JP2023525966A - virtual network - Google Patents

Abstract

A virtual network (100) exists between a virtual ingress device (110/200), a virtual egress device (112/600/800), a local router/switch (120) and a remote router/switch (122). A communication channel (110/200) to a virtual egress device (112/600/800) in the web interconnecting the local router/switch (120) with the remote router/switch (122). 114), the virtual ingress device (110/200) and the virtual egress device (112/600/800) have static forwarding tables that provide significantly improved performance. [Selection drawing] Fig. 1A

Description

The present 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, typically local or metropolitan area networks that span large geographic areas, such as statewide or countrywide. interconnect. WANs allow remotely located computers to communicate with each other through network devices.

Conventional network devices typically operate at predetermined fixed data rates, e.g., 10/100/1000 Mbps (megabits per second), 10 Gbps (gigabits per second), 40 Gbps, and 100 Gbps connections. Contains 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, during which process the transfer speed of the network port is fixed.

One of the disadvantages of conventional network devices is that there is often a need for more physical ports than are available, which can lead to reduced service or increased costs. bring upgrades. As a result, there is a need for an approach to meet the growing need for ports.

The present invention includes virtual networks with virtual ports that substantially increase the number of available physical ports. The virtual network of the present invention includes a virtual ingress device, a virtual egress device to be coupled to a remote router/switch, and communication channels coupled to the virtual ingress device and the virtual egress device. A virtual ingress device receives an incoming frame with a header identifying a remote router/switch. An input frame originates from one of multiple sources. The virtual ingress device also identifies a virtual egress device from the identity of the remote router/switch and encapsulates the incoming frame to form a first encapsulated frame. The first encapsulated frame has a field identifying the virtual egress device and a field containing the input frame. Additionally, the virtual ingress device identifies a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device, encapsulates the first encapsulated frame, and generates a second encapsulated frame. to form The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. In addition, the virtual ingress device combines the second encapsulated frames with second encapsulated frames from other sources to form a stream of second encapsulated frames; Send a stream of encapsulated frames.

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 multiple sources. The method also includes identifying a virtual egress 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 egress device and a field containing the input frame. Additionally, the method includes identifying a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device; and forming a frame. The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. The method further includes combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from multiple sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames; and transmitting the sequence of second encapsulated frames.

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 perform 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 multiple sources. The method also includes identifying a virtual egress 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 egress device and a field containing the input frame. Additionally, the method includes identifying a next hop for the first encapsulated frame from the identity of the virtual egress device; and forming a frame. The second encapsulated frame has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the first encapsulated frame. Further, the method includes combining the second encapsulated frame with other second encapsulated frames from multiple sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames; and transmitting the sequence of second encapsulated frames.

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 illustrate illustrative embodiments in which the principles of the invention are employed.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an example virtual network 100 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 1B is a flowchart illustrating a method 150 of operating virtual network 100 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 1C is a diagram illustrating an example of a frame according to the invention. FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmitter circuit 200 according to the invention. FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 250 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating an example method 300 of operating the transmitter circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 3B is a flow chart illustrating an example method 350 of operating the transmitter circuit 200 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 500 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example virtual exit device 600 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example method 700 of operating virtual exit device 600 in accordance with the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver circuit 800 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention. FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of receiver circuitry 900 according to an alternative embodiment of the 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 illustrate illustrative embodiments in which the principles of the invention are employed.

Best mode for carrying out the invention

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

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

In operation, the virtual ingress device 110 receives streams of data frames and video data frames from a set-top box (STB), personal computer (PC), etc. into a single stream of virtual data frames and transmit the single stream of virtual data frames to channel 114 .

FIG. 1B shows a flow chart illustrating a method 150 of operating 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 incoming frame from local router/switch 120 . Incoming frames, such as STB, PC, or VID frames, originating from local devices such as STB, PC, or VID have headers that identify the remote router/switch (which in this example is remote router/switch 122). .

FIG. 1C shows a diagram illustrating an example of a frame according to the invention. As shown in FIG. 1C, an incoming frame includes a Src MAC A field that identifies the MAC address of the local router/switch, such as local router/switch 120, and the MAC address of the remote router/switch, such as remote router/switch 122. and a Dist MAC B field that identifies the address. An input frame also contains other fields such as a type field, a data field, and an error correction (CRC) field.

