WO2024087975A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed in the embodiments of the present application is a communication method. The method comprises: a first communication apparatus sending a first FlexE code block stream to a second communication apparatus by means of a first FlexE channel, and sending the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication apparatus by means of a second FlexE channel, wherein the first FlexE code block stream comprises a first serial number, and the first serial number identifies the sending sequence of the first FlexE code block stream. Since the second communication apparatus can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the two FlexE channels, and the possibility of the two FlexE channels both failing when transmitting the first FlexE code block stream is low, the second communication apparatus can at least receive from a certain fault-free FlexE channel the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication apparatus, and since the FlexE channels can realize hard service isolation, the solution can achieve the communication effect of almost zero packet loss while realizing the hard service isolation.

Description

A communication method and device

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on October 26, 2022, with application number 202211316947.4 and application name “A Communication Method and Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a communication method and device.

Background technique

Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) technology has the advantage of flexible bandwidth allocation on demand, which can meet the needs of network scenarios such as mobile bearer, home broadband, and dedicated line access. Therefore, the application of FlexE technology will become more and more extensive.

When network devices use FlexE technology for communication, how to improve the communication quality of FlexE technology and minimize the packet loss rate to provide higher quality of service (QoS) for the business is a problem that has yet to be solved.

Summary of the invention

The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which can achieve a communication effect of almost zero packet loss in a scenario where technology is used for communication between network devices, thereby providing a higher service quality for the business.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a first communication device, and the first communication device and the second communication device can communicate using FlexE technology. In an example, at least two FlexE channels may be included between the first communication device and the second communication device. The at least two FlexE channels may include a first FlexE channel and a second FlexE channel. The first communication device may send a first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel, and send the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel. The first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, and the first sequence number identifies the order in which the first FlexE code block stream is sent. Since the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from two FlexE channels, and the possibility that both FlexE channels fail when transmitting the first FlexE code block stream is low, the second communication device can at least receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device from a non-faulty FlexE channel. For example, when the first FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the second FlexE channel; when the second FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the first FlexE channel. This achieves a communication effect with almost zero packet loss, improving the service quality provided to the business. Since the FlexE channel can achieve hard isolation of services, this solution can achieve a communication effect with almost zero packet loss while achieving hard isolation of services.

In a possible implementation, the first communication device may obtain (for example, generate) the first FlexE code block stream, and send the FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel respectively. In one example, after the first communication device obtains the first FlexE code block stream, the first FlexE code block stream may be copied to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams. For example, the first FlexE code block stream may be copied to obtain two first FlexE code block streams, one of which is sent to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel, and the other is sent to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel. In one example, by copying the first FlexE code block stream, a mirror image of the first FlexE code block stream can be obtained.

In a possible implementation, both the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are FlexE small-granularity channels. In this case, this solution can provide a quality of service with almost zero packet loss for small-granularity services transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, both the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are FlexE large-granularity channels. In this case, this solution can provide a quality of service with almost zero packet loss for large-granularity services transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may be a code block stream obtained after encoding the service stream. As an example, the service stream may be first encapsulated using a container to obtain a container, and then the container may be encoded to obtain the first FlexE code block stream.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are large-granular channels, after encoding the container, a FlexE OH and a FlexE payload may be obtained. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream may include a FlexE overhead (OH) and a FlexE payload, and in this case, the container may be carried by the FlexE payload.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are small granule channels, after encoding the container, a fine granularity basic unit (fgBU) can be obtained, and the fgBU can include fgBU OH and fgBU payload. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream may include fgBUOH and fgBU payload, and the container may be carried by the fgBU payload.

In a possible implementation, the container overhead may include verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead, so as to ensure the legitimacy of the container overhead, and correspondingly, to ensure the accuracy of the first sequence number carried in the container overhead. As an example, the container overhead may include a check word field, and the check word field is used to carry the verification information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new O code block may be defined, and the newly defined O code block may be used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, in order to avoid excessive extension of the first FlexE code block stream, the first indication information may be carried by the type field of the O code block.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start (start, S) code block, at least one data (data, D) code block, and an end (terminate, T) code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new SDT code block sequence may be defined, and the newly defined SDT code block sequence may be used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the SDT code block sequence is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block sequence carries the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the second indication information.

