KR20230002635A - virtual network - Google Patents

Abstract

A virtual network 100 is a web of virtual entry devices 110/200, virtual exit devices 112/600/800, and a web that lies between a local router/switch 120 and a remote router/switch 122 and interconnects them. communication channel 114 coupling the virtual entrance device 110/200 to the virtual exit device 112/600/800, wherein the virtual entrance device 110/200 and the virtual exit device 112/600/800 ) has static forwarding tables that provide significantly improved performance.

Description

virtual network

This application relates to the field of computer networks, and in particular to virtual networks.

A wide area network (WAN) is an interconnected web of network devices that interconnects local area networks or metropolitan area networks over a large geographic area, typically across a state or country. WANs allow remotely located computers to communicate with each other through network devices.

Conventional network devices operate at predetermined fixed data rates, such as, for example, 10/100/1000 Mbps (megabits per second), 10 Gbps (gigabits per second), 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps connections. It typically includes one or more physical network ports. As part of enabling communication between computer systems over a network, conventional network devices negotiate the transfer speed of a network port, and during that process, the transfer speed of a network port is fixed.

One of the drawbacks of conventional network devices is that there is often a requirement for more physical ports than are available, which results in service degradation or expensive upgrades. As a result, an approach is needed to accommodate the growing demand for ports.

The present invention includes a virtual network with virtual ports that effectively increases the number of available physical ports. The virtual network of the present invention includes a virtual entry device, a virtual exit device to be coupled to a remote router/switch, and a communication channel coupled to the virtual entry device and the virtual exit device. The virtual ingress device receives an incoming frame with a header identifying the remote router/switch. An input frame originates from one of a plurality of sources. The virtual entry device also determines the virtual exit device from the identity of the remote router/switch and encapsulates the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame. The first encapsulated frame has a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame. Further, the virtual entry device determines the next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual exit device, and encapsulates the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame. The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. Additionally, the virtual ingress device combines the second encapsulated frame with second encapsulated frames from other sources to form a stream of second encapsulated frames, and transmits the second encapsulated frame.

The invention also includes a method of operating a virtual network. The method includes receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch. An input frame originates from one of a plurality of sources. The method also includes determining the virtual exit device from the identity of the remote router/switch and encapsulating the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame. The first encapsulated frame has a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame. The method also includes determining a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual exit device and encapsulating the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame. The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. Additionally, the method includes combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from a plurality of sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames and transmitting the sequence of second encapsulated frames. includes

The present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embedded therein which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method for operating a virtual network. The method includes receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch. An input frame originates from one of a plurality of sources. The method also includes determining the virtual exit device from the identity of the remote router/switch and encapsulating the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame. The first encapsulated frame has a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame. The method also includes determining a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual exit device and encapsulating the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame. The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. Additionally, the method includes combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from a plurality of sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames and transmitting the sequence of second encapsulated frames. includes

A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, which set forth illustrative embodiments utilizing the principles of the present invention.

1A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual network 100 according to the present invention.
1B is a flow diagram illustrating a method 150 of operating a virtual network 100 in accordance with the present invention.
1C is a diagram illustrating examples of frames according to the present invention.
2A is a block diagram showing an example of a transmitting circuit 200 according to the present invention.
2B is a block diagram showing an example of a transmit circuit 250 according to the present invention.
3A is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 300 of operating a transmit circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention.
3B is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 350 of operating a transmit circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
5 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 500 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual exit device 600 according to the present invention.
7 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 700 of operating a virtual exit device 600 according to the present invention.
8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 800 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 900 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
A better understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, which set forth illustrative embodiments utilizing the principles of the present invention.

1A shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual network 100 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A , virtual network 100 includes virtual entry device 110 , virtual exit device 112 , and communication channel 114 coupling virtual entry device 110 to virtual exit device 112 . include

Virtual network 100 interconnects local router/switch 120 with remote router/switch 122. In this example, local router/switch 120 is coupled to a number of local devices, such as set-top boxes (STBs), personal computers (PCs) and video devices (VIDs), while remote routers/switches 122 correspond to coupled to a number of remote devices.

In operation, the virtual entrance device 110 receives a stream of data frames, such as a set top box (STB), personal computer (PC) and video data frames, from the local router/switch 120 and transmits the stream of data frames. Combines into a single stream of virtual data frames and transmits the single stream of virtual data frames over channel 114.

1B depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method 150 of operating a virtual network 100 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1B , method 150 begins at 152 where virtual ingress device 110 receives an input frame from local router/switch 120 . An input frame, such as an STB, PC or VID frame originating from a local device such as STB, PC or VID, has a header identifying the remote router/switch, in this example, remote router/switch 122 .

