Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture

Details Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture

1999-05-19

2004-08-17

Luther, William A. (Department: 2664)

Multiplex communications

Fault recovery

Bypass an inoperative switch or inoperative element of a...

C370S219000, C370S221000, C370S225000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06778490

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to computer networks, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the field of data routing in computer networks, an Internet service provider (ISP) user typically has much more stringent requirements than an enterprise user because the routers will be subjected to the adverse Internet routing environment in the world. There are three typical architectural requirements that such routers must support, described below.
A. Stable Operation. Although it sounds trivial, the notion of stable operation has been elusive in the ISP community, as witnessed by various Internet “brown-outs” since it's inception. One paper on Internet scaling “Scaling the Internet during the T3 NSFNET Years”, C. Villamizar, Oct. 22, 1997, articulates the basic requirements which ISPs demand from their networking equipment in order to provide a stable network. In addition to forwarding performance and scaling requirements, ISPs typically expect several operational attributes, given below.
1. Stability under adverse conditions. The router must remain stable and deterministic under arbitrarily high traffic loads or a flood of routing update changes.
2. Low packet loss to stable destinations. The effects of unstable routes (flapping) should not impact a router's ability to forward traffic to stable routes.
3. Reasonable fairness and congestion control. Sufficient buffering capacity, avoidance of head-of-line blocking, advanced queueing algorithms, and sophisticated discard techniques must be provided.
B. Service Differentiation. Recently it has become clear that service providers cannot make adequate margins by offering flat-rate access and undifferentiated service. The ability to offer tiered services, and to guarantee service levels, is crucial to the economic and competitive health of ISPs. The airline industry's first-class, business-class and coach-class offerings provide a meaningful analogy for Internet service differentiation: a small number of customers are willing to pay for premium service, if it can be guaranteed. The concentrator's must enable ISPs to offer differentiated services based on multiple queues and advanced, intelligent Traffic Management features.
C. Superior Reliability. ISP routers must provide a greater level of reliability and availability than known router architectures. Part of this flows from designing with stability in mind, but providing additional fault tolerance features adds another dimension of resiliency. ISP routers should be designed without any single points of failure, and all software designs should incorporate fault isolation principles.
Therefore, there is a need for a way to route data in computer networks that provides stable operation, service differentiation, and superior reliability. Such an invention should be stable under adverse conditions, insure low packet loss to stable destinations, and provide reasonable fairness and congestion control.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method, apparatus and article of manufacture for routing a data packet in a fault tolerant manner. A data packet is received from an incoming data channel and is transferred to a switching engine (SE) through an access processor engine (APE). A route for the data packet is generated using a central processor resource (CPR). The data packet is transferred from the SE to an outgoing trunk physical module (TP) using the route.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5126889 (1992-06-01), Walden
patent: 5130984 (1992-07-01), Cisneros
patent: 5367521 (1994-11-01), Sanchez et al.
patent: 5533198 (1996-07-01), Thorson
patent: 5602988 (1997-02-01), Haulin
patent: 5689646 (1997-11-01), Thorson
patent: 5781715 (1998-07-01), Sheu
patent: 5848227 (1998-12-01), Sheu
patent: 5991829 (1999-11-01), Giorgio et al.
patent: 6041036 (2000-03-01), Baek et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for a fault tolerant router architecture will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3355882