Referring again to FIG. 1B, the method 150 next moves to 154 where the virtual ingress device 110 identifies virtual egress devices coupled to the remote router/switch from the remote router/switch identities. For example, the MAC address of the remote router/switch 122, taken from the Dist MAC B field, is passed through a lookup table to identify the MAC address of the virtual egress device 112 coupled to the remote router/switch 122. can be used.

After identifying the virtual egress device, the method 150 moves to 156 where the virtual ingress device 110 encapsulates the input frame to form a first encapsulated (FE) frame. The FE frame then has a field identifying the virtual egress device (which in this example is virtual egress device 112) and a field containing the input frame. Encapsulation can be performed using 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 identifies a Dst MAC X field that identifies the MAC address of a virtual egress device, such as virtual egress device 112, and the MAC address of a virtual ingress device, such as virtual ingress device 110. Src MAC N field. The FE frame also contains other fields such as an I-tag field, a payload field containing the input frame, and a CRC field.

Referring again to FIG. 1B, method 150 then moves to 158, where virtual ingress device 110 identifies the next hop for the FE frame from the identity of the virtual egress device. For example, virtual ingress device 110 may enter the MAC address of the virtual egress device into a lookup table to identify the MAC address of the next hop in virtual network 100 . After this, method 150 moves to 160 where virtual entrance device 110 encapsulates the FE frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) frame. Each SE frame then has a field identifying the next hop and a field containing the FE frame.

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

Referring again to FIG. 1B, the method 150 next moves to 162 where the virtual entrance device 110 combines the SE frame with a second encapsulated frame from the other source into a single form a stream. For example, a single stream of SE frames can include SE STB frames, SE PC frames, and SE video frames in any order, sequential or random. Following this, method 150 moves to 164 where virtual ingress device 110 transmits the second stream of encapsulated frames to communication channel 114 . When implemented with fiber optic cable, channel 114 passes a single stream of SE frames on a single wavelength to virtual egress device 112 .

One of the advantages of the present invention is that it allows frames to be forwarded through 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, thus This means that the number of physical ports is substantially increased.

The method 150 then moves to 166 where the virtual egress device 112 receives the second sequence of encapsulated frames and converts the second encapsulated frames to the second sequence of encapsulated frames. switchably separate from After this, the method 150 moves to 168, where the virtual egress device 112 unpacks the second encapsulated frame to extract the first encapsulated frame, and then the method 150 moves to 170. , 170 the virtual exit device 112 unpacks the first encapsulated frame to extract the original input frame. Following this, the method 150 moves to 172 where the virtual egress device 112 passes the original input frame to the remote router/switch identified in the header of the original input frame (remote router/switch 122 in this example). ).

Referring again to FIG. 1A, virtual ingress device 110 and virtual egress device 112 have static forwarding tables that are administratively allocated. For example, 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 allocated and provided to the virtual ingress device 110 so that the hops taken by the frame through the virtual network 100 are pre-empted. allocated to

FIG. 2A shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual entrance device 200 according to the invention. As shown in FIG. 2A, the virtual ingress device 200 includes a local physical port 210, a framing circuit 212 coupled to the local physical port 210, and several transmitting virtual ports coupled to the framing circuit 212. It includes vPORTa1 to vPORTan.

Each transmit virtual port vPORTa then includes a transmit queue and transmit frame formatting circuitry. In addition, virtual ingress device 200 also includes a transmit virtual switch 214 coupled to each of transmit virtual ports vPORTa and a network physical port 216 coupled to transmit virtual switch 214 .

FIG. 3A shows a flowchart illustrating an example method 300 of operating the virtual entrance device 200 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3A, method 300 begins at 310 with framing circuit 212 receiving a series of input frames from local physical port 210 . The method 300 then moves to 312 to examine the sequence of input frames to identify the frame type (e.g., STB, PC, video) for each input frame, and then moves to 314 to determine the frame type based on that frame type. to identify the virtual egress device associated with each input frame. And each virtual egress device has several receiving virtual ports.