In a possible implementation, in order to avoid excessive extension of the first FlexE code block stream, the second indication information may be carried by a T code block of the SDT code block sequence.

In a possible implementation, the T code block in the SDT code block carrying the first sequence number may include a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information. In this way, the SDT code block carries both the first sequence number and the second indication information.

In one possible implementation, a field may be defined in the control block to carry the second indication information. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the field in the control block used to carry the second indication information. As an example, the field may be a magic number (Magic Num) field.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include a preamble, which is used to carry the first sequence number. The preamble is a part of an S code block in an SDT code block sequence. As an example, a new preamble may be newly defined, and the newly defined preamble is used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the preamble is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may also include third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the SDT code block sequence. In one example, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream can be replaced with the third indication information. In another example, in order to avoid excessive expansion of the first FlexE code block stream, the third indication information can also be carried by the S code block to which the preamble belongs. For example, a part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block can be used to carry the first sequence number, and another part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block can be used to carry the third indication information.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE code block stream is used to carry a small particle service, the first FlexE code block stream includes an fgBU OH and an fgBU payload. For this case, in an example, the fgBU OH may include the first sequence number. In a scenario where the first sequence number is carried by the fgBU OH, the fgBU OH may also include an fg-client identifier. The fg-client identifier may be an identifier of an fg-client to which the first FlexE code block stream belongs. The fg-client identifier may enable the receiving end to cache the code block streams corresponding to the fg-client identifier received from multiple FlexE channels based on the fg-client.

In a possible implementation, when the fgBU OH is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the fgBU OH. In an example, the fourth indication information may be carried by a flags field in the fgBU OH.

In a possible implementation, the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream may be a constant bit rate (CBR) service. In this case, the CBR service transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device may be The service provides almost zero packet loss quality of service.

In a possible implementation, the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream may be a variable bit rate (VBR) service. In an example, a VBR service may also be referred to as an Ethernet-CBR service. In some scenarios, a VBR service may also be directly understood as an Ethernet service. In this case, by using this solution, a quality of service of almost zero packet loss may be provided for the VBR service transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, when the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream is a VBR service, the first FlexE code block stream also includes a slice type identifier and slice length information, the slice type identifier is used to identify the slice type corresponding to the first FlexE code block stream, and the slice type includes: head slice, middle slice or tail slice, and the slice length information is used to identify the effective data length of the payload part in the first FlexE code block stream.

In a possible implementation, the aforementioned first FlexE code block stream belongs to the first client, and the first communication device can add a serial number to the code block stream corresponding to the first client according to a certain period, for example, adding a serial number to the code block stream corresponding to the first client with a period of 20 milliseconds. In this case, after the first communication device sends the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel and sends the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel, it can also obtain the second FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the second serial number identifies the sending order of the second FlexE code block stream, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client, and further send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel, and send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel. Similarly, the second communication device can receive the second FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device from at least one non-faulty FlexE channel, thereby achieving a communication effect with almost zero packet loss and improving the service quality provided to the business.

In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a second communication device, and the second communication device can receive a first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device. The first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, and the first sequence number identifies the order of sending the first FlexE code block stream. Since the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from two FlexE channels, and the possibility of both FlexE channels failing when transmitting the first FlexE code block stream is low, the second communication device can at least receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device from a certain non-faulty FlexE channel. For example, when the first FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the second FlexE channel; when the second FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the first FlexE channel. Thereby achieving a communication effect with almost zero packet loss and improving the quality of service provided for the business. Since FlexE channels can implement hard isolation of services, this solution can achieve a communication effect of almost zero packet loss while implementing hard isolation of services.