1C shows a diagram illustrating examples of frames according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1C , the input frame includes a Src MAC A field identifying the MAC address of a local router/switch, such as local router/switch 120, and the name of a remote router/switch, such as remote router/switch 122. It has a header containing a Dist MAC B field that identifies the MAC address. The input frame also includes other fields such as a type field, a data field and an error correction (CRC) field.

Referring back to FIG. 1B , the method 150 next moves to 154 where the virtual entry device 110 determines a virtual exit device coupled to the remote router/switch from the identity of the remote router/switch. For example, the MAC address of the remote router/switch 122 obtained from the Dist MAC B field is the MAC address of the virtual egress device 112 coupled to the remote router/switch 122 via a lookup table. can be used to identify

After determining the virtual exit device, the method 150 moves to 156 where the virtual entry device 110 encapsulates the input frame to form a first encapsulated (FE) frame. The FE frame, in turn, has a field that identifies the virtual exit device, which in this example is virtual exit device 112, and a field that contains the input frame. Encapsulation can be performed with conventional protocols such as the provider backbone bridge-traffic engineering (PBB-TE) protocol or the transport multiprotocol label switching (T-MPLS) protocol.

As shown in FIG. 1C, the FE frame includes a Dst MAC X field identifying the MAC address of a virtual exit device, such as virtual exit device 112, and a MAC address identifying the MAC address of a virtual entrance device, such as virtual entrance device 110. It has a Src MAC N field. The FE frame also includes an I-tag field, a payload field containing the input frame, and a CRC field.

Referring again to FIG. 1B , the method 150 next moves to 158 where the virtual entry device 110 determines the next hop for the FE frame from the identity of the virtual exit device. For example, the virtual entry device 110 can enter the MAC address of the virtual exit device into a lookup table to determine the MAC address of the next hop in the virtual network 100 . The method 150 then moves to 160 where the virtual entrance device 110 encapsulates the FE frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) frame. Each SE frame, in turn, has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the FE frame.

As shown in FIG. 1C, the SE frame includes a Src MAC C field identifying the MAC address of the current device, in this example virtual entry device 110, and virtual network 100, virtual exit device 112 in this example. Has a Dist MAC H field that identifies the MAC address of the next hop in . The SE frame also includes a Dst vID field identifying the virtual port of the virtual entry device and a Src vID field identifying the corresponding virtual port on the virtual exit device.

Referring back to FIG. 1B , the method 150 next moves to 162 where the virtual entrance device 110 combines the SE frame with second encapsulated frames from other sources to form a single stream of SE frames. . For example, a single stream of SE frames may contain SE STB frames, SE PC frames and SE video frames in any order, sequentially, or randomly. Following this, the method 150 moves to 164 where the virtual entrance device 110 transmits the second encapsulated stream of frames over the communication channel 114 . When implemented with a fiber optic cable, channel 114 passes a single stream of SE frames at a single wavelength to virtual egress device 112 .

One of the advantages of the present invention is that frames can be forwarded over the virtual network 100 without reference to the MAC address of the remote router/switch. Another advantage of the present invention is that combining second encapsulated frames from multiple sources allows sources with lower frame rates to be output from the same physical port, effectively increasing the number of physical ports. .

The method 150 next moves to 166 where the virtual exit device 112 receives the second encapsulated sequence of frames and switchably separates the second encapsulated frame from the second encapsulated sequence of frames. The method 150 then moves to 168 where the virtual exit device 112 unpacks the second encapsulated frame to extract the first encapsulated frame, after which the virtual exit device 112 unpacks the first encapsulated frame. Move to 170 where the frame is unpacked to extract the original input frame. Following this, method 150 moves to 172 where virtual exit device 112 transmits the original input frame to a remote router/switch, in this example remote router/switch 122, identified in the header of the original input frame. move

Referring again to FIG. 1A , the virtual entry and exit devices 110 and 112 have static forwarding tables that are administratively assigned. Each frame, eg STB, PC, Video contains the MAC address of the remote router/switch. The identity of the virtual egress device 112 coupled to the remote router/switch can be administratively assigned and provided to the virtual ingress device 110, allowing hops obtained by frames through the virtual network 100 to be pre-assigned. .

2A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual entrance device 200 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2A , the virtual inlet device 200 includes a local physical port 210 , a framing circuit 212 coupled to the local physical port 210 , and a number of framing circuits coupled to the framing circuit 212 . Includes transmit virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan).

Each transmit virtual port (vPORTa), in turn, includes a transmit queue and transmit frame formatting circuitry. Virtual ingress device 200 also includes a transmit virtual switch 214 coupled to respective transmit virtual ports vPORTa and a network physical port 216 coupled to transmit virtual switch 214 .

