A method and apparatus for routing the same data through independent routes between stations in a mesh network to increase the robustness of communications. The disclosed feature allows transmission of the same data stream via multiple routes from a source station (STA) to a destination station (STA). An extended routing request (RREQ) and routing reply (RREP) are utilized which provide a primary and secondary flag indication, which is utilized in combination with advanced programming for setting path cost metrics to assure independence of primary and secondary routes.

In one embodiment, a method comprises creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination network node; identifying, within the loop-free routing topology, non-congruent paths for a source network node to reach the destination node; and determining, from the non-congruent paths, a non-congruent path pair providing no more than a prescribed difference of latency from the source network node to the destination node, enabling the source network node to forward a data packet in a first direction of the one non-congruent path pair and a bicasted copy of the data packet in a second direction of the one non-congruent path pair, for reception of the data packet and the bicasted copy by the destination node within the prescribed difference of latency.

A connection-oriented network has a first working path (W1) and a second working path (W2). A node (E) receives signalling to allocate resources for a part of a recovery path (R1) for the first working path (W1). The resources are shared by the recovery path (R1) for the first working path and a recovery path (R2a) for the second working path (W2). The node (E) stores an association between the shared resources and a node (A) on the first working path, identified in the signalling, which should be notified when the shared resources are used by the recovery path (R2a) for the second working path (W2). An RSVP-TE <NOTIFY_REQUEST> object in the signalling carries an address of the node to be notified. The node (E) sends an RSVP-TE Notify message to a node (A) on the first working path (W1) which indicates that the shared resources are in use.

A software-defined network (SDN) controller and a multipath routing method thereof are provided. In the method, a maximum bottleneck bandwidth (MBB) and a minimum hop count (MHC) of each of the nodes in the SDN are initiated. Next, a source node is visited, and neighboring nodes thereof are discovered to relax paths between the source node and each neighboring node. Then, a forwarding node having a maximum MBB among other nodes is visited, and its neighboring nodes which are connected therewith and unvisited are discovered to relax the paths between the forwarding node and each neighboring node. Afterwards, the rest of the nodes are consecutively visited until all nodes are visited. Finally, a disjoint path lookup table is established according to relation between the paths recorded for each node, and accordingly k disjoint paths having the maximum bottleneck bandwidth are found for transmitting k sub-flows divided from a data flow.

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable media for modifying IP backbone link weights such that multicast traffic and unicast traffic will not travel on a same path between nodes. The method comprises assigning link weights to nodes within an IP backbone such that multicast forwarding paths and unicast forwarding paths are failure disjoint, and delivering undelivered multicast packets using IP unicast encapsulation to the loopback address of next hop router on a multicast tree upon link/interface failure.

This disclosure generally discloses a path search mechanism for determining mutually compatible paths within a network includes nodes and links. The path search mechanism for determining mutually compatible paths may be configured to determine a set of mutually compatible paths for a set of demands where the demands may include requests for paths between pairs of nodes of the network. The path search mechanism for determining mutually compatible paths may be configured to determine a set of mutually compatible paths for a set of demands where compatibility may be based on edge disjointness, node disjointness, or the like, as well as various combinations thereof. The path search mechanism for determining mutually compatible paths may be configured to determine a set of mutually compatible paths for a set of demands subject to an objective.

In one embodiment, a method comprises creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination network node; identifying, within the loop-free routing topology, non-congruent paths for a source network node to reach the destination node; and determining, from the non-congruent paths, a non-congruent path pair providing no more than a prescribed difference of latency from the source network node to the destination node, enabling the source network node to forward a data packet in a first direction of the one non-congruent path pair and a bicasted copy of the data packet in a second direction of the one non-congruent path pair, for reception of the data packet and the bicasted copy by the destination node within the prescribed difference of latency.

In one embodiment, a device in a network detects a bidirectional traffic flow along a primary path in the network. The device determines that a self-interference condition exists along the primary path. The device selects an alternate path in the network. The device causes the traffic flow to use the primary path for packets of the traffic flow sent in a first direction and to use the alternate path for packets of the traffic flow send in a second direction that is opposite that of the first direction.

A control apparatus includes a first apparatus for ascertaining at least one primary data path between a first and a second data terminal device, which are connected to a data network, a second apparatus for selecting one of the ascertained primary data paths and a third apparatus for ascertaining at least one alternative data path between the first and the second data terminal device, which alternative data path has no common transmission links with the selected primary data path. A corresponding network node and a corresponding method for operating the apparatus are also described.

A method, an apparatus and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for determining multiple disjoint constrained paths in a communications network are disclosed. The method includes selecting upper bounds QoS metrics for each path in a disjoint combination of paths having two or more disjoint paths between a source node and a destination node; determining a minimum-cost disjoint path combination, and a minimum-QoS metric disjoint path combination; computing a maximum QoS metric by summing the QoS metrics of each minimum-cost path in the minimum-cost disjoint path combination, and computing a minimum QoS metric by summing the QoS metrics of each minimum-QoS metric path in the minimum-QoS metric disjoint path combination.