In a possible implementation, in order to improve the quality of service, after the second communication device receives the first FlexE code block stream through two FlexE channels, it can determine further operations according to the time sequence of receiving the first FlexE code block stream from the two FlexE channels. As an example, the second communication device can forward the code block stream received by the FlexE channel with an earlier corresponding receiving time, and not forward the code block stream received by the FlexE channel with a later corresponding receiving time. In order to achieve this effect, in a specific example: the second communication device can cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to the first cache unit. As a specific example, the second communication device can cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after the first sequence number to the first cache unit after receiving the first sequence number. Similarly, the second communication device can cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to the second cache unit.

In a possible implementation, the second communication device may also receive the aforementioned second FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, and cache the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit. Further, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream stored in the first cache unit are extracted to perform a forwarding processing operation. As described above, after receiving the first sequence number, the second communication device may cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after the first sequence number to the first cache unit. In one example, if the second communication device receives the second sequence number, the first cache unit includes the code block stream belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number. In this case, the second communication device may extract the code block stream belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number to perform a forwarding processing operation.

As an example, the forwarding processing operation mentioned in the embodiment of the present application may include forwarding and/or processing operations, where the forwarding operation may be, for example, forwarding the code block stream to a downstream node, and the processing operation may be, for example, recovering the client frame. In one example, the forwarding processing operation may be performed by a shim module of the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, since the second sequence number has been received from the first FlexE channel, in this case, the second communication device can also clear the code blocks belonging to the first FlexE code block stream stored in the second cache unit. In this scenario, as an example, even if the second communication device has not received the second sequence number from the second FlexE channel, before the second communication device receives the second sequence number from the second FlexE channel, other code block streams belonging to the first client are no longer cached in the second cache unit to avoid repeated caching of code block streams that have been received through the first FlexE channel and forwarding processing operations have been performed.

In a possible implementation, after receiving the first FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, wherein the third FlexE code block stream includes a third sequence number. After receiving the first FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second sequence number, the first sequence number, the second sequence number and the third sequence number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream and the third FlexE code block stream belong to the same client. In this case, the second communication device can cache the code blocks included in the third FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit, and store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the second cache unit. Specifically, the second communication device can first clear the first cache unit, and further cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after receiving the third sequence number to the first cache unit. The second communication device may store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream received within a period of time after receiving the first sequence number and before receiving the second sequence number in the second cache unit. Further, the second communication device may extract the code blocks stored in the second cache unit to perform a forwarding processing operation.

In a possible implementation, packet loss occurs in the first FlexE channel. For example, before the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device does not receive the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel. The second communication device may also receive the second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, thereby avoiding packet loss of data received by the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the service transmission delay can be reduced as much as possible. For example, before the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel. However, the moment when the second communication device receives the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel is later than the moment when the second communication device receives the second sequence number through the second FlexE channel. In this case, the second communication device can perform a forwarding processing operation on the second FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel.

In a possible implementation, both the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are FlexE small-granularity channels. In this case, this solution can provide a quality of service with almost zero packet loss for small-granularity services transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, both the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are FlexE large-granularity channels. In this case, this solution can provide a quality of service with almost zero packet loss for large-granularity services transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may be a code block stream obtained after encoding the service stream. As an example, the service stream may be first encapsulated using a container to obtain a container, and then the container may be encoded to obtain the first FlexE code block stream.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are large-granular channels, after encoding the container, a FlexE OH and a FlexE payload may be obtained. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream may include a FlexE OH and a FlexE payload, and in this case, the container may be carried by the FlexE payload.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are small-granular channels, after encoding the container, an fgBU may be obtained, and the fgBU may include an fgBU OH and an fgBU payload. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream may include an fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the container may be carried by the fgBU payload.

In a possible implementation, the container overhead may include verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead, so as to ensure the legitimacy of the container overhead, and correspondingly, to ensure the accuracy of the first sequence number carried in the container overhead. As an example, the container overhead may include a check word field, and the check word field is used to carry the verification information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new O code block may be defined, and the newly defined O code block may be used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, in order to avoid excessive extension of the first FlexE code block stream, the first indication information may be carried by the type field of the O code block.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include an SDT code block sequence consisting of an S code block, at least one D code block, and a T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new SDT code block sequence may be defined, and the newly defined SDT code block sequence may be used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the SDT code block sequence is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block sequence carries the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the second indication information.

