Tropic Networks Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy

Alcatel-lucent Canada Inc.

Walter Carpini

Udo Mircea Neustadter

Barry Ding Ken Mark

Cuong Tu Dang

Kelvin Ross Edmison

Byoung-Joon Lee

Sudhakar Ganti

Sylvain Chenard

Anand Srinivasan

Don R Ellis

Vincent Chi Chiu Wong

Ping Wai Wan

Derrick Remedios

James Benson Bacque

Peter Steven Pieda

Eddie Kai Ho Ng

Hans Frederick Johnsen

Jason Christopher De Rocher

John William Spicer

Angelica Grace Emelie Kasvand Harris

Hanh Thi

Angelica Grace Emelie Kasvand-Harris

Hamish Iain MacDonald

A network device includes at least one processor, a storage device and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to: write data to the storage device; replicate the data at one or more remote network devices via at least one deterministic transmission medium; and output an acknowledgement in response to determining that the data has been written to the storage device prior to receiving confirmation of successful replication of the data at the one or more remote network devices. The methods, systems or computer readable mediums leverage the deterministic and measurable nature of the transmission media to reduce the Recover Point Objective durations.

Methods, devices, systems, and computer-readable mediums for reduced recovery point objective duration

The present disclosure discloses infrastructure resource states which may be configured for use in managing both infrastructure resources (IRs) and virtualized infrastructure resources (VIRs). The new resources states may include a Network Unequipped (NU) state, a Network Equipped (NE) state, a Network Ready (NR) state, a Service Ready (SR) state, an Out-of-Service (OOS) state, and an In-Service (IS) state. The infrastructure resource states may be configured to enable resource transfers in a programmable virtual infrastructure having one or more tenants (e.g., Owners, BUs, Partners, Customers, or the like) at one or more hierarchical layers. The infrastructure resource states may be configured to support VIR management for multi-owner virtualization such that multiple owners may manage resource allocation of the network infrastructure of the communication network and multi-tenant virtualization such that multiple tenants, at one or more hierarchical layers, may share portions of the network infrastructure of the communication network.

Infrastructure resource states

We disclose a network element having one or more OAM components that enable the network element to send and receive in-band service messages without disrupting the flow of user data on the wavelength channel(s) used for the transmission of said in-band service messages. When deployed in a transport plane of a communications network, a plurality of such network elements can advantageously be used to perform various OAM functions that support a link-fault-management mechanism in a manner that complements and strengthens the existing OAM capabilities, particularly at various intermediate points within the optical network path(s).

Operations administration and management service for an optical layer of a communication network

Optical communication networks often incorporate fiber rings or fiber mesh topologies for interconnecting its nodes. Both of these topologies can contain closed optical loops at one or more wavelengths within the optical spectrum. In amplified optical systems, the inherent loss of these optical loops is counteracted by the amplifier gain. Thus, the optical loop may have a net loss that is too low to prevent excessive noise buildup resulting in a lasing fiber loop. The noise that builds up within such amplified systems is dominated by the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise resulting in ASE loops. Such loops can have a serious impact on all wavelengths carried by the fiber and lead to a partial or complete loss of end to end communication due to a severe degradation in signal to noise ratio. This invention provides an effective method and system for avoiding ASE loops in optical communication networks. The method deploys optical seams as well as a unique signature for a wavelength instance for achieving an effective solution that is resilient to errors and failures that may occur on the system both during service creation and normal operation.

Method and system for avoiding amplified spontaneous emission loops in an optical network

This invention provides a method for commissioning and upgrading an optical ring network using its internal amplifiers as Automatic Spontaneous Emission sources of light that are used in making measurements. A modular segmented approach is adopted and the network is commissioned segment by segment. A flexible method is used for upgrading a commissioned network by adding or deleting a node or changing the internal configuration of a node. The method uses techniques for the correction of the Optical Signal to Noise Ratio induced error as well as the Spectral Filtering Error during the loss computation required for adjusting the gains of the amplifiers at each network node to an appropriate value. Since the method does not require an external laser source that needs to be moved manually from node to node it greatly reduces the commissioning time. Since it uses only the components of the network itself and does not deploy any additional device it also leads to a significant saving in cost.