3A shows a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 300 of operating a virtual entrance device 200 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3A , the method 300 begins at 310 with the framing circuit 212 receiving a series of input frames from the local physical port 210 . The method 300 next moves to 312 to examine the series of input frames to determine a frame type (e.g., STB, PC, video) for each input frame, then moves to 314 to determine the frame type. determine the virtual exit device associated with each input frame based on Each virtual exit device, in turn, has a number of receive virtual ports.

Following this, the method 300 moves to 316 where the framing circuit 212 encapsulates the series of input frames to form a plurality of first encapsulated (FE) frames. FE frames have headers that identify the virtual egress devices associated with the series of input frames.

The method 300 then moves to 318 where the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan) determine next hops in the virtual network for the FE frames based on the virtual egress devices in the headers of the FE frames. Next, the method 300 moves to 320 where the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan) encapsulate the FE frames to form second encapsulated (SE) frames. Each SE frame has a header that identifies the next hop of the SE frame based on the next hop of the FE frame. The header also identifies the receiving virtual port of the incoming frame's associated virtual egress device. Also, transmit virtual ports occupy a first portion of shared memory.

Subsequent to this, method 300 has transmit virtual switch 214 cycle through transmit virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan) and sequentially forward SE frames from each transmit virtual port (vPORTa) in a fixed repeating order such that the SE Move to 322 which outputs the sequence of frames. For example, virtual switch 214 can output a sequence of SE frames, where a first SE frame is from vPORT1, a second frame is from vPORT2, a third frame is from vPORT3, and 4 frames are again from vPORT1.

If the transmit virtual port (vPORTa) is empty or partially full, no frame is created. For example, when the transmission virtual port (vPORT2) is empty, the network physical port 216 outputs a frame sequence including frame 1, no frame, and frame 3. The method 300 next moves to 324 where the network physical port 216 transmits SE frames to the virtual network.

3B depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 350 of operating transmit circuit 200 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Method 350 is similar to method 300, as a result of which identical reference numbers are utilized to designate elements common to both methods.

As shown in FIG. 3B, method 350 first branches from method 300 at 352, where virtual switch 214 has a full signal from any of the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa). Determine if received or not. A full signal indicates that the SE frame in the transmit virtual port (vPORTa) is ready to be transmitted. When virtual switch 214 detects a pull signal from transmit virtual port (vPORTa), method 350 transfers an SE frame from transmit virtual port (vPORTa) on which virtual switch 214 outputs a pull signal to a network physical port. Go to 354 forwarding to (216).

For example, the virtual switch 214 may sequentially receive pull signals from a transmit virtual port vPORTa1 , a transmit virtual port vPORTa2 , and a transmit virtual port vPORTa3 . In this case, the virtual switch 214 outputs a sequence of SE frames, where the first SE frame is from the transmit virtual port (vPORT1), the second frame is from the transmit virtual port (vPORT2), and the third frame is from the transmit virtual port (vPORT2). is from the transmit virtual port (vPORT3).

Alternatively, one of the sources (e.g. STB, PC, video sources) has a much faster data rate than the data rates of the other sources (e.g. STB, PC, video source) , which in turn causes one transmit virtual port (vPORTa) to output a full signal much more frequently than other transmit virtual ports (vPORTa).

For example, the network physical port 216 transmits frames at a frame rate of 5 frames per second, and the transmit virtual port (vPORTa2) is 3X greater than the frame rate of each of the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa1 and vPORTa3). If it outputs frames at a fast rate, the transmit virtual port (vPORTa2) signals full three times before the other ports, and the transmit virtual port (vPORTa1) signals before vPORTa3 signals, the virtual switch 214 is 1st frame from port (vPORT2), 2nd frame from transmit virtual port (vPORT2), 3rd frame from transmit virtual port (vPORT2), 4th frame from transmit virtual port (vPORT1) and transmit virtual port ( Forward a sequence of frames including the fifth frame from vPORT3).

In addition to the first-in-first-out approach in which the order of receiving the full signal determines the order in which the SE frames are output from the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa) by the virtual switch 214, the transmit virtual ports (vPORTa-vPORTan) may alternatively, frame may include a priority scheme that allows for forwarding of arbitrary amounts and in arbitrary order from the transmission virtual port (vPORTa) to the network physical port.

Referring again to FIG. 3B , after the virtual switch 214 forwards the SE frame from the transmit virtual port (vPORTa) outputting the full signal to the network physical port 216, the method 350 performs a method 350 on the network physical port 216. ) moves to 356 transmitting the SE frame. In method 300, the frame to be output is predictable, whereas the frame to be output in method 350 is not predictable, even though the priority scheme provides a level of predictability.

