CN107104837B

CN107104837B - Method and control device for path detection

Info

Publication number: CN107104837B
Application number: CN201710321612.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱明明; 于德雷
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-05-09
Filing date: 2017-05-09
Publication date: 2020-02-14
Anticipated expiration: 2037-05-09
Also published as: CN107104837A

Abstract

The application provides a method and a control device for path detection, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that control equipment detects a first physical path to determine path state information of the first physical path, wherein the first physical path is an overlapped physical path among M physical paths, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; the control equipment determines the path states of N virtual paths borne on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path, wherein N is more than or equal to 2, so that the expenditure and the waste of resources used in the detection process can be reduced.

Description

Method and control device for path detection

Technical Field

The present application relates to field communications, and more particularly, to a method and control device of path detection.

Background

At present, a network virtualization technology is known, that is, a plurality of logically isolated virtual networks are created on the same physical network through abstraction, isolation, resource allocation and other processes, or a plurality of virtual networks are simultaneously operated on the same physical network, and different virtual networks respectively operate mutually independent protocols, so as to provide various differentiated service supports for different users. In the virtualized environment, the requirements of different users on dynamic change are met by reasonably distributing node resources and link resources in a physical network, and meanwhile, the management and control of network resources are realized, the network maintenance and operation cost is reduced, and the network security is improved.

The virtual network is composed of virtual paths, and a virtual path may refer to a virtual transmission path including a plurality of virtual nodes. A physical network consists of physical paths, which may refer to physical transmission paths that include multiple physical nodes. In the network virtualization technology, for example, fault detection or delay detection needs to be performed on a virtual path, that is, in the prior art, a physical path to be detected corresponding to the virtual path to be detected is determined, and then, the physical path to be detected (specifically, each physical link in the physical path) can be detected, and a detection result is used as a detection result of the virtual path to be detected.

In the network virtualization technology, a plurality of virtual nodes may be simultaneously operated on one physical node in a physical network, and thus, different virtual paths may correspond to the same segment of physical link.

In this case, since the detection is targeted for the virtual path, when the plurality of virtual paths correspond to the same physical link, each of the plurality of virtual paths needs to be detected, that is, the same physical link needs to be detected a plurality of times, which results in waste of resources (e.g., processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources, and the like) used in the detection process.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a path detection method, which can reduce the cost and waste of resources (such as processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources and the like) used in the detection process.

In a first aspect, a method for path detection is provided, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that control equipment detects a first physical path to determine path state information of the first physical path, wherein the first physical path is a path overlapped among M physical paths, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; the control device determines path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

According to the path detection method of the embodiment of the present invention, a first physical path is detected to obtain path state information of the first physical path, and M physical paths are determined according to the first physical path, wherein each physical path of the M physical paths includes the first physical path, or the first physical path is a path overlapping (or identical) among the M physical paths, and N virtual paths are determined according to the M physical paths, wherein the N virtual paths are carried by the M physical paths, and further, according to the path state information of the first physical path, the path states of the N virtual paths are determined, so that the path states of a plurality of virtual paths can be determined based on one detection, multiple detections on one physical path carrying a plurality of virtual paths are avoided, and further, overhead and waste of resources (e.g., processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources, etc.) used in the detection process can be reduced.

Optionally, before the control device detects the first physical path, the method further includes: the control equipment receives K detection requests, wherein the K detection requests correspond to K virtual paths in the N virtual paths in a one-to-one mode, a first detection request corresponding to a first virtual path is used for requesting the control equipment to detect the first virtual path, the first virtual path is any one of the K first virtual paths, K is a positive integer larger than or equal to 2, and K is a positive integer smaller than or equal to N; the control equipment determines K physical paths according to the K detection requests, wherein the K physical paths correspond to the K virtual paths one by one; the control device takes a path overlapping among the K physical paths as the first physical path.

According to the path detection method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the first physical path is determined based on the K detection requests, so that the triggering process of the detection of the virtual path in the prior art can be compatible, the N virtual paths can be ensured to comprise the K virtual paths corresponding to the K detection requests, and the practicability of the path detection method provided by the embodiment of the invention can be further improved.

Optionally, the determining, by the control device, the path states of the N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path includes: and the control equipment determines the path states of the K virtual paths according to the path state information of the first physical path.

By using the K virtual paths corresponding to the K detection requests as N virtual paths, the processing load of the control device can be reduced, and the detection efficiency of the path detection can be improved.

Optionally, the detecting, by the control device, the first physical path includes: the control device performs path detection only once on the first physical path according to the K detection requests

According to the path detection method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the detection process is triggered only according to one detection request, and the situation that the same physical path is detected for multiple times can be easily avoided.

The method further comprises the following steps: the control device sends K detection responses, the K detection responses are in one-to-one correspondence with the K detection requests, and a first detection response corresponding to the first virtual path is used for indicating the path state of the first virtual path.

Therefore, the processing flow after the path detection in the prior art can be compatible, and the practicability of the path detection method in the embodiment of the invention can be further improved.