In a possible implementation, in order to avoid excessive extension of the first FlexE code block stream, the second indication information may be carried by a T code block of the SDT code block sequence.

In a possible implementation, the T code block in the SDT code block carrying the first sequence number may include a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information. In this way, the SDT code block carries both the first sequence number and the second indication information.

In a possible implementation, a field may be defined in the control block to carry the second indication information. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the field in the control block used to carry the second indication information. As an example, the field may be a magic word field.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream may include a preamble, which is used to carry the first sequence number. The preamble is a part of an S code block in an SDT code block sequence. As an example, a new preamble may be newly defined, and the newly defined preamble is used to carry the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, when the preamble is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may also include third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the SDT code block sequence. In one example, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream can be replaced with the third indication information. In another example, in order to avoid excessive expansion of the first FlexE code block stream, the third indication information can also be carried by the S code block to which the preamble belongs. For example, a part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block can be used to carry the first sequence number, and another part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block can be used to carry the third indication information.

In a possible implementation, when the first FlexE code block stream is used to carry a small particle service, the first FlexE code block stream includes an fgBU OH and an fgBU payload. For this case, in an example, the fgBU OH may include the first sequence number. In a scenario where the first sequence number is carried by the fgBU OH, the fgBU OH may also include an fg-client identifier. The fg-client identifier may be an identifier of an fg-client to which the first FlexE code block stream belongs. The fg-client identifier may enable the receiving end to cache the code block streams corresponding to the fg-client identifier received from multiple FlexE channels based on the fg-client.

In a possible implementation, when the fgBU OH is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the fgBU OH. In an example, the fourth indication information may be carried by an identification field in the fgBU OH.

In a possible implementation, the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream may be a CBR service. In this case, by using this solution, a quality of service with almost zero packet loss can be provided for the CBR service transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream may be a VBR service. In one example, the VBR service may also be referred to as an Ethernet-CBR service. In some scenarios, the VBR service may also be directly understood as an Ethernet service. In this case, by using this solution, a quality of service with almost zero packet loss may be provided for the VBR service transmitted between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, when the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream is a VBR service, the first FlexE code block stream also includes a slice type identifier and slice length information, where the slice type identifier is used to identify the slice type corresponding to the first FlexE code block stream, and the slice type includes: a head slice, a middle slice, or a tail slice, and the slice length information is used to identify the service carrying the VBR service. The valid data length of the payload part in the first FlexE code block stream.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a first communication device, which includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The transceiver unit is used to perform the reception and/or transmission related operations performed by the first communication device in the above-mentioned first aspect and various possible implementations of the first aspect; the processing unit is used to perform operations other than the reception and/or transmission related operations performed by the first communication device in the above-mentioned first aspect and various possible implementations of the first aspect. In a specific implementation, the transceiver unit may include a receiving unit and/or a sending unit, the receiving unit is used to perform reception related operations, and the sending unit is used to perform sending related operations.

In a specific example: the first communication device includes a sending unit, and the sending unit is used to send a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, and the first sequence number identifies the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream; send the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.

In a possible implementation manner, the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-grained service, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the second indication information is a magic word.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble, and the preamble includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble includes the message sequence number.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first sequence number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a constant bit rate CBR service.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate VBR service.

In a possible implementation, the device also includes: an acquisition unit, used to acquire the first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream; a processing unit, used to copy the first FlexE code block stream to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams, so as to facilitate sending the multiple first FlexE code block streams to the second communication device respectively through multiple FlexE channels between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the multiple FlexE channels include the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel.

In a possible implementation, the acquisition unit included in the device is also used to: acquire a second FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the second serial number identifies the sending order of the second FlexE code block stream, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client client; the sending unit is also used to send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel; and send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a second communication device, wherein the second communication device includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The transceiver unit is used to perform operations related to reception and/or transmission performed by the second communication device in the above-mentioned second aspect and various possible implementations of the second aspect; the processing unit is used to perform operations other than the operations related to reception and/or transmission performed by the second communication device in the above-mentioned second aspect and various possible implementations of the second aspect. In a specific implementation, the transceiver unit may include a receiving unit and/or a sending unit, the receiving unit is used to perform reception-related operations, and the sending unit is used to perform sending-related operations.

