Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Switching a message which includes an address header
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-20
2004-08-31
Nguyen, Chau (Department: 2663)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Switching a message which includes an address header
C370S395100, C370S466000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06785279
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a network configuration identification and mapping method and apparatus in a network having multiple local-area networks (LANs) connected using a Frame Relay-ATM Service Interworking (SIW)-based wide-area network (WAN).
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Frame Relay-ATM Service Interworking (SIW), as defined by the FR Forum and ATM Forum, relies on protocol conversion that permits a frame relay device to communicate with an ATM device. In essence, it allows an ATM end station to communicate with a frame relay (“FR”) end station without either side having knowledge about the protocol being used on the other end. Service Interworking couples a FR WAN to an ATM WAN, producing what is termed a FR-ATM SIW based-WAN, which can be considered a hybrid WAN.
The success of the modem business enterprise depends heavily on the computing and communications infrastructure that supports it. This infrastructure is considered a strategic asset by businesses, and has changed dramatically over the years as a result of the evolution in data processing and telecommunications. Because of recent advances in computing and telecommunications, companies are rapidly adopting new ways of doing business, with the end result that mission critical applications and operations have moved onto the network and are increasingly dependent on new networking paradigms.
These new applications generally have some fundamental differences from earlier data applications. First, they demand much higher bandwidth because the amount of traffic generated by them is so much greater. Second, there is a greater need for network connectivity among a much larger end-user population. Where; in the past, the network simply connected internal, specialized functional areas, the modern network interconnects virtually everyone within the corporate structure. Traditional methods of connecting occasional users to the network involve the use of dial-up lines of relatively low speed, which are not satisfactory for meeting today's connectivity requirements.
Another characteristic of the modern business is that it often comprises multiple geographically dispersed locations. In addition, many firms permit or even encourage telecommuting. Combining of Frame Relay (“FR”) and ATM technologies as in Frame Relay-ATM Service Interworking permits the use of the cost effective FR technology at the remote premise sites while permitting economies and versatility of ATM protocol in the backbone network, and at the local server end. Additionally, use of ATM will permit the bundling of services which require very high bandwidth and quality reliability with traditional telephony and data traffic. Using FR and ATM makes it possible for such far-flung enterprises to exchange information rapidly and effectively. One example of the use of FR-ATM Service Interworking technology is as part of a wide-area network (WAN) that is used to interconnect and seamlessly integrate multiple remote local area networks (LANs) to form an enterprise intranet. One advantage of this scheme is that the FR-ATM SIW-based WAN is transparent, and the distributed LANs function as a single LAN from the perspective of the end-user. There is, however, a significant disadvantage to this scheme. Because the FR-ATM SIW-based WAN is transparent, the managers of the LANs cannot diagnose faults within the WAN. Therefore, a LAN manager cannot determine whether a network fault lies within the LAN or within the WAN. Additionally, WAN reported faults cannot be correlated to the associated LAN components. This need becomes even more important in environments such as the FR-ATM Service Interworking based WAN, which combines two WANs in the pathway between distant LANs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a destination local area network (LAN) and a local LAN are coupled by a combined Frame Relay (“FR”) and ATM-based wide area network (WAN). Each LAN includes a router. The ATM WAN includes an ATM switch having a customer switch port and the FR WAN includes a FR switch having a customer switch port. One or more ATM interfaces are configured on the router connected to the ATM switch. One or more FR interfaces are configured on the router connected to the FR switch. The ATM interface on the router of the local LAN and the FR interface on the router of the destination LAN form an interface end-point pair. In order to identify a connection between the destination LAN and the local LAN, an end-to-end LAN-WAN-LAN connection components template is created. The template contains a number of fields, which are populated during the process of identifying the end-point to end-point connection.
ATM and FR interfaces are identified on routers on the intranet. The network addresses of an interface end-point pair conform to Internet Protocol (IP) and are part of the same subnet. This type of configuration is termed a point-to-point connection. The IP address, IP subnet mask, city, state, the VPI/VCI (“virtual circuit identifier”) value from the ATM interface, and the DLCI (“data link connection identifier”) value from the FR interface are retrieved from the ATM and FR router interfaces. These values are stored to create a list describing the physical and logical characteristics of the ATM and FR interfaces. A pair of network addresses is identified using the IP address in conjunction with the subnet mask stored on either the ATM interface or the FR interface in the list. The virtual circuit identifier value on the ATM interface and data link connection identifier value on the FR interface that are associated with each of the network IP addresses are identified. WAN configuration data are retrieved and prepared so as to permit LAN-to-WAN correlation. Preparation involves the capitalization of all characters in the city and state names in the list of ATM and FR interfaces, and the manipulation by algorithm of the characters forming the city name, which limits its final length and which excludes specific character types such as vowels from the resultant string. The city, state, data link connection identifier value, and virtual circuit identifier values of the interfaces on the LANs are associated with the city, state, data link connection identifier value, and pair of virtual circuit identifier values on the combined WANs. The associated configuration information and components of the WAN are retrieved and stored alongside entries in the list of ATM and FR interfaces.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5583997 (1996-12-01), Hart
patent: 5796736 (1998-08-01), Suzuki
patent: 5910803 (1999-06-01), Grau et al.
patent: 6188671 (2001-02-01), Chase et al.
patent: 6463477 (2002-10-01), Fontenot
AT&T Corp.
Juntima Nittaya
Nguyen Chau
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