Coriant Oy

Tellabs Oy

Other

Xieon Networks S.a.r.l.

Teliasonera Ab

Infinera Oy

Ville Hallivuori

Juhamatti Kuusisaari

Mika Silvola

Juha-Petteri Nieminen

Hannu J Jokinen

Sami Finer

Matti Hallivuori

Marko Kulmala

Juha Hopsu

Mika Lindgren

Mikko Vänttinen

Jyrki Soini

Sami Finér

Jarkko Väänänen

Pekka Juhani Ylisirniö

Kari Kamunen

As example method includes queuing network traffic received at one or more input ports of one or more input modules of a network switch to a given output port of an output module of the network switch according to a first queuing system, subsequent to queuing the network traffic according to the first queueing system, queuing at least a portion of the network traffic according to a second queuing system instead of the first queueing system. According to the first queuing system, the network traffic is queued according to a first degree of granularity. According to the second queuing system, at least the portion of the network traffic is queued according to a second degree of granularity. The second degree of granularity is greater than the first degree of granularity.

Dynamically switching queueing systems for network switches

Disclosed is a method and a device for generating report data related to a status of an interface of a network element are presented. The method includes: activating a delay timer when the interface status changes, setting delay-based data to express the interface status at the end of a delay determined by the delay-timer, setting dampening-based data to express the interface status if a penalty value fulfils a pre-determined condition and otherwise to express that the interface is non-utilizable, and setting the report data to express that the interface is utilizable if both the delay-based data and the dampening-based data express that the interface is utilizable. The penalty value is decreased with a dampening rule, and the penalty value is increased when the interface becomes non-utilizable and increasing the penalty value within a time-window is below a desired limit.

Method and a device for generating report data related to an interface status

A transmission control system for controlling management processes, such as shaping, is presented. The management processes are directed to data streams that are parts of data traffic transmitted via a link aggregation group having egress ports in separate functional entities of a network element. For each data frame of the data traffic, it is detected whether the data frame belongs to any of the data streams. Data frames belonging to none of the data streams are forwarded so that these data frames are distributed between the functional entities according to a link aggregation rule. A management rule is maintained for indicating, for each of the data streams, a stream-specific functional entity that runs each management process directed to the data stream. Each data frame belonging to one of the data streams is forwarded to the appropriate stream-specific functional entity in accordance with the management rule.

System and a method for controlling management processes directed to a link aggregation group

A technique for managing transfer of data frames having a pre-determined mutual order is presented. Each data frame contains an order indicator, for example a sequence number, indicative of the position of the data frame in the pre-determined mutual order. A transmitting end provides each data frame with a satisfaction indicator that indicates whether acknowledgement about reception of earlier transmitted data frames is expected from a receiving end. When the satisfaction indicator of a data frame indicates that no acknowledgement is expected, the receiving end knows that the data frame can be treated as a beginning of a received data flow when checking the integrity of the received data flow on the basis of the order indicators. Thus, there is no need to establish a logical connection between the transmitting and receiving ends prior to the transfer of the data frames.

Methods and devices for managing transfer of data frames

A network element includes control entities () and controllable entities (-) such as line interface units. The control entities configure the controllable entities to enable the network element to operate in a data transfer network. Each control entity maintains a configuration data-set in accordance with configuration information based on data received from the data transfer network and transmits the configuration data-set to one or more controllable entities. The control entity applies a configuration rule on the configuration information and updates the configuration data-set on the basis of the result of the configuration rule. The configuration rule is stateless so that its result is independent of earlier results of the configuration rule and of earlier configuration information. The control entities are enabled to keep their configuration data-sets nearly congruent with each other because they use the same configuration information and the same stateless configuration rule.

Method for managing configuration of a network element and a network element

Disclosed is a device for maintaining a configuration data structure expressing configuration of a device. The configuration is maintained by an operative process making desired changes to the configuration and adding, to the configuration data structure, change descriptors indicative of the changes. When the configuration data structure is updated, an auxiliary process is run in parallel with the operative process. The auxiliary process includes requesting functional entities of the device to report their configurations prevailing at an update time instant, and constructing an auxiliary configuration data structure on the basis of the reported information. The configuration data structure is updated by replacing a portion of the configuration data structure corresponding to the update time instant with the auxiliary configuration data structure. There is no need to freeze the configuration during the update because the auxiliary process is run in parallel with the operative process.

Method and an appliance for maintaining a configuration data structure

A network element of a software-defined network includes a processing system for maintaining a control system for managing data. The control system is maintained in accordance with configuration data received from a controller of the software-defined network. In a case where the control system has no entry corresponding to frame information related to a received data frame, the processing system checks whether status information indicates availability of the frame information to the controller. If the status information does not indicate the availability, the processor system arranges the frame information to be available to the controller and updates the status information to indicate the availability. Thus, data traffic related to data-driven learning and occurring between the network element and the controller can be reduced with the aid of the above-mentioned status information.