In a specific example: the second communication device includes a receiving unit, which is used to receive a first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, the first FlexE code block stream including a first sequence number, the first sequence number identifying the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In one possible implementation, the device also includes: a processing unit, configured to cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to a first cache unit, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to a second cache unit.

In a possible implementation, the receiving unit is also used to receive a second FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client; the processing unit included in the device is also used to cache the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit; extract the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream stored in the first cache unit to perform forwarding processing operations.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to: clear the code blocks belonging to the first FlexE code block stream stored in the second cache unit.

In a possible implementation, the receiving unit is also used to receive a third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, wherein the third FlexE code block stream includes a third serial number; receive a second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the first serial number, the second serial number and the third serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream and the third FlexE code block stream belong to the same client; the processing unit is also used to cache the code blocks included in the third FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit; store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the second cache unit; and extract the code blocks stored in the second cache unit to perform forwarding processing operations.

In a possible implementation, before receiving the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the first communication device has not received the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.

In a possible implementation manner, the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-grained service, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes a code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the second indication information is a magic word.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble, and the preamble includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble code includes the message sequence number.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first sequence number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a constant bit rate CBR service.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate VBR service.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a device. The device includes a processor and a memory. The memory is used to store instructions or computer programs. The processor is used to execute the instructions or computer programs in the memory, execute the method described in any one of the first aspects above, or execute the method described in any one of the second aspects above.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions or a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any of the methods described in the first aspect above, or execute any of the methods described in the second aspect above.

In the seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions or a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any of the methods described in the first aspect above, or execute any of the methods described in the second aspect above.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, comprising: a first communication device for executing the method described in any one of the first aspects above, and a second communication device for executing the method described in any one of the second aspects above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments recorded in the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative work.

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of an SPN architecture supporting small particle technology provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG1b is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG3 is a signaling interaction diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4a is a schematic structural diagram of a container provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4b is a schematic diagram of the structure of an O code block provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4c is a schematic diagram of the structure of an SDT code block sequence provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4d is a schematic diagram of the structure of a fgBU OH provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which can achieve a communication effect of almost zero packet loss in a scenario where technology is used for communication between network devices, thereby providing a higher service quality for the business.

To facilitate understanding, we first introduce the relevant content of FlexE.

FlexE group: One or more PHYs included in each FlexE group. When multiple PHYs are included, the multiple PHYs are physically independent. Network devices that apply FlexE technology can use the PHY number to identify which PHYs are included in a FlexE group to achieve logical bundling of multiple PHYs. For example, each PHY number can be identified by a number between 1 and 254, and 0 and 255 are reserved numbers. A PHY number can correspond to an interface on a network device. The same number must be used to identify the same PHY between two adjacent network devices. The number of each PHY included in a FlexE group does not have to be continuous. Normally, there is one FlexE group between two network devices, but this application does not limit the existence of only one FlexE group between two network devices, that is, there can also be multiple FlexE groups between two network devices. A PHY can be used to carry at least one client, and a client can be transmitted on at least one PHY. FlexE can support the mapping of any number of different FlexE Clients on any group of PHYs. and transmission, thereby realizing functions such as PHY bundling, channelization and sub-rate.

FlexE Client: corresponds to various user interfaces or bandwidths of the network. FlexE Client represents the customer data stream transmitted in a specified time slot (one time slot or multiple time slots) on the FlexE Group. One FlexE Group can carry multiple FlexE Clients, and one FlexE Client can correspond to one to multiple user service data streams (also called MAC Client). FlexE client can be flexibly configured according to bandwidth requirements, supporting Ethernet media access control (MAC) data streams of various rates (such as 10G, 40G, n*25G data streams, and even non-standard rate data streams). For example, the data stream can be passed to the FlexE shim layer through 64B/66B encoding. Customers sent through the same FlexE group need to share the same clock, and these customers need to adapt according to the allocated time slot rate. In this application, a FlexE client (also called a FlexE client interface) can be used to transmit the service data stream of the corresponding FlexE client. The FlexE client interface is a logical interface. Each FlexE interface can be logically divided into one or more FlexE client interfaces, each FlexE interface can be divided into multiple time slots in the time domain, and each FlexE client interface occupies at least one time slot of the multiple time slots. Among them: 64/66B means that the data code block includes 66 bits, the first two bits of the 66 bits are synchronization bits, and the last 64 bits are data bits. At the PCS layer, 64/66B can be extracted through the first two synchronization bits.

