimedia packets

Method and system for adapting access to a packet switching network including a dynamic bandwidth adjustment mechanism which continuously monitors the mean bit rate of the signal source and the loss probability of the connection. These values are filtered to remove noise and then used to test whether the values fall within a pre-defined acceptable adaptation region in the mean bit rate, loss probability plane. Values falling outside of this region trigger bandwidth adaptation procedures which, in turn, result in acquiring a new connection bandwidth, and determining new parameters for the adaptation mechanism. Furthermore, the mechanism controls the number of connections that can be adapted by a single processor, given its processing capability. It ensures fairness between the connections in the sense that it prevents a single connection from using, on the average, a greater portion of the processor capacity than it should.

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Villeneuve-Loubet, France

Laurent Nicolas