Following this, method 300 moves to 316 where framing circuit 212 encapsulates a series of input frames to form a number of first encapsulated (FE) frames. An FE frame has a header that identifies the virtual egress device associated with the sequence of input frames.

After this, the method 300 moves to 318 where the transmitting virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan identify the next hop in the virtual network for the FE frame based on the virtual egress device in the header of the FE frame. The method 300 then moves to 320 where the transmit virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan encapsulate the FE frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) frame. 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 associated virtual egress device of the incoming frame. Additionally, the transmit virtual port occupies a first portion of the shared memory.

Following this, the method 300 moves to 322 where the transmit virtual switch 214 cycles through the transmit virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan to sequentially forward SE frames from each transmit virtual port vPORTa in a fixed repeating order. to output a sequence of SE frames. For example, virtual switch 214 may output a sequence of SE frames in which the first SE frame is from vPORT1 and the second frame is from vPORT2. , the third frame is from vPORT3 and the fourth frame is again from vPORT1.

If the sending virtual port vPORTa is empty or partially full, no frame is generated. For example, if the transmit virtual port vPORT2 is empty, the network physical port 216 will output a frame sequence including frame 1, no frame, frame 3; Method 300 then moves to 324 where network physical port 216 transmits the SE frame to the virtual network.

FIG. 3B shows a flowchart illustrating an example method 350 of operating the transmitter circuit 200, according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention. Method 350 is similar to method 300 and, as a result, utilizes the same reference numerals to denote elements common to both methods.

As shown in FIG. 3B, method 350 first branches from method 300 at 352 where virtual switch 214 determines whether a full signal has been received from any of the outgoing virtual ports vPORTa. do. A full signal indicates that SE frames on the transmit virtual port vPORTa are ready to be transmitted. If the virtual switch 214 detects a full signal from the sending virtual port vPORTa, the method 350 moves to 354 where the virtual switch 214 transmits the SE frame to the network physical port 216 from the sending virtual port vPORTa outputting a full signal. Forward.

For example, virtual switch 214 may sequentially receive full signals from outgoing virtual port vPORTa1, outgoing virtual port vPORTa2, and outgoing virtual port vPORTa3. In this case, virtual switch 214 outputs a sequence of SE frames in which the first SE frame is from transmitting virtual port vPORT1 and the second frame is from transmitting virtual port vPORT2. and the third frame is from the sending virtual port vPORT3.

Alternatively, one of the sources (eg, STB, PC, video source) may have a much faster data rate than the other source (eg, STB, PC, video source), and Thereby, one transmitting virtual port vPORTa outputs a full signal much more often than the other transmitting virtual ports vPORTa.

For example, if the network physical port 216 transmits frames at a frame rate of 5 frames per second, then the sending virtual port vPORTa2 will send frames at a rate three times faster than each of the sending virtual ports vPORTa1 and vPORTa3. frame, sending virtual port vPORTa2 signals full three times before the other ports, sending virtual port vPORTa1 signals before vPORTa3 signals, then virtual switch 214 signals the sending virtual The first frame from port vPORT2, the second frame from sending virtual port vPORT2, the third frame from sending virtual port vPORT2, the fourth frame from sending virtual port vPORT1, and the sending virtual port vPORT3. and the fifth frame from .

In addition to the first-in-first-out approach in which the order in which full signals are received determines the order in which SE frames are output by virtual switch 214 from transmit virtual port vPORTa, transmit virtual ports vPORTa-vPORTan can alternatively be routed from transmit virtual port vPORTa to the network. A priority scheme can be included that allows frames to be transferred to physical ports in any quantity and in any order.

Referring again to FIG. 3B, after virtual switch 214 forwards the SE frame from the outgoing virtual port vPORTa outputting a full signal to network physical port 216, method 350 moves to 356 where network physical port 216 transfers the SE frame to the network physical port 216. Send a frame. Although in method 300 the frames to be output are predictable, while in method 350 the frames to be output are not, the priority scheme provides some level of predictability. I will provide a.

