Ciena Corporation

Richard W Conklin

Vagish Madrahalli

Matthew William Connolly

Jeffrey Scott Moynihan

Jeffrey T Gullicksen

Jeffery Thomas Nichols

Satish Mysore Gopalakrishna

Alexander A Smith

Gustav Larsson

Jon Carroll

Bhavesh Nisar

Matt Connolly

Benjamin Joseph Marsella

Daniel E Klausmeler

Satish Gopalakrishan

The present disclosure provides dynamic service provisioning by creating embedded Optical Transport Network (OTN) ports on the fly during mesh restoration or circuit provisioning. These dynamically provisioned ports are referred to herein as 'fast paths' with all the management objects created in a 'slow path' so that they do not interfere with mesh restoration performance. During network failures, these dynamically created objects are deleted via the &#x201c;slow path&#x201d; and a new mesh path supports &#x201c;fast path&#x201d; creation of these objects. This results in substantial increase in mesh performance and also provides enhancements for operators allowing a &#x201c;Click and Go&#x201d; model to provision circuits across a network. This also reduces routing scaling issue as the routing itself is against the OTU level and not against the embedded lines.

Dynamic trail termination point creation for optical transport networks

An Optical Transport Network (OTN) mode management system includes a controller communicatively coupled to at least one OTN port. The controller is configured to operate an OTN line Optical channel Data Unit level k (ODUk) mode management system for the at least one OTN port, and the OTN line ODUk mode management system is configured to support different multiplexing scenarios on the OTN port with no loss of control plane packets on aggregated links. A network element includes at least one port with a plurality of lines associated therewith, a controller communicatively coupled to the at least one port, and an OTN line ODUk mode management system executed on the controller for managing the plurality of lines on the at least one port. A method includes configuring and dynamically managing modes of a plurality of OTN lines in a link.

Optical transport network line management system and methods

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for making latency measurements and using these measurements in routing in optical networks. In an exemplary embodiment, a method is defined whereby two nodes sharing a line automatically determine whether both nodes are capable of making a latency measurement and then which node will initiate and which node participates in making the latency measurement. In another exemplary embodiment, an on-demand latency measurement may be made between any two arbitrary nodes within a domain. Routing messages may be used to disseminate the latency of links via a signaling and routing protocol. Advantageously, the present invention provides measurement of latency and latency variation of customer circuits (i.e., SNCs) using an in-band, non-intrusive calculation with a high-degree of accuracy. Furthermore, the present invention may consider these calculations for circuit routing based on the latency and circuit acceptance based on maximum latency restrictions.

Systems and methods of measuring latency and routing thereon in optical networks

A method and system for determining timers in a High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) Traffic Manager (HTM) state machine are disclosed. According to one aspect, the invention provides for determining a transit delay between two nodes by sending a first packet having a delay measurement byte to a second node that is on a link between the first node and the second node. A measured delay value is determined based on the delay between a time of sending the first packet to the second node and receiving a second packet from the second node. The timer values of the HTM state machine are set based on the measured delay value.

Method and system for optical network smart timer management via delay measurement between spans

The present invention provides methods and systems for managing matrices of connections within digital switching fabrics. The methods and systems include means for defining one or more of sources and sinks in a matrix of connections as one or more of unidirectional connection termination points and novel unidirectional virtual connection points, where each of the unidirectional virtual connection points is a logical object that is maintained in software that defines connections between one or more of network resources and logical objects. The virtual connection points selectively act as origination points for one or more of other virtual connection points and termination points in a cross-connect; termination points for one or more of other virtual connection points and origination points in a cross-connect; origination points for a multicast set of connections; intermediate points within a cross-connect for the addition of new connections; selectors for two or more inputs; simultaneously as selectors for two or more inputs and as origination points for a multicast set of connections; one or more of bridges, selectors, and bridge/selectors in a protection application; one or more of origination points and termination points in a signaled network connection; local test access points; and/or remote test access points.

Methods and systems for managing digital cross-connect matrices using virtual connection points

The present disclosure provides mesh restoration systems and methods with Optical Transport Network (OTN) links using a signaling and routing protocol, such as Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP), Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON), Generalized Multi Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS), and the like. The present invention includes an optical node, network, and method using the signaling and routing protocol for OTN lines of differing bandwidth granularities. The present invention utilizes OTN overhead for in-band signaling and may include capability for supporting SONET/SDH lines as well as OTN lines in the same system using the signaling and routing protocol.

Mesh restoration in optical transport networks

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for real-time, in-service latency measurements over optical links that may be further integrated within various optical control planes. The present invention may utilize minimal unused overhead to calculate latency of an optical line through a transport network. The present invention utilizes timers at two end-point nodes associated with the optical line, and includes a mechanism to filter out frame skew between the nodes. Advantageously, the present invention provides a highly accurate latency measurement that may calculate latency on links as small as one meter, an in-service algorithm operable without network impact, and may be integrated with an optical control plane to automatically provide administrative weight variables associated with link costs.

Optical network real time latency measurement systems and methods

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for rapid circuit provisioning in Optical Transport Networks (OTN) using signaling and routing protocols thereby enabling fast mesh restoration. The present invention utilizes a shim layer between OTN messaging (e.g., GCC or High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC)) and the associated signaling and routing protocol (e.g., OSRP, GMPLS, etc.). If an ODUk Connection CTP or TTP needs to be created, the shim layer runs a fast 'OTN Setup' protocol, while buffering out going OTN messages. Incoming messages are still processed and do not require additional buffering. The purpose of the OTN Setup protocol is to allow the OTUk to re-frame on its client ODUk, while buffering out-going messages. When re-framing completes, buffers are released and the OTN messaging resumes without dropping any of the signaling frames.

Systems and methods for rapid optical transport network circuit provisioning

A method and system for providing signaling byte resiliency across a telecommunications network. Embodiments of the invention create copies of original signaling bytes and transports the copies in addition to the original signaling bytes. Testing is performed at each node in the network to determine the validity of the original signaling bytes, i.e. if the signaling bytes have been corrupted. If original signaling bytes are found invalid, then the copies of the signaling bytes are used as a valid replacement for the corrupted signaling bytes.

Signaling byte resiliency

A method of modeling or constructing a switch element uses an ingress stage with input sorters and input routers; an egress stage with output routers and output sorters; and a center stage interconnecting the ingress and egress stages. Routers are partitioned such that each partition is assigned to only one data line. A switch controller and method may use such modeling to advantage. For example, during initial configuration of the switch element, a subset of connections are excluded from a control algorithm that initially configures the switch with the subset being subjected to post processing. Furthermore, a fast rearrangement of the switch rearranges only part of the existing connections and then adds/deletes cross connects as necessary to complete the connections.

Switching control mechanism for supporting reconfiguaration without invoking a rearrangement algorithm

A switch element is configured to extend communications between data lines. The switch element includes a set of ingress devices, a set of center stage devices, and a set of egress devices. Each center stage device is connectable to each ingress device and to each egress device. Each ingress device connects to a corresponding egress device across one of the center stage devices. The center stage switch can be selectively actuated to accommodate a new ingress or egress device across the center stage switch.

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Gainesville, GA, United States of America

Richard W Conklin