Optionally, before the control device detects the first physical path, the method further includes: the control equipment receives T detection requests, the T detection requests correspond to T virtual paths one by one, a second detection request corresponding to a second virtual path is used for requesting the control equipment to detect the second virtual path, the second virtual path is any one of the T virtual paths, and T is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; the control device determines Q physical paths according to the T virtual paths, where each physical path in the Q physical paths carries at least one virtual path in the T virtual paths, Q is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, and the Q physical paths include at least one physical path in the M physical paths; the control device groups the Q physical paths to determine P physical path groups, wherein each physical path group comprises at least two physical paths, each physical path group corresponds to at least one shared physical path, the shared physical path corresponding to a first physical path group is a physical path overlapped between physical paths in the first physical path group, the first physical path group is any one of the P physical path groups, P is a positive integer 1 greater than or equal to 1, the first physical path is a shared physical path corresponding to a second physical path group in the P physical path groups, and the second physical path group is a physical path group to which the M physical paths belong.

By grouping the physical paths corresponding to the plurality of detection requests, at least one shared physical path can be corresponding to each physical path group, so that the control device can determine the path state of each physical path in the physical path group corresponding to one shared physical path according to the detection result of the shared path, and the path detection effect of the embodiment of the invention can be further improved.

Optionally, the performing, by the control device, path detection on the first physical path includes: the control device performs path detection separately and only once for each common physical path including the first physical path.

Thus, duplicate detection of common physical paths within one physical path group can be avoided.

Optionally, the determining, by the control device, the path states of the N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path includes: the control equipment determines the second physical path group from the P physical path groups according to the first physical path; and the control equipment determines the path state of the virtual path corresponding to each physical path in the second physical path group according to the path state information of the first physical path.

According to the path detection method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the physical links in each physical path group have the same shared physical path by grouping the physical links to be detected, so that after the path state information of one shared physical path is determined, the state of each physical link (or virtual path carried on each physical link) in the physical path group corresponding to the shared physical path can be determined according to the path state information of the shared physical path, and thus, the efficiency and the practicability of the path detection method provided by the embodiment of the invention can be further improved.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the control device sends N detection responses, wherein the N detection responses are in one-to-one correspondence with the N virtual paths, and each detection response indicates the path state of the corresponding virtual path.

Optionally, the path state information of the first physical path is used to indicate whether the first physical path fails, and/or the path state information of the first physical path is used to indicate a transmission delay of the first physical path.

Therefore, the method for detecting the path of the embodiment of the invention can be realized in the process of fault processing or time delay determination, and the practicability of the method for detecting the path of the embodiment of the invention can be further improved.

Optionally, the detecting, by the control device, the first physical path includes: the control equipment performs operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) detection on the first physical path.

By adopting the OAM detection processing mode as the specific implementation mode of the path detection, the path detection process of the embodiment of the present invention can be easily implemented, and the processing in the prior art can be compatible, thereby further improving the practicability of the path detection method of the embodiment of the present invention.

In a second aspect, a control device is provided, which includes means for performing the steps of the method for path detection in the first aspect and the implementations of the first aspect.

In a third aspect, a control device is provided, which has a function of implementing the behavior of the control device in the above method. The function can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In a fourth aspect, a control device is provided, the control device having a structure including a processor. The processor is configured to support the control device to execute corresponding functions in the above method, for example, detect the first physical path, and determine path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path. In one possible design, the control device may further include a transceiver for enabling the control device to receive or transmit information, for example, to transmit a detection request and/or a detection response in the above-described method. In one possible design, the control device may further include a memory for coupling with the processor for storing program instructions and data necessary for the control device.

Alternatively, the control device comprises a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for calling and running the computer program from the memory, so that the path detection device performs the method of path detection in any of the first aspect and its various implementations.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run by a processing unit, a communication unit or a processor, a transceiver of a control device, causes the control device to perform the method of path detection of the first aspect described above and any of its various implementations.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a control apparatus to execute the method for path detection of the first aspect and any one of its various implementations.

Alternatively, the computer-readable storage medium is used for storing computer software instructions for the control device, which includes a program designed to execute the above aspects

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising at least two physical nodes; a control device for executing the method for path detection in the first aspect and the implementations of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor, configured to support a control device to implement the functions recited in the foregoing aspects, for example, detect a first physical path, and determine, according to path state information of the first physical path, path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the control device. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In contrast to the prior art, the present application describes a method and a control device for path detection, which aim to reduce the overhead and waste of resources (e.g., processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources, etc.) used in the detection process.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a system using the method and apparatus for path detection according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the relationship of physical links and virtual paths.

Fig. 3 is a schematic interaction diagram of a method of path detection of an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method of path detection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a control apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic configuration of an example of the control apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The method for detecting the path provided by the embodiment of the invention can be applied to a computer, and the computer comprises a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer and an application layer running on the operating system layer.

The hardware layer includes hardware such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Memory Management Unit (MMU), and a Memory (also referred to as a main Memory).

The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system.

The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address list, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the computer may be a handheld device such as a smartphone, a terminal device such as a personal computer, or a server, and the embodiment of the present invention is not particularly limited as long as the state of the virtual path can be determined by the method of path detection according to the embodiment of the present invention by running a program in which a code of the method of controlling network slicing according to the embodiment of the present invention is recorded. Among them, a server, also called a server, is a device that provides computing services. Since the server needs to respond to and process the service request, the server generally has the capability of assuming and securing the service. The server is constructed to include a processor, a hard disk, a memory, a system bus, etc., similar to a general-purpose computer architecture, but requires high processing power, stability, reliability, security, scalability, manageability, etc., due to the need to provide highly reliable services.