Referring again to the example of FIG. 2A, framing circuit 212 includes virtual switch 220 and framer 222 coupled to virtual switch 220 . Virtual switch 220 senses the type of incoming frame (e.g., STB, PC, video), identifies a route for the frame to the virtual port vPORTa corresponding to that type of frame from its static forwarding table, and forwards the frame to its It outputs toward the virtual port vPORTa.

In this example, virtual switch 220 receives a STB frame transmitted by a local source router/switch, such as router/switch 120, and identifies the received frame as a STB frame. Or detect from the destination MAC address. The switch 220 then outputs the STB frame on the first virtual port line P1 which is routed towards the virtual port vPORTa1 preselected to receive the STB frame.

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

Virtual switch 220 also receives a video frame transmitted by a local router/switch, detects from the source and/or destination MAC address in the video frame that the received frame is a video frame, and then Output the video frames on the third virtual port line P3 which is routed to the virtual port vPORTa3 preselected to receive the frames.

Framer 222 receives an 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 virtual port vPORTa1. Transfer to send queue. Similarly, 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 converts the FE PC frame to a virtual Transfer to the transmit queue of port vPORTa2. 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 sends the FE video frame to virtual port vPORTa3. to the transmission queue of

Framer 222 may utilize conventional protocols such as Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol or Transport Multiprotocol Label Switching (T-MPLS) protocol to generate encapsulated frames. be. In addition, FE STB frames, FE PC frames, and FE video frames each have a header with several fields containing the ID of the virtual egress device.

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

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

Similarly, the frame formatting circuit at virtual port vPORTa2 of transmit circuit 200 receives the FE PC frame and configures the static forwarding table based on the virtual egress device's ID, such as the virtual egress device's MAC address, in the header of the FE PC frame. from to identify the next hop in the virtual network for the FE PC frame and encapsulate the FE PC frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) PC frame.

In addition, the frame formatting circuit at virtual port vPORTa3 of transmit circuit 200 receives the FE video frame and creates a static forwarding table based on the virtual egress device's ID, such as the virtual egress device's MAC address, in the header of the FE video frame. to identify the next hop in the virtual network for the FE video frame from and encapsulate the FE video frame to form a second encapsulated (SE) video frame.

The SE STB frame, SE PC frame, and SE video frame each have 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 ingress device virtual port number. and a destination field Dst_vID identifying the virtual port number of the virtual egress device corresponding to the virtual 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 the last hop field.

In addition, virtual switch 214 cycles through virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan, sequentially forwards a second encapsulated (SE) frame from each virtual port vPORTa, and outputs a series of SE frames to physical port 216. . In this example, switch 214 forwards a SE STB frame from virtual port vPORTa1 to physical port 216, followed by a SE PC frame from virtual port vPORTa2 to physical port 216, followed by a SE PC frame from virtual port vPORTa3 to physical port 216. , followed by SE STB frames from virtual port vPORTa1 to physical port 216, and subsequently physical port 216 outputs those frames in the same fashion. Although FIG. 2 depicts transmit circuit 200 as receiving and operating with input from a single local router/switch, transmit circuit 200 may alternatively receive input from multiple routers/switches. It is capable of receiving input and acting accordingly.

FIG. 2B shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 250 in accordance with the present invention. Transmitter circuit 250 is similar to transmitter circuit 200 and, as a result, uses the same reference numerals to denote elements that are common to both transmitter circuit 200 and transmitter circuit 250 .

As shown in FIG. 2B, transmission circuitry 250 is configured such that transmission circuitry 250 includes a first network physical port 216A and a second network physical port 216B, both of which are coupled to virtual switch 214. It is different from the transmission circuit 200 in this respect. In addition, virtual switch 214 provides a continuous connection between outgoing virtual port vPORTa1 and network physical port 216A. Additionally, an additional outgoing virtual port vPORTa4 is shown.

Transmit circuitry 250 operates substantially the same as transmit circuitry 200, except that one or more of the sources (e.g., STB, PC, or video sources) are faster than the maximum frame rate of network physical ports 216A and 216B. The difference is that it outputs frames of data at a higher frame rate. For example, each of network physical ports 216A and 216B may have a maximum frame rate of 5 frames/second.

