At+t Corp.

At&t Intellectual Property I, L.p.

Stephen L Holmgren

John Babu Medamana

Christopher J Chase

David Kinsky

Vikram R Saksena

Mateusz Szela

Jeewan P Ramsaroop

Mateusz W Szela

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network provides connectivity to one or more customer premises to packet-bases services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame, an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier with the routing descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer. In addition, the customer descriptor may also include Quality of Service (QoS) allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch to vary the QoS level accordingly.

Technique for ethernet access to packet-based services

A new type of data transport service which uses a frame relay layer 2 data link connection identifier (DLCI) to select among various service types, feature sets, and/or closed user groups (CUGs). A layer 3 address may be extracted from a layer 2 frame, and the layer 3 address information may be used to route a data packet over a packet-switched network according to the service classes, feature sets, and/or CUGs selected. At the destination, the layer 3 data packet may again be enclosed in a layer 2 frame with a DLCI indicating the service classes, features sets, and/or CUGs. Because the use of conventional permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) is not required in aspects of the invention, new methods of measuring and managing network traffic are presented.

Frame relay switched data service

A new type of data transport service which uses a frame relay layerdata link connection identifier (DLCI) to select among various service types, feature sets, and/or closed user groups (CUGs). A layeraddress may be extracted from a layerframe, and the layeraddress information may be used to route a data packet over a packet-switched network according to the service classes, feature sets, and/or CUGs selected. At the destination, the layerdata packet may again be enclosed in a layerframe with a DLCI indicating the service classes, features sets, and/or CUGs. Because the use of conventional permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) is not required in aspects of the invention, new methods of measuring and managing network traffic are presented.

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network () provides connectivity to one or more customer premises () to packet-bases services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame (), an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) () 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor () that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier () with the routing descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer. In addition, the customer descriptor () may also include Quality of Service (QoS) allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) () or ATM switch to vary the QoS level accordingly.

Technique for Ethernet access to packet-based services

An Ethernet Metropolitan Area Network provides connectivity to one or more customer premises to packet-based services, such as ATM, Frame Relay, or IP, while advantageously providing a mechanism for assuring security and regulation of customer traffic. Upon receipt of each customer-generated information frame, an ingress Multi-Service Platform (MSP) 'tags' the frame with a customer descriptor that specifically identifies the recipient customer. In practice, the MSP tags each frame by overwriting the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) identifier with the customer descriptor. Using the customer descriptor in each frame, a recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch can map the information as appropriate to direct the information to the specific customer at its receiving site. In addition, the customer descriptor may also include Quality of Service (QoS) information, allowing the recipient Provider Edge Router (PER) or ATM switch to afford the appropriate QoS level accordingly.

Traffic management for frame relay switched data service

A network interworking facility () advantageously interworks Ethernet and ATM networks () having different protocols to permit the data from in one network to pass to the other and vice versa without the need for the source in to account for the protocol of the destination. Upon receipt of an information frame from the source, the interworking facility forms a second frame of a format compatible with the destination network and including the information payload from the first frame. The interworking facility also maps the destination address incorporated in the origin frame to a corresponding destination address of a format compatible with the destination network to facilitate forwarding of the second frame to the destination.

Ethernet-to-ATM interworking technique

The present invention provides a network architecture that interworks OA&M (Operations, Administration and Maintenance) failure notification data from the ATM Domain to the Ethernet Domain and vice versa. Failure indications or notifications are typically routed from one domain to another within 1-2 seconds; providing service providers and customers the ability to react quickly to network faults. This enhances the overall quality of the Ethernet-to-ATM Interworking service and provides a similar level of reliability across the Ethernet/ATM/FR domains.

Interworking OAM between Ethernet and ATM/frame relay networks

A network interworking facility () advantageously interworks Ethernet and ATM networks () having different protocols to permit the data from in one network to pass to the other and vice versa without the need for the source in to account for the protocol of the destination. Upon receipt of an information frame from the source, the Interworking facility forms a second frame of a format compatible with the destination network and including the information payload from the first frame. The interworking facility also maps the destination address incorporated in the origin frame to a corresponding destination address of a format compatible with the destination network to facilitate forwarding of the second frame to the destination.

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Little Silver, NJ, United States of America

Stephen L Holmgren