Alcatel Lucent

Alcatel

Ljubisa Tancevski

Jessy Victor Rouyer

Timucin Ozugur

Kamakshi Sridhar

Nicolas Le Sauze

Girish Chiruvolu

An Ge

David Elie-Dit-Cosaque

Laurence Rose

Hakki Cankaya

Chao Kan

Emmanuel Dotaro

Sig Harold Badt, Jr

Maher Ali

L Michele Goodwin

Tim Barrett

Felicio Vaz

Sig Hal Badt, Jr

Jean-Francois Cartier

Laurent Philippart

Filipe Mendonca

Sig Badt

Jessy V Rouyer

Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating performance of multi-media, and other communication, services at an Ethernet network. A bridge provides communication control operations at the Ethernet network. Audio-video bridge domains are defined at the network. Service discovery messages generated by communication devices of a particular domain are forwarded only to other communication devices of the same domain. Redefinition and reconfiguration of the domains is made, as needed, all best to facilitate performance of the communication service.

Apparatus, and associated method, for facilitating multi-media service in an ethernet network

A method and an Ethernet local area network are described herein in which the Ethernet local area network is configured to enable a talking device (e.g., microphone) to send a media stream to one or more listening devices (e.g., speakers). In one embodiment, the method for configuring the Ethernet local area network includes the following steps: (1) providing a user of a talking device with a 'relevant' catalog which contains information including positional information about one or more listening devices; (2) allowing the user to interface with the 'relevant' catalog so they can select at least one of the listening device(s); (3) enabling the talking device to send a subscribe-request message to the selected listening device(s) requesting that the selected listening device(s) subscribe to the talking device; (4) and sending a media stream from the talking device to the selected listening device(s).

Ethernet equipment utilizing catalogs and continuity checks to enhance UPnP and AVB applications

A bridged network system (') is described comprising a plurality of nodes (N-N). Each node in the plurality of nodes is coupled to communicate with at least one other node in the plurality of nodes. The plurality of nodes comprise a bridge network between external nodes located externally from the plurality of nodes. Each node of the plurality of nodes is operable to perform the steps of receiving a packet (&#x2032;), wherein the packet comprises a route indicator field, and responsive to the packet being received prior to a time of failure along a communication link between two of the plurality of nodes, transmitting the packet along a first route in the system to another node in the plurality of nodes. Conversely, each node of the plurality of nodes is also operable to perform the step of, responsive to the packet being received after a time of failure along a communication link between two of the plurality of nodes and in response to the route indicator field, transmitting the packet along a second route in the system to another node in the plurality of nodes, wherein the second route differs from the first route and is identified prior to the time of failure.

Bridged network system with traffic resiliency upon link failure

Traffic through a bridge or other network device is directed in a manner that enables link aggregation and other layer-2 protocols to operate fully, even though the device may have as few as a single bidirectional link, with the remaining links being unidirectional. The protocol stack logic of the network device includes shim logic that receives traffic and processes it to determine to where it is to be directed.

System and method for supporting link aggregation and other layer-2 protocols primarily over unidirectional links

Customer virtual local area networks (C-VLANs) connecting multiple LAN segments are set up through a provider network (). Provider edge bridges (PEs) are coupled to customer edge bridges (CEs) to provide a transparent link between LAN segments. To determine whether a backdoor link is used in the C-VLAN topology, PEs monitor MAC address from a predetermined time after a TCN is received to determine if there are contradictory addresses or new addresses relative to the existing MAC address tables (or forwarding databases) that are indicative of a backdoor link. If so, an unlearning message is sent to bridges in the provider domain. In another embodiment, CEs set a snoop bit to indicate which TCNs must be snooped.

Method and apparatus for updating provider domain due to customer TCNs

A spatial monitoring-correlation mechanism and a method are described herein for determining an origin of a problem within an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network by using topology information about the IPTV network and at least one error notification (e.g., packet loss notification-retransmission request) that is generated by at least one component (e.g., set-top box) within the IPTV network.