In the example of FIG. 2B, the set top box outputs 7 STB frames per second, the personal computer outputs 2 PC frames per second, and the video device outputs 1 video frame per second. (The numbers given are for illustrative purposes only.) As shown in FIG. 2B, five of the seven STB frames are transmitted from network physical port 216A, while , the remaining two STB frames, two PC frames, and one video frame are transmitted from network physical port 216B in the manner illustrated by methods 300 and 350. FIG. One of the advantages of transmit circuit 250 is that transmit circuit 250 can handle incoming frame rates that are greater than the maximum frame rate of the network physical port.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmit circuit 400 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention. Transmitter circuit 400 is similar to transmitter circuit 200 and, as a result, utilizes the same reference numerals to indicate structures common to both circuits.

As shown in FIG. 4, transmit circuit 400 is a serial-to-parallel virtual port in which framing circuit 212 of transmit circuit 400 is coupled to virtual ports vPORTa1-vPORTan instead of virtual switch 220 followed by framer 222. It differs from transmit circuit 200 in that it utilizes a serial-to-serial framer 410 followed by a switch 412 .

In a further alternative embodiment, framer 410 and virtual switch 412 of transmit circuitry 400 can be physically separated, with framer 410 incorporated into a local router/switch.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmitter circuit 500 in accordance with the present invention. Transmitter circuit 500 is similar to transmitter circuit 400 and, as a result, uses the same reference numerals to denote structures common to both circuit 400 and circuit 500 . A local framer router/switch 510 is utilized with transmit circuitry 500 in place of the STB, PC, and local router/switch for receiving and outputting video frames as shown in the example shown in FIG. there is

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual exit device 600 according to the invention. As shown in FIG. 6, virtual egress device 600 includes network physical port 610 and receiving virtual switch 612 coupled to network physical port 610 . Virtual egress device 600 also includes a number of receive virtual ports vPORTb 1 -vPORTbn coupled to switch 612 . Each receive virtual port vPORTb then includes a receive queue and receive frame formatting circuitry. Virtual egress device 600 further includes deframing circuitry 614 coupled to each of receive virtual ports vPORTb and a local physical port 616 coupled to deframing circuitry 614 .

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart illustrating an example method 700 of operating the virtual exit device 600 in accordance with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, method 700 begins at 710 with network physical port 610 receiving a second encapsulated (SE) frame from a virtual network. The SE frame has a header containing the next hop address and the receiving virtual port identifier.

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

The method 700 then moves to 716 where the receiving virtual switch 612 switchably passes the ME frame based on the receiving virtual port identifier in the header of the ME frame. The method 700 then moves to 718 where the receiving virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn unpack the switchably passed ME frame to extract the first encapsulated frame from the switchably passed ME frame. and thereby each receiving virtual port vPORTb unpacks the ME frame to extract the first encapsulated frame.

Following this, the method 700 moves to 720 where the deframing circuit 614 unpacks the first encapsulated frame and converts the original STB, PC, and video from the first encapsulated frame. Extract the input frame. Original STB, PC, and video input frames have several frame types. Additionally, each incoming frame has a header that identifies the destination router/switch. The method 700 then moves to 722 where the deframing circuit 614 transfers the STB, PC and video frames to the local physical port 616, which transfers the original STB, PC and video frames to the remote output to a remote router/switch, such as router/switch 122;

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

Similarly, virtual switch 612 receives the ME PC frame from network physical port 610 and identifies the destination virtual port as virtual port vPORTb2 from the destination virtual port number Dst_vID in the header of the ME PC frame. In addition, switch 612 identifies a route to virtual port vPORTb2 from its static forwarding table and then outputs the ME PC frame on the second virtual port line being routed towards virtual port vPORTb2.

In addition, virtual switch 612 receives the ME video frame from network physical port 610 and identifies the destination virtual port as virtual port vPORTb3 from the destination virtual port number Dst_vID in the header of the ME video frame. Switch 612 identifies a route to virtual port vPORTb3 from its static forwarding table and then outputs the ME video frame on the third virtual port line which is routed towards virtual port vPORTb3.

Virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn receive ME frames, unpack ME frames, and extract FE frames such as FE STB frames, FE PC frames, and FE video frames from ME frames. In the example of FIG. 6, the receive queue of the first virtual port vPORTb1 receives ME STB frames, while the frame formatting circuit of virtual port vPORTb1 unpacks the ME STB frames to generate FE STB frames. Extract, the FE STB frame has a header containing the identity of the virtual egress device.

Similarly, the receive queue of the second virtual port vPORTb2 receives ME PC frames, while the frame formatting circuit of virtual port vPORTb2 unpacks the ME PC frames into a fourth encapsulated PC Extract the frame, the fourth encapsulated PC frame has a header containing the identity of the virtual egress device. In addition, the receive queue of the third virtual port vPORTb3 receives ME video frames while the frame formatting circuit of virtual port vPORTb3 unpacks the ME video frames to produce a fourth encapsulated video A frame is extracted, the fourth encapsulated video frame of which has a header containing the identity of the virtual egress device.

A deframing circuit 614 receives multiple FE frames and extracts the original STB, PC, and video input frames from the FE frames. Those input frames have several 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, the deframing circuit 614 unpacks the FE frame, extracts the input frame, identifies the identity of the remote router/switch from the header of the input frame, and directs the input frame to the local physical port 616. output, and local physical port 616 outputs the input frame to a remote router/switch, such as remote router/switch 122 .

As shown in FIG. 6, deframing circuit 614 includes deframer 620 and virtual switch 622 coupled to deframer 620 . During operation, deframer 620 receives FE frames from multiple receive virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn, unpacks the FE frames to extract the original input frames, e.g., STB frames, PC frames, and video frames; It forwards the STB frames, PC frames, and video frames to the virtual switch 622 .

In the example of FIG. 6, deframer 620 receives FE STB frames from receive virtual port vPORTb 1 , unpacks the FE frames to extract STB frames, and forwards the STB frames to virtual switch 622 . Similarly, deframer 620 receives FE PC frames from receive virtual port vPORTb 2 , unpacks the FE frames to extract PC frames, and forwards the PC frames to virtual switch 622 . In addition, deframer 620 receives FE video frames from receive virtual port vPORTb 3 , unpacks the FE frames to extract video frames, and forwards the video frames to virtual switch 622 . Deframer 620 may utilize the same or different protocol as framer 222 .

Virtual switch 622 cycles through the output of deframer 620 to sequentially receive and forward output frames to 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, virtual switch 622 receives PC frames from deframer 620 , detects the MAC address of the remote router/switch, and outputs the PC frames to local physical port 616 . Additionally, virtual switch 622 receives video frames from deframer 620 , detects the MAC address of the remote router/switch, and outputs video frames to local physical port 616 . The local physical port 616 then outputs those 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 . Deframing circuit 614 may alternatively be implemented using other circuit configurations. For example, deframing circuit 614 may be implemented with a serial-to-parallel virtual switch coupled to virtual ports vPORTb1-vPORTbn followed by a serial-to-serial framer.

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a virtual exit device 800 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention. Virtual exit device 800 is similar to virtual exit device 600 and, as a result, utilizes the same reference numerals to denote structures common to both devices.

As shown in FIG. 8, virtual egress device 800 is a parallel-to-serial virtual port in which framing circuit 614 of virtual egress device 800 is coupled to virtual ports vPORTb 1 -vPORTbn followed by serial-to-serial deframer 812 . It differs from virtual egress device 600 in that switch 810 is included. The implementation of framing circuit 212 and deframing circuit 614 can be interchanged. For example, virtual ingress device 110 may utilize framing circuit 212 implemented using virtual switch 220 and framer 222, while virtual egress device may utilize deframing circuit 614, virtual switch 810 , and a deframer 812 can be used.

In a further alternative embodiment, virtual switch 810 and deframer 812 can be physically separated, with deframer 812 incorporated into a local router/switch.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of a receiving circuit 900 according to the invention. Receive circuit 900 is similar to receive circuit 800 and, as a result, uses the same reference numerals to denote structures common to both circuit 800 and circuit 900 . Instead of a local router-switch, a local deframer router/switch 910 is utilized in the receiver circuit 900 as shown in the example shown in FIG.