Referring again to the example of FIG. 2A , the framing circuit 212 includes a virtual switch 220 and a framer 222 coupled to the virtual switch 220 . The virtual switch 220 detects the type of input frame (e.g., STB, PC, video), determines a route from the static forwarding table for the frame to a virtual port (vPORTa) corresponding to the type of frame, and The frame is output to the port (vPORTa).

In this example, virtual switch 220 receives an STB frame transmitted by a local source router/switch, such as router/switch 120, and the received frame is an STB from the source and/or destination MAC addresses in the STB frame. Detect that it is a frame. The switch 220 then outputs the STB frame on the first virtual port line P1 routed towards the virtual port vPORTa1 preselected to receive the STB frames.

Similarly, virtual switch 220 receives a PC frame transmitted by the local source router/switch and detects, from the source and/or destination MAC addresses in the PC frame, that the received frame is a PC frame. The switch 220 then outputs the PC frame on the second virtual port line P2 routed towards the preselected virtual port vPORTa2 to receive the PC frames.

Virtual switch 220 also receives video frames transmitted by the local router/switch, detects that the received frame is a video frame from a source and/or destination MAC address within the video frame, and then receives the video frames. The video frame is output on the third virtual port line P3 routed toward the virtual port vPORTa3 previously selected to

Framer 222 receives the STB frame on virtual port line P1, encapsulates the STB frame to form a first encapsulated (FE) STB frame, and then sends the FE STB frame to the transmit queue of virtual port vPORTa1. forwarding Similarly, the framer 222 receives a PC frame on virtual port line P2, encapsulates the PC frame to form a first encapsulated (FE) PC frame, and then transfers the FE PC frame to the virtual port (vPORTa2). ) forward to the send queue. Framer 222 also receives a video frame on virtual port line P3, encapsulates the video frame to form a first encapsulated (FE) video frame, and then transmits the FE video frame on virtual port vPORTa3. forward to queue

Framer 222 may utilize a conventional protocol such as a provider backbone bridge-traffic engineering (PBB-TE) protocol or a transport multiprotocol label switching (T-MPLS) protocol to create encapsulated frames. In addition, the FE STB frame, FE PC frame and FE video frame each have a header with a number of fields containing the identification of the virtual egress device.

For example, the header of the FE frame may include an egress address field for the virtual egress device's MAC address, an I-tag field, or similar field. The header may also include other fields such as the MAC address of the virtual ingress device. In this example, the virtual exit device's MAC address is administratively provided to the virtual entry device.

The frame formatting circuit at the virtual port (vPORTa1) of the transmitting circuit 200 receives the FE STB frame, and based on the identification of the virtual egress device, such as the MAC address of the virtual egress device in the header of the FE STB frame, static forwarding Determine the next hop in the virtual network for the FE STB frame from the table, and encapsulate the FE STB frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) STB frame.

Similarly, the frame formatting circuitry at the virtual port (vPORTa2) of the transmitting circuitry 200 receives the FE PC frame and based on the identification of the virtual exit device, such as the MAC address of the virtual exit device in the header of the FE PC frame. , to determine the next hop in the virtual network for the FE PC frame from the static forwarding table, and to encapsulate the FE PC frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) PC frame.

In addition, the frame formatting circuit at the virtual port (vPORTa3) of the transmitting circuit 200 receives the FE video frame, and based on the identification of the virtual exit device, such as the MAC address of the virtual exit device in the header of the FE video frame, A next hop in the virtual network for the FE video frame is determined from the static forwarding table, and the FE video frame is encapsulated to form a second encapsulated (SE) video frame.

SE STB frames, SE PC frames, and SE video frames each contain a Next Hop field that identifies the MAC address of the next hop in the virtual network, a Source field (Src_vID) that identifies the virtual port number of the virtual ingress device, and a virtual port number of the virtual ingress device. It includes a header with a destination field (Dst_vID) identifying the virtual port number of the virtual egress device corresponding to the port number. In this example, the source field (Src_vID) for the SE STB frame is the virtual port (vPORTa1). Other fields may also be included, such as a last hop field.

In addition, the virtual switch 214 cycles through the virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan) and sequentially forwards the second encapsulated (SE) frame from each virtual port (vPORTa) to send a series of SE frames to the physical port ( 216) is output. In this example, the switch 214 forwards the SE STB frame from the virtual port (vPORTa1) to the physical port 216, then forwards the SE PC frame from the virtual port (vPORTa2) to the physical port 216, then the SE Video frames are forwarded from the virtual port (vPORTa3) to the physical port 216, and then SE STB frames are forwarded from the virtual port (vPORTa1) to the physical port 216, successively in the same manner, the physical port 216 print the frames Although FIG. 2 shows transmit circuit 200 as operating by receiving input from a single local router/switch, transmit circuit 200 alternatively operates by receiving input from multiple routers/switches. can do.