The execution subject of the path detection in the embodiment of the present invention may be a computer device, or a functional module capable of calling a program and executing the program in the computer device.

Moreover, various aspects or features of embodiments of the invention may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk (CD), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash Memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), card, stick, or key drive, etc.).

In addition, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

First, the architecture of a system using the method and apparatus for path detection according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a communication system 100 to which the method and apparatus for path detection according to the embodiment of the present invention can be applied, and as shown in fig. 2, the communication system 100 includes:

a control device 110;

at least two physical nodes 120.

The control device 110 is communicatively connected to each of the at least one physical node 120, i.e. the control device 110 is capable of message, information or data transfer with each physical node 120.

For example, the control device 110 can communicate with each physical node 120 over a control channel.

By way of example and not limitation, the control channel described above may be a channel based on a control channel protocol. The control channel Protocol may be an open flow (OpenFlow) Protocol, a Path computing communication Protocol (PCEP), a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a Routing System Interface (I2 RS), or the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present invention, the physical node may be a communication device such as a repeater or a router.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the communication system 100 includes at least two physical nodes 120 capable of forming at least two physical paths, wherein each physical path includes at least two physical nodes.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, each physical node included in the communication system 100 may be capable of forming a plurality of physical paths, each physical path may include at least two physical nodes, and a physical link connecting two adjacent physical nodes.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, one physical path may include one or more physical links, where one physical link may include two physical nodes and a connection line between the two physical nodes, and a physical node in one physical link may be part or all of a physical node in the physical path to which the physical node belongs. When a physical node in one physical link is part of a physical path to which it belongs, the physical path is composed of a plurality (or pieces) of physical links; when the physical nodes in a physical link are all of the physical paths to which the physical nodes belong, the physical path is composed of one (or more) physical links, and in this case, the physical path may also be referred to as a physical link.

Alternatively, in the embodiment of the present invention, one physical path may be divided into a plurality of sub-paths, or one physical path may be formed by a plurality of sub-paths.

For example, as shown in fig. 1 or fig. 4, a physical path made up of physical node # a, physical node # B, physical node # C, and physical node # D is referred to as: physical path # X, for example, the physical path (or physical link) formed by the physical node # a and the physical node # B may be a sub-path in the physical path # X, or the physical path formed by the physical node # a and the physical node # B belongs to the physical path # X.

For another example, the physical path formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, and the physical node # C may be a sub-path of the physical path # X, or the physical path formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, and the physical node # C belongs to the physical path # X.

For another example, the physical path formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, the physical node # C, and the physical node # D may be a sub-path of the physical path # X, or the physical path formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, the physical node # C, and the physical node # D belongs to the physical path # X.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, as for the physical path # Y included in the physical path # X, or the physical path # Y may be a sub-path of the physical path # X, the physical nodes included in the physical path # Y are some or all of the physical nodes included in the physical path # X.

The connection relationship (or positional relationship or up-down hop relationship) of the physical node included in the physical path # Y on the path of the physical path # Y is the same as the connection relationship of the physical node included in the physical path # Y on the path of the physical path # X.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of virtual paths are carried on at least two physical nodes 120 (or at least two physical paths that can be formed by at least two physical nodes 120). Wherein each virtual path comprises at least two virtual nodes.

Here, the virtual path may also be referred to as a network slice or a virtual network slice.

Alternatively, a virtual path may be a portion or all of a virtual network (or network slice).

The process of creating and maintaining each virtual path (or network slice) may be similar to that in the prior art, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted to avoid redundancy.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the virtual path is carried on physical node(s) 120.

In other words, one physical node 120 has virtual node(s) (or virtual forwarders) running thereon for virtual path(s).

Moreover, in the embodiment of the present invention, each virtual path may be carried in a part or all of the at least one physical node 120. In addition, the physical nodes carried by any two virtual paths may be completely the same, may also be partially the same, and may also be completely different, and the present invention is not particularly limited.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the same physical node 120 may carry multiple virtual paths. That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, one or more virtual nodes (or virtual repeaters) included in each of the multiple virtual paths may run on the same physical node 120.

For example, as shown in fig. 1, the virtual path #1 includes a virtual node # b and a virtual node # c. The virtual path #2 includes a virtual node # f and a virtual node # g. Also, as shown in fig. 1, in the physical network, the virtual node # b and the virtual node # f are carried (or operated) on the physical node # a, and the virtual node # b and the virtual node # f are carried (or operated) on the physical node # C. That is, both the virtual path #1 and the virtual path #2 are carried on a physical link including the physical node # a and the physical node # C.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the control device 110 may be a primary controller provided by a primary operator, for example, a virtual control platform, and the control device 110 may obtain control information for each virtual path (or network slice) and send the control information to the physical node 120, so that the physical node 120 can manage and control a virtual node running on the physical node based on the obtained control information. Also, the control device 110 may control path detection (e.g., fault detection, delay detection, etc.) between the physical nodes. Moreover, in the embodiment of the present invention, the method and the process for controlling communication between the device 110 and the physical node 120 may be similar to those in the prior art, and here, a detailed description thereof is omitted to avoid redundancy.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiment of the present invention, the control device 100 may be an Open Network manager (OpenNH), where OpenNH is a Software Defined Network (SDN) middle Software layer running between a physical Network and a virtual Network, and is responsible for managing and maintaining the entire physical Network (physical Network management layer) downward, and providing differentiated virtual Network services (virtual Network management layer) for different users upward, and OpenNH allocates a certain amount of physical resources, such as virtual node CPUs, ports, and virtual path bandwidths, to a user of a virtual path according to a requirement of the user.

