Advertising Messages in Networks

Abstract

Switches within a telecommunications network exchange so-called available bandwidth messages, each of which advertises how much bandwidth remains unassigned on a respective link. The network is of a type in which circuits are provisioned with various predefined numbers of time slots (equivalent to bandwidth). The sending of an available bandwidth message for a given link is triggered by a change in the number of time slots available on that link if that change results in a change in the number of circuit bandwidths that can be accommodated by that link for a newly provisioned circuit.

Claims

1. A method, comprising: determining, by a switch, an available bandwidth associated with a communications link of a communications network; determining, by the switch, that the available bandwidth crosses a threshold, the threshold associated with a circuit; and sending, by the switch, a message via the communications network, the message advertising the available bandwidth in response to the determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold associated with the circuit.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the available bandwidth to the threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically updating the available bandwidth associated with the communications link.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold in an upward direction.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold in a downward direction.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the available bandwidth as a number of time slots.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the message via the communications network in response to the available bandwidth crossing below the threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the message via the communications network in response to the available bandwidth crossing above the threshold.

9. A system, comprising: a processor; and a memory device, the memory device storing code, the code when executed causing the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising: determining an available bandwidth associated with a communications link of a communications network; determining that the available bandwidth crosses a threshold, the threshold associated with adding a circuit; and sending a message via the communications network, the message advertising the available bandwidth in response to the determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise comparing the available bandwidth to the threshold.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise periodically updating the available bandwidth associated with the communications link.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold in an upward direction.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold in a downward direction.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise determining the available bandwidth as a number of time slots.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise sending the message via the communications network in response to the available bandwidth crossing below the threshold.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise sending the message via the communications network in response to the available bandwidth crossing above the threshold.

17. A memory device storing instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising: determining an available bandwidth associated with a communications link, the communications link associated with a switch of a communications network; determining that the available bandwidth crosses a threshold, the threshold associated with subtracting a circuit associated with the switch; and sending a message via the communications link, the message advertising the available bandwidth in response to the available bandwidth crossing the threshold.

18. The memory device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise sending the message in response to the available bandwidth crossing below the threshold.

19. The memory device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the available bandwidth crosses the threshold in a downward direction.

20. The memory device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise periodically updating the available bandwidth associated with the communications link.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0017] FIG. 1 is an illustrative network in which the present invention is implemented;

[0018] FIG. 2 shows a different view of the network of FIG. 1, helpful in illustrating certain aspects of the PNNI routing protocol;

[0019] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one of the switches in the network of FIG. 1; and

[0020] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the basic functions carried out by a switch of FIG. 3 in implementing the principles of the inventionspecifically for determining when a available bandwidth message should be transmitted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative network 10 in which the present invention is implemented. Network 10 includes a plurality of switches 101-106 and a plurality of point-to-point communication links 201-207. Links 201-207 can be OCN optical links such as OC-48, OC-12, OC-3 and/or DS-3 communication links. Although not shown, there can be multiple links between a pair of switches. Each link 201-207 is typically bi-directional and has potentially different characteristics in each direction. For example, the various links could have respective different bandwidths and administrative weight in each direction. It is assumed in this example that all the links have the same characteristics in both directions. As is well-known, multiple links can also be grouped into an aggregated link.

[0022] Switches 101-106 may be, for example, optical switches, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) switches, FR (Frame Relay) switches or IP/MPLS routers. The switches can automatically discover the network and set up circuits using known link-state routing and signaling protocols.

[0023] Circuits established between a pair of switches can include one or more intermediate switches. The service route of the circuit is the set of links and switches on which it is set up. FIG. 1 illustrates a particular circuit 301 that has been set up through network 10 to interconnect end systems 8 and 9. As can be seen, circuit 301 includes switches 101, 104, 105 and 103 and links 205, 206 and 207, as well as the access network connections between end systems 8 and 9 and switches 101 and 103, respectively.