Spatial monitoring-correlation mechanism and method for locating an origin of a problem with an IPTV network

A metropolitan access network () uses a variation of a MAC protocol, where each station () on a ring () is associated with one or more time slot (). Each slot carries information regarding the associated station, basic connection fields (), communications fields (), and quality of service fields (). Each station maintains its own local database regarding the status of the network () by reading the information in each time slot ().

Distributed intelligence MAC protocols for DWDM ring networks

System and method for providing fast protection in a passive optical network ('PON') including two central hubs and a plurality of network nodes, wherein the network nodes are connected to a first of the central hubs by a first optical path and to a second of the central hubs by a second optical path. The method comprises setting the first and second central hubs to master mode and slave mode, respectively, such that only the first central hub transmits traffic to and from the network nodes; detecting a failure in the first optical path; exchanging status information between the first and second central hubs; and if no failure has occurred in the second optical path, setting the first and second central hubs to slave mode and master mode, respectively, such that only the second central hub transmits traffic to and from the network nodes.

System and method for implementing fast layer 2 protection in passive optical networks

An intelligent switch and method are described herein which help to effectively retransmit a lost packet that is associated with a television broadcast stream to one or more set-top boxes.

Intelligent switch and method for retransmitting a lost packet to decoder(s)

A bridged network system (). The bridged network system comprises a plurality of bridge nodes (N-N). Each bridge node in the plurality of bridge nodes is coupled to communicate with at least one other bridge node in the plurality of nodes. Further, bridge nodes in the plurality of bridge nodes are connected to one another to form a communications-possible line of bridge nodes (N, N, N, N, N, N, N, N). Each bridge node comprises circuitry for associating a bridge priority, selected from a plurality of bridge priorities, with the respective bridge node. The plurality of bridge priorities may be arranged in an ordered sequence, but the bridge priorities associated with successive bridge nodes along the communications-possible line of bridge nodes comprises at least two discontinuities (N/N; N/N; N/N) in the ordered sequence.

Allocating bridge priorities in bridged network

The invention relates to an optical ring network comprising stations () which are connected to at least one optical fiber by means of optical couplers, the two ends of the optical fiber being connected to a point of presence or an optical network access node. The point of presence comprises (k) at least an optical emitter (-) which emits a falling optical signal having at lest one first wavelength () in the direction of one end of the optical fibers () and (ii) at least one optical receiver (-) which receives a rising optical signal having at least one second wavelength which is different form the first wavelength. The aforementioned optical network access node comprises means such as a hub () which can be used for the communication between the optical receiver (-) and the optical emitter (-). The wavelengths of the rising signals and the wavelengths of the falling signals are shared by several stations.

Ring network made using a dual optical data bus

The invention is an apparatus and method for scheduling the flow of packets. Its purpose is to reduce excess loads, while at the same time, improving efficiency of the system. The scheduler is divided into two or more schedulers operating in parallel. Furthermore, each scheduler is assigned a subset of the available wavelengths. The assignment of wavelengths is done in an asymmetric manner such that one scheduler is assigned many more wavelengths. In addition, the void filling scheduler is used in conjunction with bandwidth grabbing to improve scheduling performance. In a preferred embodiment, the buffer occupancy of a first scheduler is monitored. If it is below a threshold (and a second scheduler's buffer is full), then packets intended for the second scheduler are transferred to the first scheduler.

Asymmetric void filling scheduler with bandwidth grabbing

A system and method for filling voids between optical signals during switching in an optical telecommunications system. The optical switch includes a void filling and scheduling software program resident in memory and executable by a processor. The memory also includes the wavelength, position in time, duration for each void between previously scheduled optical data packets. As a new optical data packet arrives at the optical switch, the void filling and scheduling software program will calculate the available delay for each delay line as measured from the arrival time of the new optical signal and schedule the new optical signal within a particular void if (1) one of the available delays falls within the position in time of one of the voids and (2) if the duration of the new optical signal measured from the particular available delay fits within the duration of that void. If the new optical data packet will not fit within any of the existing voids, the void filling and scheduling software program will use a conventional scheduling routing to schedule the new optical data packet on an output fiber.

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

Ljubisa Tancevski