Alternatively, in this embodiment of the present invention, the control device 100 may be a module in OpenNH for executing an Operation and Maintenance Administration (OAM) mechanism.

It should be understood that the specific devices listed above as the control device 100 are only exemplary, the present invention is not particularly limited thereto, and other devices capable of communicating with the physical node and controlling the detection of the physical node fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, one or more virtual nodes may be run (or carried) on each physical node. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, there are cases where: the physical paths respectively corresponding to (or carried by) the two different virtual paths may include the same physical link. For example, as shown in fig. 1 or 4, a virtual node # B and a virtual node # f run on the physical node # a, and a virtual node # C and a virtual node # g run on the physical node # C, and therefore, a virtual path #1 including the virtual node # B and the virtual node # C and a virtual path #2 including the virtual node # f and the virtual node # g are carried on a physical link formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, and the physical node # C. In other words, the physical paths carried by the virtual path #1 including the virtual node # B and the virtual node # C and the virtual path #2 including the virtual node # f and the virtual node # g each include a physical link formed by the physical node # a, the physical node # B, and the physical node # C.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, each device in the system 100 shown in fig. 2 may be an entity device, or may also be a virtualization device, for example, the virtualization device may be a Virtual Machine (Virtual Machine) having a function for providing each device in a computer system, and the embodiment of the present invention is not particularly limited.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the control device 110 may be configured to be responsible for collecting physical network resources, physical network topology, receiving network slicing operation requests, and performing global resource allocation calculations.

It should be understood that the devices included in the system 100 shown in fig. 2 are merely exemplary, and the present invention is not limited thereto, for example, in addition to the control device 110 and the physical node 120, the system 100 may include other devices in the embodiment of the present invention. By way of example, and not limitation, communication system 100 may also include one or more secondary controllers or the like, for example.

The structure and function of each device may be similar to those of the prior art, for example, the secondary controller may be a device provided by a primary operator, and a virtual controller provided for one or more secondary operators for managing (or controlling) a network slice may be generated and executed in the secondary controller through, for example, a virtualization technology, so that the secondary operator may generate control information (e.g., a detection request) for a virtual path (or network slice) provided by the primary operator to the secondary operator through the secondary controller.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the control device 110 may be communicatively connected to each secondary controller, so that the control device 110 may obtain control information for each virtual path (or network slice) from the secondary controller.

Next, a method of path detection using an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 3, the control apparatus may determine a physical path # a (i.e., an example of a first physical path) at S210.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the physical path # a may include at least two physical nodes, and the physical path # a may be a physical path common to a plurality of (e.g., M) physical paths, that is, the M physical paths each include the physical path # a. Or, the physical path # a is a sub-path of each of the M physical paths.

In other words, the physical node included in the physical path # a belongs to each of the M physical paths.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the physical path # a may include two physical nodes, or the physical path # a may include more than two physical nodes, and the present invention is not particularly limited.

By way of example and not limitation, in an embodiment of the present invention, the control device may determine the physical path # a based on any of the following ways.

Mode 1

The control device may receive a detection request # a from a virtual path # a (e.g., a secondary control device of a network slice or a virtual network to which the virtual path # a belongs), wherein the detection request # a is for requesting the control device to detect the virtual path # a.

Thereafter, the control device determines a physical path # a according to the detection request # a, specifically, according to the virtual path # a, wherein the virtual path # a is carried on the physical path # a. Alternatively, each virtual node included in the virtual path # a is a physical node included in the physical path # a.

The method and process for determining the physical path # a by the control device based on the virtual path # a may be similar to those in the prior art, and detailed description is omitted here for avoiding redundancy.

Thus, the control apparatus can determine the physical path # a from the physical path # a.

By way of example and not limitation, the control device may treat the physical path # a as a whole, for example.

For another example, the control device may set, as the physical path # a, a path between any two or more physical nodes included in the physical path # a.

For another example, when the path detection in the embodiment of the present invention is failure detection, the control device may regard the failed link segment of the physical path # a as the physical path # a.

Mode 2

The control device may receive K detection requests from K virtual paths (e.g., secondary control devices of a network slice or a virtual network to which the K virtual paths belong), the K detection requests corresponding to the K virtual paths one to one, wherein a detection request i (i.e., an example of a first detection request) is used for requesting the control device to detect a virtual path i, N ≧ K ≧ 2, i ∈ [1, K ].