[0024] It is assumed in the present illustrative embodiment that routing messageswhich provide information about network topology, including available bandwidth on the various linksare communicated among the various switches using the PNNI protocol. FIG. 2 shows another view of network 10 helpful in explaining certain aspects of the PNNI protocol. In particular, nodes in the PNNI hierarchy comprise individual switches and/or groups of switches, the latter being referred to as peer groups. FIG. 2 depicts each one of switches 101 through 106 as a node and shows that network 10 further includes switches 107 through 109 that are not shown in FIG. 1. Network 10 may, of course, include any desired number of switches. FIG. 2 also shows links 201 through 207, as well as links 208 through 213 not shown in FIG. 1.

[0025] Switches 101, 106, 107 and 108 constitute a peer group for PNNI purposes, denoted as peer group 220. As previously noted, link PTSEs are messages transmitted among the switches within a peer group. In addition to being in the same peer group as switch 101, switches 106, 107 and 108 are all neighbors of switch 101 since each is connected to switch 101 by a link. Switches 107 and 108, although in the same peer group, are not neighbors since there is no link connecting them. Switches also have neighbors that are not in the same peer group. For example, switch 104 is a neighbor of switch 101. Although only one peer group is indicated in the FIG., a typical network will include many peer groups. The concept of neighbor is important in that even though a switch (other than the peer group leader) may only send and receive routing messages with the members of its peer group, a switch sends and receives signaling messages with its neighbors during, for example, call setup, even if a neighbor does not belong to its peer group.

[0026] Signaling, routing and other messages are communicated among the various switches over channels carried by the same links, i.e., links 201 through 213, that carry the customer traffic. For example, a dedicated channel could be set aside on each link for this purpose or inband signaling could be used or a channel within the SONET overhead could be used. Although not envisioned for the present embodiment, the switches could, alternatively, communicate signaling and routing messages over a totally separate network similar to the conventional type of SS7 network, or they might communicate over a separate IP network.

[0027] Arrows 225 in FIG. 2 represent respective signaling or routing messageswhich could be, for example, link PTSEssent by switch 106 to switch 107 and vice versa.

[0028] Network 10 allocates circuits in discrete bandwidth amounts. More particularly, network 10 is illustratively an optical transport network in which the provisioned circuits are STS-N circuits, such as STS-1, STS-3, STS-12, STS-24, STS-48 and STS-192 circuits, which require 1, 3, 12, 24, 48 and 192 time slots (equivalent to bandwidth), respectively. In order to route an STS-N circuit over a particular link, it is enough to know whether N slots are available on the link or not. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, we have recognized that a change in available bandwidth is sufficient to cause a new available bandwidth message, i.e., link PTSE, to be transmitted only if that change in bandwidth changes the number of circuit bandwidths that are available on that link for a newly provisioned circuit. For example, as noted earlier, a link having 15 available time slots can accommodate three circuit bandwidths for a newly provisioned circuitan STS-1, an STS-3 or an STS-12 circuitand after the change, it can still only accommodate those three circuit bandwidths. Thus the fact that the available bandwidth has changed from, say, 15 time slots to 21 time slots is not helpful information and such a change will not trigger the sending of a new link PTSE. On the other hand, a change from 15 time slots to 24 time slots is important to know because four circuit bandwidths can now be accommodatedSTS-1, STS-3, STS-12 and STS-24. Similarly a change from 15 time slots to 10 time slots is important to know because only two circuit bandwidths can now be accommodatedSTS-1 and STS-3. Implementationally, the criterion to be used in determining whether a change in available bandwidth should be advertised is whether the new available number of time slots has become either a) at least as great as or b) less than (in this example) the set of thresholds 1, 3, 12, 24, 48 or 192.

[0029] It is also possible to define the invention as causing an available bandwidth message to be sent if the amount of available bandwidth has crossed any one of a plurality of thresholds. With such a definition, we must take account of the fact that an upward change in the amount of available bandwidth is important if the new amount at least equals the next higher bandwidth (or time slot) amount. By contrast, a downward change in the amount of available bandwidth is important if the new amount crosses below the next lower bandwidth (or time slot) amount. However, as long as we understand the aforementioned thresholds to each be slightly less than one of the discrete circuit bandwidth amounts, it is indeed possible to define the invention in the way just suggested. For example, if the aforementioned set of thresholds is taken to be 0.5, 2.5, 11.5, 23.5, 47.5 and 191.5 (that is, 0.5 less than the standard time slot values 1, 3, 12, 24, 48 and 192), then it can be said that the invention causes an available bandwidth message to be sent whenever the amount of available bandwidth crosses any one of those thresholds in either the up or down direction. It can thus be said, in general, that the aforementioned thresholds are each a function of one of the discrete bandwidth amounts.