2B shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 250 according to the present invention. Transmit circuit 250 is similar to transmit circuit 200, and as a result, the same reference numbers are utilized to designate elements common to both transmit circuit 200 and transmit circuit 250.

As shown in FIG. 2B , transmit circuitry 250 includes a first network physical port 216A and a second network physical port 216B, both of which transmit circuitry 250 is coupled with a virtual switch 214 . It is different from the transmitting circuit 200 in that it does. Also, the virtual switch 214 provides a continuous connection between the transmit virtual port vPORTa1 and the network physical port 216A. Additionally, an additional transmit virtual port (vPORTa4) is shown.

Transmit circuitry 250 transmits circuitry except that one or more sources (e.g., STB, PC or video source) output frames of data at a frame rate greater than the maximum frame rate of network physical ports 216A and 216B. It works much the same as (200). For example, network physical ports 216A and 216B may each have a maximum frame rate of 5 frames per second.

In the example of FIG. 2B , the set-top box outputs 7 STB frames per second, while the personal computer outputs 2 PC frames per second, and the video device outputs one video frame per second. (The numbers mentioned are for illustration only. As shown in FIG. 2B, five of the seven STB frames are transmitted from the network physical port 216A, while the remaining two STB frames, two PC frames and one A video frame is transmitted from network physical port 216B in the manner indicated by methods 300 and 350 . One of the advantages of transmit circuitry 250 is that transmit circuitry 250 can tolerate incoming frame rates greater than the maximum frame rate of network physical ports.

4 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Transmit circuit 400 is similar to transmit circuit 200, and consequently, identical reference numbers are utilized to designate structures common to both circuits.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the transmission circuit 400 allows the framing circuit 212 of the transmission circuit 400 to use the virtual ports (vPORTa1-vPORTan) instead of the virtual switch 220 followed by the framer 222. It differs from transmit circuitry 200 in that it utilizes a serial-to-serial framer 410 that follows a serial-to-parallel virtual switch 412 coupled to .

In a further alternative embodiment, framer 410 and virtual switch 412 of transmit circuit 400 may be physically separate, with framer 410 incorporated into the local router/switch.

5 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 500 according to the present invention. Transmit circuit 500 is similar to transmit circuit 400, and as a result, identical reference numbers are utilized to designate structures common to both circuit 400 and circuit 500. As shown in the example shown in FIG. 5 , a local framer router/switch 510 is utilized with transmit circuitry 500 instead of the STB, PC and local router/switch that receives and outputs video frames.

6 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual exit device 600 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6 , the virtual egress device 600 includes a network physical port 610 and a receiving virtual switch 612 coupled to the network physical port 610 . Virtual egress device 600 also includes a number of receive virtual ports vPORTb1 - vPORTbn coupled to switch 612 . Each receive virtual port (vPORTb), in turn, includes a receive queue and receive frame formatting circuitry. The virtual egress device 600 further includes a de-framing circuit 614 coupled to each of the receive virtual ports vPORTb and a local physical port 616 coupled to the de-framing circuit 614. .

7 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method 700 of operating a virtual exit device 600 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7 , the method 700 begins at 710 where a network physical port 610 receives second encapsulated (SE) frames from a virtual network. SE frames have headers containing next hop addresses and receiving virtual port identifiers.

Next, the method 700 moves to 712 where the network physical port 610 examines the SE frames to determine next hop addresses and compares the next hop addresses to the stored addresses. The method 700 then moves to 714 where the network physical port 610 forwards SE frames with matching next hop addresses as matching encapsulated (ME) frames. In addition, the port 610 drops the received SE frame when the identity of the next hop address does not match the stored address.

The method 700 then moves to 716 where the receive virtual switch 612 switchably passes ME frames based on the receive virtual port identifiers in the headers of the ME frames. Method 700 then unpacks the switchably passed ME frames so that each receive virtual port (vPORTb) unpacks the ME frame to extract the first encapsulated frame. Move to 718 to pack and extract first encapsulated frames from switchably passed ME frames.

Following this, the method 700 moves to 720 where the deframing circuit 614 unpacks the first encapsulated frames to extract the original STB, PC and video input frames from the first encapsulated frames. The original STB, PC and video input frames have multiple frame types. Additionally, each incoming frame has a header identifying the destination router/switch. Method 700 then transfers the STB, PC and video frames to local physical port 616 where deframing circuitry 614 outputs the original STB, PC and video frames to a remote router/switch such as remote router/switch 122. Move to 722 forwarding video frames.

In this example, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME STB frame from the network physical port 610, and the destination virtual port is the virtual port (vPORTb1) from the destination virtual port number (Dst_vID) in the header of the ME STB frame. decide that In addition, the switch 612 determines a route to the virtual port (vPORTb1) from the static forwarding table, and then outputs the ME STB frame on the first virtual port line routed towards the virtual port (vPORTb1).