Then, the control device determines K physical paths according to the K detection requests, specifically, according to the K virtual paths, where the K physical paths and the K virtual paths are in one-to-one correspondence. That is, the virtual path i is carried in the physical path corresponding to the virtual path i among the K physical paths. Or, each virtual node included in the virtual path i is respectively borne by each physical node included in a physical path corresponding to the virtual path i among the K physical paths.

The method and process for determining the K physical paths by the control device based on the K virtual paths may be similar to those in the prior art, and detailed descriptions are omitted here to avoid redundant descriptions.

In addition, it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, two or more virtual paths may be borne by the same physical path in the K virtual paths, and therefore, two or more identical physical paths may be borne by the same physical path in the K physical paths.

Thus, the control device can determine the physical path # a from the K physical paths.

For example, the control device may set, as the physical path # a, a physical link included in each of the K physical paths, for example, without limitation.

For another example, the control device may use, as the physical path # a, a physical link included in each of two or more physical paths of the K physical paths.

Mode 3

The control device may receive T detection requests from T virtual paths (e.g., secondary control devices of a network slice or a virtual network to which the T virtual paths belong), the T detection requests corresponding to the T virtual paths one to one, where a detection request j (i.e., an example of a second detection request) is used to request the control device to detect a virtual path j, T ≧ 2, j ∈ [1, T ].

Then, the control device determines Q physical paths according to the T detection requests, specifically, according to the T virtual paths, wherein each physical path in the Q physical paths carries at least one virtual path in the T virtual paths, and Q ≧ 1. That is, the virtual path j is carried in the physical path corresponding to the virtual path j in the Q physical paths, or in other words, each virtual node included in the virtual path j is respectively carried in each physical node included in the physical path corresponding to the virtual path j in the Q physical paths.

The method and process for determining the Q physical paths by the control device based on the K virtual paths may be similar to those in the prior art, and detailed descriptions are omitted here to avoid redundant descriptions.

In addition, it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, there may be a case where two or more virtual paths are carried on the same physical path in the T virtual paths, and in this case, Q < T.

Alternatively, in the T virtual paths, there may be a case where any two virtual paths are carried by different physical paths, in which case Q is T.

Then, the control device groups the Q physical paths to determine P physical path groups, where each physical path group includes at least two physical paths in the Q physical paths, and each physical path group corresponds to at least one common physical path, where the common physical path corresponding to the physical path group P is a physical path included in each physical path included in the physical path group P; or, the common physical path corresponding to the physical path group P is the overlapping part between the physical paths included in the physical path group P, P ≧ 1, P ∈ [1, P ]

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, since one physical path may include multiple physical links (or one physical path may include multiple sub-paths), in the embodiment of the present invention, one physical path may belong to two or more physical path groups.

Thus, the control device can determine the physical path # a from the P physical path groups.

For example, the control device may set the common physical path corresponding to any one of the P physical path groups as the physical path # a.

For another example, the control device may sequentially take the shared physical path corresponding to each of the P physical path groups as the physical path # a.

Mode 4

In the embodiment of the present invention, the control device may autonomously take any one of the physical paths in the physical network as the physical path # a. For example, in the embodiment of the present invention, the control device may periodically and autonomously detect the physical network (or one or more physical paths or physical links in the physical network), so that the control device may use a certain physical path in the detection object as the physical path # a.

It should be noted that the physical path # a determined in any manner described above may include two physical nodes and a physical line between the two physical nodes, or the physical path # a determined in any manner described above may also include two or more physical nodes and a physical line between two physical nodes adjacent to each other on the transmission path among the two or more physical nodes.

At S220, the control apparatus may perform path detection for the physical path # a to acquire path state information of the physical path # a.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiment of the present invention, the path detection may include detection specified in Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM), for example, the path detection may be used to detect a failure and/or a delay of a link. Specifically, according to the actual needs of the operator network operation, the management work of the network is generally divided into 3 major categories: operation (Operation), Administration (Administration), and Maintenance (Maintenance), which are abbreviated as OAM. The operation mainly completes the analysis, prediction, planning and configuration work of the daily network and the business; maintenance is mainly daily operation activities performed on the network and its service test, fault management, and the like.

Accordingly, the path state information may include a detection result obtained by path detection.

By way of example and not limitation, the path detection may implement at least one of the following functions:

A. monitoring the performance, generating maintenance information, and evaluating the stability of the network according to the information;

B. detecting network faults in a regular query mode to generate various maintenance and alarm information;

C. the normal operation of the network is ensured by scheduling or switching to other entities and bypassing the failed entity;

D. the fault information is communicated to a management entity.

By way of example and not limitation, the path detection may be at least one of:

1. monitoring the performance of the link: various performances of the link are monitored, including measurement of packet loss, time delay, jitter and the like, and statistics of various flows.

2. Fault detection and alarm: the connectivity of the link is detected by sending a detection message, and a network administrator is informed in time when the link fails.

3. And (3) loop test: link failures are detected by loopback of non-ethernet OAM protocol messages.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiment of the present invention, the path Detection may be performed based on, for example, a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) protocol method.