In addition to forwarding frames of data through the virtual network, hops through the virtual network can be tested by generating test SE frames. The outgoing virtual port vPORTa identifies the next hop in the virtual network to the virtual egress device terminating the link under test. Following this, the sending virtual port vPORTa generates a frame as a test frame and a test SE frame with a header identifying the virtual egress device terminating the link to be tested.

Virtual switch 214 passes the test SE frame to the network physical port in the manner described above, and the network physical port transmits the test SE frame. The test SE frame reaches 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 test information. The receiving virtual port vPORTb can then determine frame latency, frame loss rate, and live/shutdown status from the test SE frames, and these are utilized to determine quality of service (QoS) measurements. It is possible to

Reference has now been made in detail to various embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Although described in connection with various embodiments, it will be understood that these various embodiments are not intended to limit the present disclosure. On the contrary, the disclosure is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents that may fall within the scope of the disclosure when interpreted according to the claims.

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

Although methods may be presented herein as a sequence of numbered operations for clarity, the numbering does not necessarily indicate the order of the operations. Please note that. It should be appreciated that some of the operations can be skipped, performed in parallel, or performed without the need to preserve the strict order of the sequence.

The drawings showing various embodiments according to the present disclosure are semi-schematic and not to scale, in particular some of the dimensions are for clarity of presentation and drawn It is exaggerated in the drawing. Similarly, views in the drawings generally show similar orientations for ease of illustration, but this depiction in the figures is for the most part arbitrary. In general, various embodiments according to the present disclosure can be operated in any orientation.

Some portions of the detailed description are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the means 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, logic block, process, etc., is conceived to be a coherent sequence of operations or instructions leading to a desired result. These operations are those that employ physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities are electrical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computing system. or take the form of a magnetic signal. 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.

Note, however, that all of these and similar terms are associated with appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities. Throughout this disclosure, unless otherwise stated, “generate,” “identify,” “allocate,” “aggregate,” “utilize,” “virtualize,” Discussion utilizing terms such as "do", "process", "access", "execute", "store" and the like refer to the actions and processes of a computer system or similar electronic computing device or processor. is understood to refer to

A computing system, or similar electronic computing device or processor, as a physical (electronic) quantity in the computer system's memory, registers, other such information storage, and/or other computer-readable medium manipulating represented data to transform it into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the memory or registers of a computer system or other such information storage, transmission, or display device do.

In the previous section, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are clearly and completely described with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present application. Terms such as "first", "second", etc. in the description and claims of the present invention and in the above drawings are used to distinguish between similar objects and are not necessarily in a particular sequence. Note that they are not necessarily used to describe order. These numbers can be interchanged, where appropriate, so that the embodiments of the invention described herein are shown or described herein. It should be understood that the steps may be performed out of order.

The functionality described in the method of this embodiment can be implemented in the form of software functional units and stored in a computing device readable storage medium when sold or used as an independent product. be. Based on such an understanding, some of the embodiments of the present application or some of the technical solutions that contribute to the prior art are the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. stored on a storage medium containing a plurality of instructions for causing a computing device (which can be a personal computer, server, mobile computing device, network device, etc.) to execute all or part of It can be embodied in the form of a software product that is Such storage media include USB drives, portable hard disks, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, optical disks, etc., which are capable of storing program code.

Various embodiments in the specification of the present application are described in a progressive fashion, with each embodiment focusing on its own differences from other embodiments and the differences between the various embodiments. Same or similar parts can be referred to in different cases. The described embodiments are merely some, rather than all, of the embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments that can be obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of this application without departing from the skill of the present invention are within the scope of this application.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments will enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present application. Various modifications to these embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of this application. It is possible to Therefore, the present application is not limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (20)

