A communication method and apparatus are provided for transmitting packets of a data stream between user equipment. After receiving a first packet from a first user equipment, a user plane function (UPF) forwards the first packet to a second user equipment at a first moment, so that the first packet that arrives at the UPF before the first moment is not forwarded to the second user equipment until the first moment, to support deterministic sending and ensure that a time sensitive communication (TSC) packet is sent at a determined moment, so as to provide deterministic delay assurance for applications such as industrial control and telemedicine.

A forwarding table generation method is provided. The method includes: determining, by a forwarding device, a first timeslot set, where the first timeslot set includes multiple timeslots during which the forwarding device sends, to a first device by using a first flexible Ethernet group, multiple encoded data blocks generated by a physical coding sublayer; determining, by the forwarding device, a second timeslot set, where the second timeslot set includes multiple timeslots during which the forwarding device receives, by using a second FlexE group, the multiple encoded data blocks sent by a second device; and generating, by the forwarding device, a forwarding table, where the forwarding table includes a mapping relationship between the second FlexE group and the multiple timeslots included in the second timeslot set, and between the first FlexE group and the multiple timeslots included in the first timeslot set.

A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

A method for processing data packets in a communication network includes establishing a path for a flow of the data packets through the communication network. At a node along the path having a plurality of aggregated ports, a port is selected from among the plurality to serve as part of the path. A label is chosen responsively to the selected port. The label is attached to the data packets in the flow at a point on the path upstream from the node. Upon receiving the data packets at the node, the data packets are switched through the selected port responsively to the label.

Resource allocation limitations include resource limits and resource guarantees. A consumer is vulnerable to interruption by other consumers if using more resources than guaranteed. Resources are designated and/or assigned consumers based on resource limits and resource guarantees. A constraint programming (CP) solver determines resource limits and resource guarantees that minimize vulnerability and/or vulnerability cost based on resource usage data. A CP data model includes limit elements, guarantee elements, and vulnerability elements. The CP data model further includes guarantee-vulnerability constraints, which relies on exceedance distributions generated from resource usage data for the consumers. The CP data model declaratively expresses combinatorial properties of a problem in terms of constraints. CP is a form of declarative programming.

Resource allocation limitations include resource limits and resource guarantees. A consumer is vulnerable to interruption by other consumers if using more resources than guaranteed. Resources are designated and/or assigned consumers based on resource limits and resource guarantees. A constraint programming (CP) solver determines resource limits and resource guarantees that minimize vulnerability and/or vulnerability cost based on resource usage data. A CP data model includes limit elements, guarantee elements, and vulnerability elements. The CP data model further includes guarantee-vulnerability constraints, which relies on exceedance distributions generated from resource usage data for the consumers. The CP data model declaratively expresses combinatorial properties of a problem in terms of constraints. CP is a form of declarative programming.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to a telecommunications network architecture. In accordance with one aspect, a scalable telecommunications network architecture includes at least one infrastructure switching node; at least one user switching node for receiving a session request, wherein the session request includes at least one user attribute; and at least one controller coupled to the at least one user switching node, the at least one controller for examining the session request a) to allocate at least one bandwidth or at least one data rate for the at least one user switching node based on a resource allocation policy and b) to allocate a quantity of switch elements in the at least one infrastructure switching node based on an interconnection policy. In one example, the at least one controller establishes a communications session for a user terminal based on the session request.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to a telecommunications network architecture. In accordance with one aspect, a scalable telecommunications network architecture includes at least one infrastructure switching node; at least one user switching node for receiving a session request, wherein the session request includes at least one user attribute; and at least one controller coupled to the at least one user switching node, the at least one controller for examining the session request a) to allocate at least one bandwidth or at least one data rate for the at least one user switching node based on a resource allocation policy and b) to allocate a quantity of switch elements in the at least one infrastructure switching node based on an interconnection policy. In one example, the at least one controller establishes a communications session for a user terminal based on the session request.

In general, techniques are described for signaling IP path tunnels for traffic engineering using constraints in an IP network. For example, network devices, e.g., routers, of an IP network may compute an IP path using constraint information and establish the IP path using, for example, Resource Reservation Protocol, to signal the IP path without using MPLS. As one example, the egress router generates a path reservation signaling message that includes an egress IP address that is assigned for use by the routers on the IP path to send traffic of the data flow by encapsulating the traffic with the egress IP address and forwarding toward the egress router. As each router in the IP path receives the path reservation signaling message, the router configures a forwarding state to forward traffic encapsulated with the egress IP address to a next hop along the IP path toward the egress router.

In general, techniques are described for signaling IP path tunnels for traffic engineering using constraints in an IP network. For example, network devices, e.g., routers, of an IP network may compute an IP path using constraint information and establish the IP path using, for example, Resource Reservation Protocol, to signal the IP path without using MPLS. As one example, the egress router generates a path reservation signaling message that includes an egress IP address that is assigned for use by the routers on the IP path to send traffic of the data flow by encapsulating the traffic with the egress IP address and forwarding toward the egress router. As each router in the IP path receives the path reservation signaling message, the router configures a forwarding state to forward traffic encapsulated with the egress IP address to a next hop along the IP path toward the egress router.