Among other things, the BFD protocol provides a lightweight, fast method of detecting the connectivity status of forwarding paths between two neighboring routers/switches, which is a simple "Hello" protocol that is similar in many respects to the neighbor detection portion of well-known routing protocols. A pair of systems periodically sends detection messages on a channel of an established session between the two systems, if a certain system does not receive the detection message of an opposite end within a long enough time, a failure protocol neighbor is considered to occur in a certain part of the bidirectional channel to the adjacent system, the communication failure of a forwarding path can be rapidly detected through the method, the starting of a backup forwarding path is accelerated, and the existing network performance is improved. The detection mechanism provided by BFD is independent of the type of interface medium, the encapsulation format, and the associated upper layer protocols, such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Routing Information Protocol (RIP), etc. BFD establishes conversation between two routers, and triggers the routing protocol to recalculate the routing table by quickly sending the detection failure message to the running routing protocol, thereby greatly reducing the convergence time of the whole network. BFD does not have the capability to discover neighbors itself and requires upper layer protocols to inform which neighbor to establish a session with.

In this regard, in the embodiment of the present invention, the control device may notify each physical node in the physical path # a of which neighbor a session is established.

It should be understood that the above-listed process and method of controlling the physical path # a by the control device for path detection are only exemplary, and the present invention is not limited thereto. The methods and processes that can be used in the prior art for detecting a physical path fall within the scope of the present invention.

Thus, the network device may determine path state information of the physical path # a based on the above path detection result at S220.

By way of example and not limitation, the path state information of the physical path # a may be used to indicate whether the physical path # a fails or not, or the path state information of the physical path # a may be used to indicate a transmission delay of the physical path # a.

In S230, the control device may determine, according to the path state information of the physical path # a, the path states of two or more (e.g., N) virtual paths, and the control device may report the path states to the N virtual paths (e.g., secondary control devices of a virtual network or a network slice to which the N virtual paths belong).

By way of example and not limitation, the network device may determine the N virtual paths based on any of the following ways.

Mode A

That is, when the control device determines the physical path # a by using the above-mentioned manner 1 or manner 4, the control device may determine a physical path corresponding to each virtual path (or network slice) running in the communication system, where the process may be similar to the prior art, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here for avoiding redundancy.

Thus, the control device may determine a physical path including the physical path # a (i.e., an example of M physical paths, for example, the M physical paths may include the physical path # a) from among physical paths corresponding to virtual paths operating in the communication system, that is, each of the M physical paths includes the physical path # a.

The control device may determine, as the N virtual paths, the virtual path carried on each of the M physical paths.

Mode B

That is, when the control apparatus determines the physical path # a in the above-described manner 2, the control apparatus may regard the K virtual paths as the N virtual paths.

Mode C

That is, when the control apparatus determines the physical path # a in the above-described manner 3, the control apparatus may determine a physical path group (hereinafter, for convenience of understanding and distinction, referred to as physical path group # a) to which the physical path # a corresponds, that is, each physical path in the physical path group # a includes the physical path # a; alternatively, the physical path # a may be a common physical path corresponding to the physical path group # a.

Thus, the control device may regard the virtual path carried on each physical path in the physical path group # a as the N virtual paths.

It should be understood that the above-listed manners for determining the N virtual paths are merely exemplary, the present invention is not particularly limited, and the above-mentioned manners a to C may be used alone or in combination, and the present invention is not particularly limited.

For example, in the above-described aspect B, the control device may determine, from among physical paths corresponding to virtual paths operating in the communication system, a physical link (i.e., an example of M physical paths) including the physical path # a, other than the K physical paths, and set the virtual path carried on the physical path as N virtual paths.

For another example, in the above-described aspect C, the control device may determine, from among physical paths corresponding to virtual paths operating in the communication system, a physical path (i.e., an example of M physical paths) including the physical path # a, other than the physical paths in the physical path group # a, and set the virtual path carried on the physical link as N virtual paths.

Fig. 4 shows a connection relationship between the control device and the physical path and the virtual path according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 4, in the embodiment of the present invention, the control device (e.g., OpenNH) may include a virtual path management module, an OAM mechanism common module, and a physical path management module.

In the communication system shown in fig. 4, the virtual node # b in the virtual path #1 is hosted by the physical node # a in the physical network, the virtual node # C in the virtual path #1 is hosted by the physical node # C in the physical network, the virtual node # f in the virtual path #2 is hosted by the physical node # a in the physical network, and the virtual node # g in the virtual path #2 is hosted by the physical node # C in the physical network.

As shown in fig. 4, a virtual path #1 (or, a management device or a user of the virtual path # 1) may send a detection (e.g., BFD detection) request #1 to a control device (specifically, a virtual path management module of the control device), where the request #1 may indicate the virtual path #1 (or, each virtual node and connection relation included in the virtual path # 1). That is, the control apparatus may determine that a virtual path between the detection virtual node # b and the detection virtual node # c is required based on the request # 1.

Also, the virtual path #2 (or, a management device or a user of the virtual path #2) may transmit a detection (e.g., BFD detection) request #2 to the control device (specifically, a virtual path management module of the control device), where the request #2 may indicate the virtual path #2 (or, each virtual node and connection relation included in the virtual path # 2). That is, the virtual path management module may determine that a virtual path between the detection virtual node # f and the detection virtual node # g is required based on the request # 2.