FlexE shim: As an additional logical layer inserted between the MAC and PHY (PCS sublayer) of the traditional Ethernet architecture, it is the core architecture for implementing FlexE technology based on the time slot distribution mechanism. For the transmitter, the main function of FlexE shim is to encapsulate data into pre-divided time slots. Then, according to the FlexE time slot table, the divided time slots are mapped to the PHY in the FlexE group for transmission. Among them, each time slot is mapped to a PHY in the FlexE group. Taking 100GE PHY as an example, the FlexE Shim layer can divide each 100GE PHY in the FlexE Group into a data bearer channel of 20 time slots, and the bandwidth corresponding to each slot is 5Gbps. Every time the PHY sends 64/66B data of 1023*20Slot, a FlexE overhead (OH) will be inserted to tell the receiver how to parse the received data.

Small particle service: In some embodiments, the slot corresponding to the large bandwidth can be further divided into multiple sub-slots to carry customer services with smaller bandwidth requirements, which are also referred to as small particle services. For example, the large bandwidth can be understood as the bandwidth corresponding to the service layer of the small particle service. For example, when the service layer of the small particle service is the MTN channel layer, the bandwidth of the MTN channel layer is 5Gbps, and the slot corresponding to the large bandwidth of 5Gbps is further divided according to the granularity of 10Mbps, and divided into 480 sub-slots, which are used to carry small particle services. For example, the first sub-slot, the third sub-slot and the fifth sub-slot of the 480 sub-slots are used to carry small particle service 1. For another example, when the service layer of the small particle service is the 10GE Ethernet physical layer, the corresponding large bandwidth is further divided into multiple sub-slots according to a finer granularity to carry small particle services. It can be seen that the bandwidth granularity of small particles is finer, and small particle services refer to services with relatively small bandwidth requirements. For example, the bandwidth requirement of the power line service is 10Mbps. At this time, the small-granule technology can be used to allocate a specified bandwidth for the power line service to carry the business traffic of the power line service. The above power line service is a small-granule service.

Among them, when transmitting small-particle services, for the transmitter, in one example, FlexE shim can encapsulate the data into pre-divided sub-slots according to the small-particle time slot configuration for transmission. For the receiver, FlexE shim can restore the data received through the slot with a corresponding bandwidth of 5 Gbps to the original small-particle service data according to the small-particle time slot configuration and continue to transmit. In another example, for the transmitter, the MTN path adaptation function can be used to encapsulate the data into the corresponding sub-slot for transmission, and for the receiver, the MTN path adaptation function can be used to restore the data received through the slot with a corresponding bandwidth of 5 Gbps to the original small-particle service data and continue to transmit.

In one example, the small granularity service data may be carried in a fine granularity unit (FGU) base frame. In one example, the small granularity unit may also be referred to as an fgBU, and in the embodiment of the present application, the two may be used interchangeably.

Correspondingly, in a scenario where the slot corresponding to the large bandwidth is not divided into multiple sub-time slots, the service carried by the slot corresponding to the large bandwidth can be called a large-granularity service.

Regarding the FlexE OH insertion method and the structure of the overhead frame, for a specific implementation method, please refer to the relevant description of FlexE in the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), which is not described in detail here.