Method for network commissioning and upgrading using amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources

A routing system and method are provided which use a composite cost in identifying routes. This allows a simple way of identifying the best route taking multiple metrics into account for each link simultaneously. The system allows for the inclusion of pruning constraints, and allows for various objectives such as bin packing or load balancing to be achieved.

Multi-constraint routing system and method

A communication network is provided having source and destination switching routers connected by two different communication paths. A primary label switched path is established on one of the communication paths and a secondary label switched path is established on the other label switched path. The source switching router can be enabled to place one or more data flows within the primary label switched path and can be enabled to place one or more of the same data flows within the secondary label switched path. The destination switching router stores a label identifying each data flow and a forwarding instruction and can be enabled to reference data carried within the primary or secondary LSP with the appropriate data flow label.

Label switched communication network, a method of conditioning the network and a method of data transmission

The invention provides a method which involves inserting probe packets on a per service basis for transmission on a respective round trip; and for each service using the probe packets to calculate packet latency for probe packets which is representative of packet latency for all packets transmitted for the service. In some embodiments, data plane time stamps are used to accurately time probe latency. The invention also provides a method which involves inserting probe packets on a per service basis for transmission on a respective destination network element; and at the destination network element for a given service using the probe packets to calculate one way packet loss for the service.

Method and system of measuring latency and packet loss in a network by using probe packets

A reliable packet network is constructed with nodes and links where the nodes use a method for fast distribution of link state information. This permits a rapid update of the routing information at all nodes in case of a link failure, minimizing the number of lost packets.

Packet network providing fast distribution of node related information and a method therefor

A method and system for allocating and controlling a hierarchy of labels in an MPLS network is provided. The hierarchy of labels, inserted into MPLS packets, is introduced so as to correspond to the hierarchy of sub-flows within a data flow. The labels have the established dependency so that positions of labels in the hierarchy identify a sequence of processing the labels and functions associated with the labels. The system for allocating and controlling the hierarchy of MPLS labels includes a first control plane mapper for releasing available labels, a first controller for assigning the released labels according to the hierarchy, means for transmitting the labels in the network, a second controller for detecting the labels, and a second control plane mapper for maintaining current label dependency within the hierarchy. If required, re-addressing of the hierarchy of labels may be performed to maintain flow-sub-flow association throughout two adjacent networks. In the preferred embodiments on the invention the method of allocating and controlling hierarchy of labels is applied to sub-flows within FA-LSP flows, and to multi-cast services in the network associated with a function of flooding and filtering data within a network node.

Method and system for allocating and controlling labels in multi-protocol label switched networks

An extension of a Link Aggregation Protocol (LAP) over the network allows current Ethernet point-to-point LAPs to operate across a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). A maximum disjoint path algorithm allows selection of a plurality of alternative end-to-end physical routes between two data terminals. These physical routes share a minimum number of nodes and physical links. End-to-end logical links are then formed by a plurality of successive physical links between nodes containing protocol compatible devices, the physical links being selected based on their physical characteristics such as bandwidth and delay. Multiple logical links can be provisioned, without dedicating, between any two data terminals over the network. The logical links provide the virtual point-to-point links that the edge LAP devices require. The extension of LAP/s over the network provides increased availability because a network failure can now be propagated to the edge of the network to allow the edge LAP devices to quickly react to the failure.

Extension of link aggregation protocols over the network

Methods, systems, computer readable media are provided which facilitate the selection of multiple paths through a network represented by a network topology which take into account shared risk which may exist between network resources. The method involves identifying a first path through the network topology from a source node to a destination node, the first path comprising a first sequence of network resources. For at least one shared risk group, a determination is made if any of the at least one shared risk group includes any of the first sequence of network resources, a shared risk group being a group of network resources within the network topology which have a shared risk. A topology transformation is performed of the network topology into a virtual topology which discourages the use of network resources in any shared risk group determined. A second path through the virtual topology is identified from the source node to the destination. The method may be adapted to encourage node and/or edge disjointness.

Growing community of inventors

Stittsville, Canada

Walter Carpini