Then, the control device (specifically, the OAM mechanism common module of the control device) aggregates the received detection requests (for example, the request #1 and the request #2), and determines a physical path (or a physical link) to be detected according to a mapping situation between the virtual path and the physical path (or a mapping situation between the virtual node and the physical node), that is, in this case, the OAM mechanism common module may determine that the detection requirements of both the request #1 and the request #2 can be satisfied only by performing detection on the physical link between the physical node # a and the physical node # C once;

thereafter, the control device (specifically, the physical path management module of the control device) may control the physical node to implement BFD detection.

For example, when the physical path management module determines that a path between the physical node # a and the physical node # C has a fault, the physical path management module may report fault information to the OAM mechanism common module.

And the OAM mechanism public module reports the fault information to the virtual path management module.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the virtual path management module may store the received detection request records, so that it can quickly query which detection requests (or virtual paths) the obtained failure information is directed to, that is, the virtual path management module may determine that the failure information is information for determining the path states of the virtual path #1 and the virtual path # 2.

Accordingly, the virtual path management module may transmit the failure information to the virtual path #1 (or, a management device or a user of the virtual path # 1) and the virtual path #2 (or, a management device or a user of the virtual path #2), respectively, so that the manager may immediately switch the failed virtual path to the backup path. For example, the virtual path #1 may be switched to the backup path #1 (i.e., a path including the virtual node # b, the virtual node # a, and the virtual node # c in this order); the virtual path #2 may be switched to the backup path #2 (i.e., a path including the virtual node # f, the virtual node # d, the virtual node # e, and the virtual node # g in this order).

In the prior art, since the detection is performed by using a virtual path as a detection target, when the plurality of virtual paths correspond to the same physical path, each of the plurality of virtual paths needs to be detected, that is, the same physical path needs to be detected a plurality of times. For example, in the related art, if the virtual path #1 in fig. 1 needs to be detected, the physical transmission path between the physical node # a and the physical node # C needs to be detected once, and if the virtual path #2 needs to be detected, the physical transmission path between the physical node # a and the physical node # C needs to be detected another time, that is, the same detection is repeated twice for the physical transmission path between the physical node # a and the physical node # C. That is, based on the existing virtual path detection mechanism, it may cause a waste of resources (e.g., processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources, etc.) used in the detection process.

In contrast, according to the method for path detection in the embodiment of the present invention, a first physical path is detected to obtain path state information of the first physical path, and M physical paths are determined according to the first physical path, wherein each physical link in the M physical paths includes the first physical path, and N virtual paths are determined according to the M physical paths, wherein the N virtual paths are carried in the M physical paths, and further, the path states of the N virtual paths are determined according to the path state information of the first physical path, thereby determining the path states of a plurality of virtual paths based on one detection, avoiding detecting one physical link carrying a plurality of virtual paths for a plurality of times, and further reducing overhead and waste of resources (e.g., processor resources, transmission resources, energy resources, etc.) used in a detection process, for example, according to the path detection method of the embodiment of the present invention, if the virtual path #1 and the virtual path #2 in fig. 1 need to be detected, only one detection needs to be performed on the physical transmission path between the physical node # a and the physical node # C.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an example of the control apparatus 300 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control device 300 may correspond to (e.g., be configured in or be itself the control device (e.g., OpenNH) described in the system 100 and the method 200, and each module or unit in the control device 300 is respectively configured to execute the function of the control device in the system 100 and the method 200 and each executed action or processing procedure, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted for avoiding redundancy.

Fig. 6 is a schematic configuration of an example of the control apparatus 400 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control apparatus 400 includes: a processor and a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor, and optionally, the control device 400 further includes a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. Wherein the memory may be used to store instructions and the processor may be configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory to control the transceiver to receive information or signals, so that the control device 400 performs the functions of the control device, the actions performed or the processes in the system 100 and the method 200.

The control device 400 may correspond to (for example, be configured in or be itself the control device described in the system 100 and the method 200), and each module or unit in the control device 400 is respectively configured to execute the functions of the control device in the system 100 and the method 200 and each executed action or processing procedure, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted to avoid redundancy.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present invention may also be a virtual control device implemented based on a general physical server and combining with a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology, where the virtual control device may be a Virtual Machine (VM) running a program for implementing a Function executed by the control device in the method 200, and the virtual machine is deployed on a hardware device (e.g., a physical server). A virtual machine refers to a complete computer system with complete hardware system functionality, which is emulated by software, running in a completely isolated environment.

It should be noted that the embodiments of the invention may be applied to or implemented by a processor. The processor may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The Processor may be a general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable gate array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the invention may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a communication system 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7, the communication system 500 includes at least two physical nodes 510 and a control device 520, where two or more physical nodes 510 may form a physical link, and a virtual node may run on the physical node 510, so that two or more physical nodes 510 may form a physical path and may carry at least one virtual path, and each module or unit in the control device 520 is respectively used to execute the functions of the control device in the system 100 and the method 200 and each executed action or processing procedure, and here, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted to avoid redundant description.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiment of the present invention.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implementing, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention may be essentially implemented or make a contribution to the prior art, or may be implemented in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk. The above description is only a specific implementation of the embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the embodiments of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered by the scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of path detection, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that control equipment detects a first physical path to determine path state information of the first physical path, wherein the first physical path is a path overlapped among M physical paths, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

