The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 2009
Filed:
Apr. 29, 2004
Desmond Glenn Smith, Kanata, CA;
Terrence Vincent Sellars, Kanata, CA;
Stephen Michael Shortt, Carp, CA;
David Henry Graham, Kanata, CA;
Christopher Edward Trader, Ottawa, CA;
Myles Kevin Dear, Nepean, CA;
Thomas Man Chun Kam, Stittsville, CA;
Desmond Glenn Smith, Kanata, CA;
Terrence Vincent Sellars, Kanata, CA;
Stephen Michael Shortt, Carp, CA;
David Henry Graham, Kanata, CA;
Christopher Edward Trader, Ottawa, CA;
Myles Kevin Dear, Nepean, CA;
Thomas Man Chun Kam, Stittsville, CA;
Alcatel Lucent, Paris, FR;
Abstract
The apparatus and method herein provide a means for actively monitoring a communications node for datapath disruptions caused within the node. It was developed to address linecard failures that were detected in the field and for which traditional error detection mechanisms such as CRC and OAM CC checks are not feasible. According to one implementation, statistics are collected over a preset time interval. If any egress cell counts are zero over a full interval, then the ingress interface for that datapath is determined, e.g. using the node's cross-datapath information, and the corresponding linecard of that ingress interface is contacted to determine the ingress cell count. If the ingress cell count is non-zero then the datapath is alarmed since the complete lack of cells transmitted at the egress indicates a datapath disruption. Other implementations that can detect datapath disruptions without a complete interval of statistics collection and which do not require a zero egress cell count are possible for cases where congestion, linecard resets, etc. can be ruled out.