Similarly, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME PC frame from the network physical port 610, and the destination virtual port is the virtual port (vPORTb2) from the destination virtual port number (Dst_vID) in the header of the ME PC frame. decide that In addition, the switch 612 determines a route from the static forwarding table to the virtual port (vPORTb2), and then outputs the ME PC frame on the second virtual port line routed towards the virtual port (vPORTb2).

In addition, the virtual switch 612 receives the ME video frame from the network physical port 610, and determines that the destination virtual port is the virtual port (vPORTb3) from the destination virtual port number (Dst_vID) in the header of the ME video frame. do. The switch 612 determines a route from the static forwarding table to the virtual port (vPORTb3), and then outputs the ME video frame on the third virtual port line routed towards the virtual port (vPORTb3).

Virtual ports (vPORTb1-vPORTbn) receive ME frames, unpack ME frames to extract FE frames such as FE STB frame, FE PC frame and FE video frame from ME frames. In the example of FIG. 6 , the receive queue of the first virtual port (vPORTb1) receives the ME STB frame, while the frame formatting circuitry of the virtual port (vPORTb1) unpacks the ME STB frame to include the identity of the virtual egress device. FE STB frame with header is extracted.

Similarly, the receive queue of the second virtual port (vPORTb2) receives the ME PC frame, while the frame formatting circuitry of the virtual port (vPORTb2) unpacks the ME PC frame to generate a header containing the identity of the virtual egress device. extracts a fourth encapsulated PC frame having In addition, the receive queue of the third virtual port (vPORTb3) receives the ME video frame, while the frame formatting circuit of the virtual port (vPORTb3) unpacks the ME video frame to the first with a header containing the identity of the virtual egress device. 4 Extract encapsulated video frames.

The deframing circuit 614 receives a plurality of FE frames and extracts the original STB, PC and video input frames from the FE frames. Input frames have multiple frame types, eg STB, PC, video. Each incoming frame has a header containing the identity of the remote router/switch. For each received FE frame, deframing circuitry 614 unpacks the FE frame to extract the input frame, determines the identity of the remote router/switch from the header of the input frame, and remote router/switch 122 Outputs the input frame to the local physical port 616, which outputs the input frame to a remote router/switch such as

As shown in FIG. 6 , the deframing circuit 614 includes a deframer 620 and a virtual switch 622 coupled to the deframer 620 . In operation, the deframer 620 receives FE frames from a plurality of receive virtual ports (vPORTb1-vPORTbn) and unpacks the FE frames to obtain original input frames, e.g., STB frame, PC frame and Extract video frames and forward STB frames, PC frames and video frames to virtual switch 622.

In the example of FIG. 6 , the deframer 620 receives the FE STB frame from the receive virtual port vPORTb1, extracts the STB frame by unpacking the FE frame, and forwards the STB frame to the virtual switch 622. Similarly, the deframer 620 receives the FE PC frame from the receive virtual port vPORTb2, extracts the PC frame by unpacking the FE frame, and forwards the PC frame to the virtual switch 622. In addition, the deframer 620 receives the FE video frame from the receive virtual port (vPORTb3), extracts the video frame by unpacking the FE frame, and forwards the video frame to the virtual switch 622. The deframer 620 may utilize the same or a different protocol than the framer 222 .

The virtual switch 622 cycles through the outputs of the deframer 620 to sequentially receive and forward the output frames to the local physical port 616. In this example, virtual switch 622 receives the STB frame from deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the remote router/switch, and outputs the STB frame to local physical port 616. Similarly, the virtual switch 622 receives the PC frame from the deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the remote router/switch, and outputs the PC frame to the local physical port 616. In addition, the virtual switch 622 receives video frames from the deframer 620, detects the MAC address of the remote router/switch, and outputs the video frames to the local physical port 616. The local physical port 616, in turn, outputs frames to the remote router/switch.

The example of FIG. 6 shows a deframing circuit 614 with a parallel-to-parallel deframer 620 followed by a parallel-to-serial virtual switch 622 . The deframing circuit 614 may alternatively be realized with other circuit arrangements. For example, the deframing circuit 614 can be implemented as a serial-to-parallel virtual switch where a serial-to-serial framer is coupled to the subsequent virtual ports (vPORTb1-vPORTbn).

8 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual exit device 800 according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Virtual exit device 800 is similar to virtual exit device 600, as a result of which identical reference numbers are utilized to designate structures common to both devices.

