Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-19
2004-11-09
Chin, Wellington (Department: 2664)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
C370S400000, C370S231000, C370S255000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06816479
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to packet switching networks and more particularly to a method and system, in a network based on a Networking Broadband Services (NBBS) architecture, for dynamically pre-loading the Local Directory Database (LDB) of network nodes with the location of the more frequently requested resources.
2. Background Art
High Speed Packet/Cell Switching Networks
Data transmission is now evolving, with a specific focus on applications and by integrating a fundamental shift in the customer traffic profile. Driven by the growth of the number of intelligent (programmable) workstations, the pervasive use of local area network interconnections, the distributed processing capabilities between workstations and super computers, the new applications and the integration of various and often conflicting structures—hierarchical versus peer to peer, wide versus local area networks, voice versus data—the data profile has become more bandwidth consuming, bursting, non-deterministic and requires more connectivity. Based on the above observations, there is a strong requirement for supporting distributed computing applications across high speed wide-area networks that can carry local area network communications, voice, video and traffic among channel attached hosts, business, engineering workstations, terminals, and small to intermediate file servers. This vision of a high speed multi-protocol network is the driver for the emergence of fast packet switching network architectures in which data, voice, and video information is digitally encoded, chopped into small packets (of fixed or variable length) and transmitted through a common set of nodes and links. An efficient transport of mixed traffic streams on very high speed lines means for these new network architectures, a set of requirements in term of performance and resource consumption which can be summarized as follows:
a very high throughput and a very short packet processing time,
an efficient set of flow and congestion control mechanisms,
a very large flexibility to support a wide range of connectivity options.
Throughput and Processing Time
One of the key requirements of high speed packet switching networks is to reduce the end to end delay in order to satisfy real time delivery constraints and to achieve the necessary high nodal throughput for the transport of voice and video. Increases in link speeds have not been matched by proportional increases in the processing speeds of communication nodes. The fundamental challenge for high speed networks is to minimize the packet processing time and to take full advantage of the high speed/low error rate technologies. Most of the transport and control functions provided by the new high bandwidth network architectures are performed on an end to end basis. The flow control and particularly the path selection and bandwidth management processes are managed by the access points of the network which reduces both the awareness and the functions of the intermediate nodes.
Congestion and Flow Control
Communication networks have at their disposal limited resources to ensure efficient packet transmissions. An efficient bandwidth management strategy is essential to take full advantage of an high speed network. While transmission costs per byte continue to drop year after year, transmission costs are likely to continue to represent the major expense of operating future telecommunication networks as the demand for bandwidth increases. Thus, considerable efforts have been spent on designing flow and congestion control processes, bandwidth reservation mechanisms, routing algorithms to manage the network bandwidth. An ideal network should be able to transmit an useful traffic directly proportional to the traffic offered to the network and this as far as the maximum transmission capacity is reached. Beyond this limit, the network should operate at its maximum capacity whatever the demand is.
Connectivity
In high speed networks, the nodes must provide total connectivity. This includes attachment of the user devices, regardless of vendor or protocol, and the ability to have the end user communicate with any other device or group of devices (when justified or required). The network must support any type of traffic including data, voice, video, fax, graphic or image. Nodes must be able to take advantage of all common carrier facilities and be adaptable to a plurality of protocols. All needed conversions must be automatic and transparent to the end user.
High Speed Communications
A typical model of communication system is made of several user networks communicating through a high performance network using private lines, carrier provided services, or public data networks. Each user network can be described as a set of communication processors and links interconnecting large computers used as enterprise servers, user groups using workstations or personal computers attached on LAN (Local Area Networks), applications servers, PBX (Private Branch exchange) or video servers. These user networks, spread in different establishments, need to be interconnected through wide area transport facilities and different approaches can be used for organizing the data transfer. Some architectures involve the checking for data integrity at each network node, thus slowing down the transmission. Others are essentially looking for a high speed data transfer. To that end, the transmission, routing and switching techniques within the nodes are optimized to process the packets flowing toward their final destination at the highest possible rate. The present invention belongs essentially to the latter category and more particularly to the fast packet switching network architecture detailed in the following paragraphs.
Networking Broadband Services (NBBS)
The architectures of most high speed packet switching networks specify a set of generic services that offer end-to-end high bandwidth transport capabilities. The present application relates to transmissions in wide-area networks (WANs) based on the IBM's Networking BroadBand Services (NBBS) architecture described in International Business Machine publication “IBM International Technical Support Centers—Networking Broadband Services (NBBS)—Architecture Tutorial—GG24-4486-00” dated June 1995. NBBS Services can be divided into three major areas:
The Transport Services
The Transport Services provide a common infrastructure to support the transfer of information across the network. They are not used directly but through the Access Services (Access Agents). The Transport Services can be divided into three distinct functions:
a Logical Link Layer,
a Network Connection Layer, and
the various Transport Protocols.
The Network Control Services
The Network Control Services ensure that the Transport and Access Services operate reliably, efficiently, and as automatically as possible. They are used to control, allocate, and manage the resources of the network on a real-time basis. They also provide network operators with the various facilities that are needed to configure, operate, and maintain the network on a day-to-day basis. This includes facilities for monitoring the performance of the network, accounting for its usage, and resolving problems.
The Access Services
The Access Services (Access Agents) provide an interface between the common high speed network (or backbone network) and external devices or networks via access link interfaces. The Access Services enable a wide range of external devices to get access to the common infrastructure provided by the Transport Services. Together, the Transport, Network Control and Access Services provide the capability to support communications between many different types of communicating devices through a common network infrastructure.
Directory Services
The Directory Services are part of the Network Control Services and are responsible for locating users in the network. Users are connected to external networks, which attach into the network via access agents located in access nodes. The Directory S
Euget Guy
Giroir Didier
Chin Wellington
Dillon & Yudell LLP
International Business Machines - Corporation
McConnell Daniel E.
Piynichny John R.
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