Network element of a software-defined network

A network element of a software-defined network comprises a data transfer interface () for receiving and transmitting data and a processing system () for constructing a software-defined data path and a fixed-functionality data path such as for example an IP/MPLS or L2 switching path. The software-defined data path comprises look-up tables for selecting software-defined actions and the fixed-functionality data path defines fixed-functionality actions. The processing system is adapted to convert metadata associated with data managed by the software-defined data path to a data format suitable for the fixed-functionality data path when one or more of the fixed-functionality actions are needed in conjunction with forwarding the data. One of the fixed-functionality actions is selected at least partly on the basis of which one of the look-up tables was most recently accessed, and the determined fixed-functionality action is carried out so as to initiate the one or more needed fixed-functionality actions.

A method for optimizing entity-specific configuration systems for functional entities of a network element of a software-defined network is presented. The entity-specific configuration systems are based on a network element-specific configuration system related to the whole network element and comprising configuration entries for determining operations to be carried out by the network element. The method comprises forming () relation data that indicates, for each of the functional entities, those of the configuration entries which are irrelevant to the functional entity under consideration so that operation of the functional entity is independent of these configuration entries. The relation data enables the entity-specific configuration systems to be constructed () so that the entity-specific configuration system of each functional entity is free from those configuration entries which, according to the relation data, are irrelevant to the functional entity under consideration. Therefore, resources for implementing the entity-specific configuration systems can be saved.

Method and a device for optimizing a configuration system of a network element of a software-defined network

A configuration system for configuring the control-plane of a software-defined network is presented. The configuration system determines an entity-specific group of control-plane functionalities for each of controller entities located in a distributed way in the software-defined network. The control-plane functionalities are suitable for configuring data forwarding network elements, such as routers, to support services to be provided by the software-defined network. The configuration system composes, on the basis of the entity-specific groups, entity-specific portions of control data and transmits the entity-specific portions of the control data to the controller entities so as to configure each controller entity to support the corresponding entity-specific group of the control-plane functionalities. Thus, the control-plane functionalities can be distributed between the controller entities in scalable way for example in accordance with requirements related to the control-plane functionalities and/or a spatial distribution of the needs for different ones of the control-plane functionalities.

Configuration system for configuring the control-plane of a software-defined network

A method and a device for defining implementation of a look-up table for a network element of a software-defined network 'SDN' is presented. The network element includes hardware for implementing the look-up table in two or more mutually alternative ways. The method includes selecting () an optimal, or at least a suitable, one of the mutually alternative ways to implement the look-up table on the basis of a) the hardware available for implementing the look-up table, b) information about one or more look-up keys, and c) at least one of the following: the maximum number of entries of the look-up table, an average time between successive look-ups, an average time between successive modifications of the look-up table. The method enables the network element to be configured in a way that the hardware resources of the network element are utilized in an optimal or at least a suitable way.

Method and a device for defining implementation of a look-up table for a network element of a software-defined network

A network element of a software-defined network includes a data transfer interface () for receiving and transmitting data and a processing system () for constructing, in accordance with configuration data received from a controller system of the software-defined network, a configuration system for managing data to be forwarded. The processing system is adapted to configure a first portion of the configuration system to associate, with data received at the network element, a configuring entity-specific identifier (CEID) that identifies a configuring entity, for example an application, related to the received data. The configuring entity-specific identifier constitutes at least a part of metadata associated with the received data. Appropriate other portions of the configuration system are configured to use this metadata when determining actions to be carried out in conjunction with the received data. The configuring entity-specific identifier prevents conflicts between different configuring entities, for example applications, in the configuration system.

Network element and a controller for managing the network element

A network element (-) of a software-defined network is adapted to construct a configuration system on the basis of configuration data received from a controller () of the software-defined network. The network element is arranged to transmit, in response to an event indicating a need to verify the configuration system, status information to the controller. The event may include for example a loss and a subsequent reestablishment of a connection between the network element and the controller. The status information indicates a first portion of the configuration data which has been implemented in the configuration system prior to the event. After receiving the status information, the controller is able transmit an appropriate second portion of the configuration data to the network element so as to enable verification of an appropriate portion of the configuration system. Thus, there is no need to verify the whole configuration system after the event.

In a data transfer network, a network device () receives at its first data interface an identifier message transferred via a first data transfer path from another network device (). The network device compares the identifier message to earlier received identifier messages. If the identifier message matches an earlier received identifier message received at another data interface and transferred via a second data transfer path from the other network device, the network device updates its forwarding database to express that the other network device is accessible also via the first data interface, and transmits address information related to the other network device via the first data interface so as to determine the first data transfer path to be an alternative for the second data transfer path. The first and second data transfer paths can be used for protecting each other and/or for load sharing.

Method and network device for configuring a data transfer network

A network element of a software-defined network includes functional entities (-) capable of transferring data between each other and providing connections to other network elements. One or more of the functional entities are configurable with configuration data received from a controller of the software-defined network. The network element is adapted to transmit, to the controller, entity-specific capability descriptors related to the functional entities configurable with the configuration data. Each entity-specific capability descriptor expresses operations capable of being carried out by the respective functional entity. As the controller is made aware of the capabilities of the functional entities, the goal of the software-defined networking to provide controlled management of the data-forwarding functionality of a network element as a whole can be extended to the functional entities, e.g. line interface modules, so that each functional entity can be configured individually in accordance with the capabilities and resources of the functional entity.

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Espoo, Finland

Ville Hallivuori