a virtual network,
a virtual entrance device;
a virtual egress device to be coupled to a remote router/switch;
a communication channel coupled to the virtual ingress device and the virtual egress device;
and
the virtual entrance device,
receiving an input frame having a header identifying the remote router/switch, the input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
identifying 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 including a field identifying the virtual egress device and a field containing the input frame; having, forming
identifying 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 including a field identifying a next hop; forming a field containing one encapsulated frame;
combining the second encapsulated frames with second encapsulated frames from other sources to form a sequence of second encapsulated frames;
transmitting the sequence of second encapsulated frames;
A virtual network that is used for the virtual exit device,
receiving the sequence of second encapsulated frames;
separating the second encapsulated frame from the sequence of second encapsulated frames;
2. The virtual network of claim 1, wherein the virtual network is for performing The virtual exit device further:
unpacking the second encapsulated frame to extract the first encapsulated frame;
unpacking the first encapsulated frame to extract the input frame;
sending the input frame to the remote router/switch;
3. The virtual network of claim 2, wherein the virtual network is for performing the virtual entry device generating a test frame having a header identifying a virtual exit device under test and transmitting the test frame to the virtual exit device under test;
the virtual exit device receives the test frame, unpacks the test frame, and identifies one or more measurements of status from the unpacked test frame;
A virtual network according to claim 3. 4. The virtual network of claim 3, wherein said communication channel comprises a fiber optic cable passing said plurality of packed data frames as a single stream of data on a single wavelength. 3. The virtual ingress device encapsulates the incoming frame with a protocol from a group of protocols including Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and Transfer Multiprotocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol. 4. The virtual network according to 3. A method of operating a virtual network, comprising:
receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch, said input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
identifying 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 including a field identifying the virtual egress device and a field containing the input frame; a forming step comprising
identifying 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 including a field identifying a next hop and the forming a field containing one 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;
transmitting said sequence of second encapsulated frames;
method including. receiving said sequence of second encapsulated frames;
and separating the second encapsulated frame from the sequence of second encapsulated frames. unpacking the second encapsulated frame to extract the first encapsulated frame;
unpacking the first encapsulated frame to extract the input frame;
sending the input frame to the remote router/switch identified in the header of the input frame;
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: generating a test frame having a header identifying a virtual egress device under test and transmitting said test frame to said virtual egress device under test;
receiving the test frame, unpacking the test frame, and identifying one or more measures of status from the unpacked test frame;
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: passing said sequence of second encapsulated frames from said virtual ingress device to said virtual egress device, said sequence of second encapsulated frames being a single unit of data at a single wavelength; 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising passing in a fiber optic cable as a stream. wherein said sequence of second encapsulated frames comprises first frames comprising input frames originating from a first source, second frames comprising input frames originating from a second source, and third frames comprising input frames originating from a second source. and a third frame containing the input frame originating from the source. 9. The input frame of claim 8, wherein the input frame is encapsulated using a protocol from a group of protocols including Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and Transfer Multiprotocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol. Method. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embedded therein which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of operating a virtual network, the method comprising:
receiving an input frame having a header identifying a remote router/switch, said input frame originating from one of a plurality of sources;
identifying 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 including a field identifying the virtual egress device and a field containing the input frame; a forming step comprising
identifying 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 including a field identifying a next hop and the forming a field containing one 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;
transmitting said sequence of second encapsulated frames;
medium, including receiving said sequence of second encapsulated frames;
15. The medium of claim 14, further comprising: separating the second encapsulated frames from the sequence of second encapsulated frames. unpacking the second encapsulated frame to extract the first encapsulated frame;
unpacking the first encapsulated frame to extract the input frame;
sending the input frame to the remote router/switch identified in the header of the input frame;
16. The medium of claim 15, further comprising: generating a test frame having a header identifying a virtual egress device under test and transmitting said test frame to said virtual egress device under test;
receiving the test frame, unpacking the test frame, and identifying one or more measures of status from the unpacked test frame;
17. The medium of claim 16, further comprising: The method comprises passing the sequence of second encapsulated frames from the virtual ingress device to the virtual egress device, wherein the sequence of second encapsulated frames is transmitted at a single wavelength. 15. The medium of claim 14, further comprising passing in a fiber optic cable as a single stream of data of . wherein said sequence of second encapsulated frames comprises first frames comprising input frames originating from a first source, second frames comprising input frames originating from a second source, and third frames comprising input frames originating from a second source. and a third frame containing the input frame originating from the source. 15. The input frame of claim 14, wherein the input frame is encapsulated using a protocol from a group of protocols including Provider Backbone Bridge Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) protocol and Transfer Multiprotocol Listing Switch (T-MPLS) protocol. medium.

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