[0030] It should be noted in this regard that although the invention can actually be implemented by doing threshold comparisons of this type, other ways of implementing the invention are possible. Such other ways of implementing the invention may nonetheless be seen as inherently meeting this threshold-based definition of the invention. That is, if the available bandwidth of a link changes from 3 time slots to 12 time slots and an available bandwidth message is transmitted as a result of that change, one can say that the available bandwidth message was transmitted in response to the available bandwidth having crossed a threshold, e.g., 11.5, even if the determination that that change from 3 to 12 occurred did not involve comparing 3 and/or 12 with 11.5. That is, the value 11.5 was, indeed, crossed when the change happened.

[0031] FIG. 3 is a generalized block diagram of switch 101, taken as exemplary. Switch 101 can be characterized as having two basic types of componentsprocessing and other circuitry 121 and memory 122. Within memory 122 is a table 1223 containing a list of the aforementioned bandwidth thresholds. Memory 122 also contains programs 1224 that are executed by circuitry 121 to carry out the various functions and functionalities of the switch, including the transmission of available bandwidth messages, illustratively link PTSEs, pursuant to the principles of the invention.

[0032] FIG. 4 is flowchart of the basic functions carried out by switch 101 in implementing the decision as to when a link PTSE should be sent, pursuant to the principles of the present inventionspecifically for determining when an available bandwidth message should be transmitted.

[0033] The process begins at 401 in response to the switch having allocated or released bandwidth on one of its associated links. It is then determined at 403 whether the number of available circuit bandwidths has changed. This is equivalent in this embodiment to determining whether the number of time slots available on the link has either a) increased from its previous value to a value at least equal to the next higher circuit bandwidth, or threshold, as defined in table 1223 or b) has decreased from its previous value to a value that is lower than the next lower circuit bandwidth. Referring again to the above example, if the available bandwidth prior to the change was 15 time slots, step 403 determines whether the number of times slots now available on the link is at least equal to 24 or is lower than 12.

[0034] If the answer at 403 is yes, it is then determined at 404 whether the switch has sent out a link PTSE for this link within the previous one second because, as noted above, it is desirable to impose a minimum time period between the sending of successive PTSEs. A check is therefore made at 404. If a link PTSE indicating the new available bandwidth was not sent within the previous one second, then a link PTSE is sent at 407. Otherwise, the process waits at 408 until that one second has expired and then the link PTSE is sent at 407. If the amount of available bandwidth for this link changes during the wait, then the link PTSE that is ultimately sent indicates the latest value.

[0035] Although not shown in the FIG., a switch will send a link PTSE for each link periodically, e.g., once every half hour, whether or not the available bandwidth on that link has changed by any particular amount, if any. This helps ensure that the network is operating with correct routing data.

[0036] The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention.

[0037] For example, the present invention has been described with each switch having a list of thresholds that it applies to all its links. The invention also applies to different switches having different lists of thresholds, as well as to a switch having multiple lists of thresholds and applying different lists to different links.

[0038] The present invention is applicable to other MPLS-based IP (Internet Protocol) networks and the traditional ATM and Frame Relay (FR) networks as well. The present invention can also be used with any telecommunications network with switches capable of establishing circuitsfor example, Frame Relay switches, ATM switches, IP/MPLS routers, optical switches, digital and optical cross-connects, to name a few.

[0039] It should be understood that the present invention can be employed in routing protocols in general. Furthermore, the present invention can be employed in systems using routing protocols that are compliant with various routing standards and their variants, including but not limited to the OSPF routing protocol.

[0040] It will thus be appreciated that although the principles of the present invention have been illustrated in conjunction with a specific embodiment, those skilled in the art will be able to devise many alternatives, modifications and variations that embody those principles and thus are within their spirit and scope.