As shown in FIG. 8 , the virtual exit device 800 couples the framing circuit 614 of the virtual exit device 800 to the virtual ports (vPORTb1-vPORTbn) followed by the serial-to-serial deframer 812. It differs from the virtual exit device 600 in that it includes a parallel-serial virtual switch 810. Implementations of the framing circuit 212 and the deframing circuit 614 may be interchanged. For example, virtual entry device 110 can utilize virtual switch 220 and framing circuitry 212 implemented with framer 222, while virtual exit device can utilize deframing circuitry 614 virtual switch 810 and a deframer 812 may be utilized.

In a further alternative embodiment, virtual switch 810 and deframer 812 may be physically separate, and deframer 812 may be merged into a local router/switch.

9 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 900 according to the present invention. Receive circuit 900 is similar to receive circuit 800, and as a result, identical reference numbers are utilized to designate structures common to both circuit 800 and circuit 900. As shown in the example shown in FIG. 9 , a local deframer router/switch 910 is utilized instead of a local router switch in receiving circuit 900 .

In addition to sending frames of data over the virtual network, hops across the virtual network can be tested by generating test SE frames. The transmit virtual port (vPORTa) determines the next hop in the virtual network for the virtual egress device terminating the link under test. Following this, the transmit virtual port (vPORTa) generates a test SE frame with a header identifying the frame as a test frame and a virtual egress device terminating the link to be tested.

Virtual switch 214 passes the test SE frame to the network physical port in the manners described above for transmitting the test SE frame. The test SE frame arrives at the virtual egress device in the manner described above, where the receiving virtual port (vPORTb) unpacks the test SE frame in the manner described above to extract the information to be tested. The receiving virtual port (vPORTb) can then determine the frame latency, frame loss rate and live/shutdown status from the test SE frames, which in turn determines the quality of service (QoS) measure. can be used to make decisions.

Reference has now been made in detail to various embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. While described with various embodiments, it will be understood that these various embodiments are not intended to limit the present disclosure. On the contrary, this disclosure is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents that may be included within the scope of this disclosure as interpreted in accordance with the claims.

Furthermore, in the foregoing detailed description of various embodiments of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details or equivalents thereof. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Note that although a method may be depicted herein as a sequence of numbered operations for clarity, the numbering does not necessarily dictate the order of the operations. It should be appreciated that some of the operations may be skipped, performed in parallel, or performed without the need to maintain a strict order in sequence.

The drawings depicting various embodiments according to the present disclosure are semi-diagrammatic and not to scale, in particular, some of the dimensions are for clarity of presentation and are shown exaggerated in the drawings. Similarly, although the illustrations in the drawings generally show similar aspects for ease of explanation, such depiction in the drawings is largely arbitrary. In general, various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure may be operated in any aspect.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions are presented in terms of procedures, logical blocks, processes, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the data processing arts to effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

In this disclosure, a procedure, logical block, process, etc. is conceived as being a self-consistent sequence of actions or instructions that results in a desired result. Operations are those that utilize physical manipulations on physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computing system. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as transactions, bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, samples, pixels, or the like.

However, it should be borne in mind that all these and like terms are merely convenient labels associated with and applied to appropriate physical quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, as will be apparent from the discussions that follow, throughout this disclosure the terms “generating,” “determining,” “assigning,” “aggregating,” “utilizing” Discussions utilizing terms such as "utilizing", "virtualizing", "processing", "accessing", "executing", "storing", etc. or similar electronic computing device or processor operations and processes.

A computing system, or similar electronic computing device or processor, transfers data, represented as physical (electronic) quantities in computer system memories, registers, other such information storage, and/or other computer readable media, to computer system memories. or other data similarly represented as physical quantities in registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application have been clearly and completely described in the previous sections with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present application. It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", etc. in the description and claims of the present invention and in the drawings above are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a specific sequence or order. do. It should be understood that these numbers may be interchanged where appropriate so that the embodiments of the invention described herein may be implemented in a different order than depicted or described herein.

The functions described in the method of this embodiment may be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and stored in a computing device readable storage medium when sold or used as a stand-alone product. Based on this understanding, some of the embodiments of the present application or some of the technical solutions contributing to the prior art allow a computing device (which may be a personal computer, server, mobile computing device or network device, etc.) to implement various implementations of the present application. It may be implemented in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including a plurality of instructions for performing all or part of the steps of the methods described in the examples. The aforementioned storage medium includes a USB drive capable of storing program codes, a portable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and the like. do.