the control equipment determines the path states of N virtual paths borne on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path, wherein N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

before the control device detects the first physical path, the method further comprises:

the control equipment receives K detection requests, wherein the K detection requests correspond to K virtual paths in the N virtual paths in a one-to-one mode, a first detection request corresponding to a first virtual path is used for requesting the control equipment to detect the first virtual path, the first virtual path is any one of the K first virtual paths, K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and K is a positive integer less than or equal to N;

the control equipment determines K physical paths according to the K detection requests, wherein the K physical paths correspond to the K virtual paths one by one;

the control device takes a path that overlaps among the K physical paths as the first physical path.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by the control device, the path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path includes:

and the control equipment determines the path states of the K virtual paths according to the path state information of the first physical path.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the control device sends K detection responses, the K detection responses are in one-to-one correspondence with the K detection requests, and a first detection response corresponding to the first virtual path is used for indicating the path state of the first virtual path.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before the control device detects the first physical path, the method further comprises:

the control equipment receives T detection requests, wherein the T detection requests correspond to T virtual paths one to one, a second detection request corresponding to a second virtual path is used for requesting the control equipment to detect the second virtual path, the second virtual path is any one of the T virtual paths, and T is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

the control device determines Q physical paths according to the T virtual paths, wherein each physical path in the Q physical paths bears at least one virtual path in the T virtual paths, Q is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, and the Q physical paths comprise at least one physical path in the M physical paths;

the control device groups the Q physical paths to determine P physical path groups, wherein each physical path group comprises at least two physical paths, each physical path group corresponds to at least one common physical path, the common physical path corresponding to a first physical path group is a physical path overlapped between physical paths in the first physical path group, the first physical path group is any one of the P physical path groups, P is a positive integer 1 greater than or equal to 1, the first physical path is a common physical path corresponding to a second physical path group in the P physical path groups, and the second physical path group is a physical path group to which the M physical paths belong.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the determining, by the control device, the path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path includes:

the control equipment determines the second physical path group from the P physical path groups according to the first physical path;

and the control equipment determines the path state of the virtual path corresponding to each physical path in the second physical path group according to the path state information of the first physical path.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the control device sends N detection responses, wherein the N detection responses are in one-to-one correspondence with the N virtual paths, and each detection response indicates the path state of the corresponding virtual path.

7. A control apparatus, characterized by comprising:

the device comprises a detection unit, a processing unit and a processing unit, wherein the detection unit is used for detecting a first physical path to determine path state information of the first physical path, the first physical path is a path overlapped among M physical paths, and M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

a processing unit, configured to determine path states of N virtual paths carried on the M physical paths according to the path state information of the first physical path, where N is a positive integer 2 greater than or equal to 2;

the control apparatus further includes:

a communication unit, configured to receive K detection requests, where the K detection requests correspond to K virtual paths in the N virtual paths one to one, where a first detection request corresponding to a first virtual path is used to request the control device to detect the first virtual path, where the first virtual path is any one of the K first virtual paths, K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and K is a positive integer 2 less than or equal to N;

the processing unit is further configured to determine K physical paths according to the K detection requests, where the K physical paths are in one-to-one correspondence with the K virtual paths, and are used to use paths overlapping among the K physical paths as the first physical path.

8. The control device according to claim 7, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to determine the path states of the K virtual paths according to the path state information of the first physical path.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the communication unit is further configured to send K detection responses, the K detection responses corresponding to the K detection requests in a one-to-one manner, and a first detection response corresponding to the first virtual path is used to indicate a path status of the first virtual path.

10. The control apparatus according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that the control apparatus further comprises:

a communication unit, configured to receive T detection requests, where the T detection requests correspond to T virtual paths one to one, and a second detection request corresponding to a second virtual path is used to request the control device to detect the second virtual path, where the second virtual path is any one of the T virtual paths, and T is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

the processing unit is further configured to determine Q physical paths according to the T virtual paths, where each of the Q physical paths carries at least one virtual path of the T virtual paths, Q is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, the Q physical paths include at least one physical path of the M physical paths, and are used to group the Q physical paths to determine P physical path groups, where each physical path group includes at least two physical paths, each physical path group corresponds to at least one common physical path, where the common physical path corresponding to a first physical path group is a path that overlaps between physical paths in the first physical path group, the first physical path group is any one of the P physical path groups, P is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1, the first physical path is a common physical path corresponding to a second physical path group of the P physical path groups, and the second physical path group is a physical path group to which the M physical paths belong.

11. The control device according to claim 10, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to determine the second physical path group from the P physical path groups according to the first physical path, and is configured to determine a path state of a virtual path corresponding to each physical path in the second physical path group according to the path state information of the first physical path.

12. The control apparatus according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that the control apparatus further comprises:

a communication unit, configured to send N detection responses, where the N detection responses are in one-to-one correspondence with the N virtual paths, and each detection response indicates a path state of the corresponding virtual path.

13. A control device, characterized by comprising a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for calling up and running the computer program from the memory, so that the control device performs the method of path detection according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

14. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that causes a control apparatus to execute the method of path detection according to any one of claims 1 to 6.