Various embodiments in the specification of the present application are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same or similar parts between various embodiments may be referred to in different cases. there is. The described embodiments are only some of the embodiments and not all of the embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments obtained by a person skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present application without departing from the inventive ability fall within the scope of the present application.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments enables a person skilled in the art to make or use the present application. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the essence or scope of the present application. Thus, this application is not limited to the embodiments shown herein, but has the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (20)

As a virtual network,
virtual entrance device;
a virtual egress device to be coupled to a remote router/switch; and
a communication channel coupled to the virtual entry device and the virtual exit device;
The virtual entrance device,
receive an input frame having a header identifying the remote router/switch, the input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
determine the virtual egress device from the identity of the remote router/switch;
encapsulating the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame, the first encapsulated frame having a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame;
determine a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device;
encapsulating the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame, the second encapsulated frame having a field identifying a next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame;
combining the second encapsulated frame with second encapsulated frames from other sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames;
A virtual network transmitting the second encapsulated sequence of frames. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual exit device,
receive the second encapsulated sequence of frames;
and separating the second encapsulated frame from the sequence of second encapsulated frames. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the virtual exit device further comprises:
extracting the first encapsulated frame by unpacking the second encapsulated frame;
Extracting the input frame by unpacking the first encapsulated frame;
A virtual network that transmits the incoming frame to the remote router/switch. According to claim 3,
the virtual entrance device generates a test frame having a header identifying a virtual exit device under test and transmits the test frame to the virtual exit device under test;
wherein the virtual egress device receives the test frame, unpacks the test frame, and determines one or more health measures from the unpacked test frame. 4. The virtual network of claim 3, wherein the communication channel comprises a fiber optic cable passing the plurality of packed data frames as a single data stream at a single wavelength. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the virtual ingress device uses a provider backbone bridge-traffic engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a transfer multiprotocol listing switch (T-MPLS) protocol. A virtual network that encapsulates the input frame with a protocol from a group of protocols comprising: As a method of operating a virtual network,
receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch, the input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
determining a virtual egress device from the identity of the remote router/switch;
encapsulating the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame, the first encapsulated frame having a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame;
determining a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device;
encapsulating the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame, the second encapsulated frame having a field identifying a next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame;
combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from the plurality of sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames; and
and transmitting the second encapsulated sequence of frames. According to claim 7,
receiving the second encapsulated sequence of frames; and
The method further comprising separating the second encapsulated frame from the sequence of second encapsulated frames. According to claim 8,
extracting the first encapsulated frame by unpacking the second encapsulated frame;
extracting the input frame by unpacking the first encapsulated frame; and
and sending the incoming frame to the remote router/switch identified in the headers of the incoming frame. According to claim 8,
generating a test frame having a header identifying the virtual exit device under test and transmitting the test frame to the virtual exit device under test; and
The method further comprising receiving the test frame, unpacking the test frame, and determining one or more state measures from the unpacked test frame. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising passing the second sequence of encapsulated frames from the virtual entry device to the virtual exit device, the second sequence of encapsulated frames at a single wavelength in a fiber optic cable. A method that is passed as a single data stream. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second sequence of encapsulated frames includes a first frame comprising an input frame originating from a first source, a second frame comprising an input frame originating from a second source, and originating from a third source. A method comprising a third frame comprising an input frame to 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the input frame is encapsulated with a protocol from a group of protocols comprising a Provider Backbone Bridge-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transport Multiprotocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol. As a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embedded therein,
The program instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method of operating a virtual network, the method comprising:
receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch, the input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
determining a virtual egress device from the identity of the remote router/switch;
encapsulating the input frame to form a first encapsulated frame, the first encapsulated frame having a field identifying the virtual exit device and a field containing the input frame;
determining a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device;
encapsulating the first encapsulated frame to form a second encapsulated frame, the second encapsulated frame having a field identifying a next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame;
combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from the plurality of sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames; and
and transmitting the second encapsulated sequence of frames. According to claim 14,
receiving the second encapsulated sequence of frames; and
The medium further comprising separating the second encapsulated frame from the sequence of second encapsulated frames. According to claim 15,
extracting the first encapsulated frame by unpacking the second encapsulated frame;
extracting the input frame by unpacking the first encapsulated frame; and
and transmitting the input frame to the remote router/switch identified in the headers of the input frame. According to claim 16,
generating a test frame having a header identifying the virtual exit device under test and transmitting the test frame to the virtual exit device under test; and
The medium further comprising receiving the test frame, unpacking the test frame, and determining one or more state measures from the unpacked test frame. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the method passes the second encapsulated sequence of frames from the virtual entry device to the virtual exit device - the second encapsulated sequence of frames as a single data stream at a single wavelength in a fiber optic cable. Passed - Medium further comprising the step of doing. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second sequence of encapsulated frames includes a first frame comprising an input frame originating from a first source, a second frame comprising an input frame originating from a second source, and originating from a third source. A medium comprising a third frame comprising an input frame of 15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the input frame is encapsulated with a protocol from a group of protocols comprising a Provider Backbone Bridge-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and a Transport Multiprotocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol.

Images