Next, a possible slicing packet network (SPN) architecture supporting small particle technology is introduced. See Figure 1a, which is a schematic diagram of an SPN architecture supporting small particle technology provided in an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 1a , the SPN architecture includes:

Slicing packet layer (SPL), slicing channel layer (SCL), slicing transport layer (STL), and the integrated software defined network (SDN) slicing control plane. Ultra-high precision event frequency synchronization technology. Among them:

SCL includes FGU layer, MTN path (MTNP) layer and MTN section (MTNS) layer. Among them: FGU layer provides end-to-end deterministic low-latency N*10Mbps granularity hard slice channel for small-granular services. FGU layer is an independent sublayer and can be flexibly selected to be carried on MTN path layer or Ethernet physical layer as needed. In other words, the service layer of FGU layer can be MTN path layer or Ethernet physical layer.

STL adds a 10GE Ethernet physical layer interface based on the original high-speed Ethernet physical layer interface. The 10GE Ethernet physical layer can be applied to customer-premises equipment (CPE) scenarios and directly carry the FGU layer.

Next, taking the MTN channel layer carrying small-granularity services as an example, the MTNS and MTNP are introduced from the perspectives of the sending side behavior and the receiving side behavior.

First, the sending side behavior and the receiving side behavior of MTNS are introduced.

In one example, taking 100GBASE-R PHY as an example, MTNS provides point-to-point connection, is responsible for time slotting adjacent nodes connected by Ethernet PHY, and provides bonding, sub-rate, and channelization functions. MTNS is bidirectional and symmetrical, and here we take one data transmission direction as an example to illustrate.

On the sending side, MTNS inserts a special O code block into the 66B code block sequence, inserts a D code block after every 1023*20 66B code blocks, and inserts a D code block after every 1023*20 66B code blocks, for a total of 7 D code blocks. After inserting the 7th D code block, a special O code block is inserted after every 1023*20 code blocks. In this way, a total of 8*(1023*20+1) code blocks constitute an MTNS frame.

The O code block plus the aforementioned 7 D code blocks constitute the overhead of the MTNS frame. The overhead carries some point-to-point link configuration information indicating MTNS, such as time slot configuration information, section layer group configuration information, and so on.

MTNS continuously sends data to the receiving end according to the above frame structure. The continuous MTNS frames are equivalent to a 66B code block stream, which is converted into bits, optical signals, or other analog signals such as electrical pulses according to the lower PHY layer protocol defined by the Ethernet Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3, and sent out from the sending side device.

On the receiving side, first, according to the Ethernet lower PHY layer protocol, the received signal (such as bits, optical signals, or other analog signals such as electrical pulses) is identified by the O code block, and the frame header of the MTNS frame is locked. According to the fixed count, it can be known that the next overhead code block appears after 1023*20 code blocks. Correspondingly, the receiving side can determine the position of the data corresponding to each time slot in the received signal based on the O code block.

MTNS can only provide point-to-point connection, while MTNP is responsible for providing "end-to-end channel connection" from network inlet to network outlet. MTNP provides end-to-end rigid hard pipe connection and provides OAM and protection (OAMP) functions. A typical networking of MTNP can be referred to as shown in FIG1b, which is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Next, the sending side behavior and the receiving side behavior of MTNP are introduced in conjunction with Figure 1b.

As shown in Figure 1b, there is an end-to-end MTNP between provider edge (PE) 1 and PE2, and a point-to-point MTNS between PE1 and PE2.

On the network-to-network interface (NNI) side of PE1, the MTNP layer obtains the client signal from the MAC layer, and the client signal may be a MAC frame. The MAC mentioned here may be a processing module of the MAC layer. After obtaining the MAC frame, the MTNP layer encodes the MAC frame into a series of 64/66B code block sequences. Specifically, each MAC frame will be encoded into a series of 66B code block sequences defined by a start code block (S code block) and an end code block (i.e., T code block), and a series of MAC frame sequences will be encoded into a series of 66B code block sequences.

In one example, if there is no valid MAC frame waiting to be sent, the MTNP will fill the 66B code block with I code blocks to ensure that the MTNP hard pipe has data to send at all times.

The receiving side of the P node first identifies the MTNS frame according to the receiving side behavior of MTNS described above. Then, according to the pre-configuration, the MTNP data is restored from the specified MTNS time slot. The P node then performs MTNP forwarding. It should be noted here that the essential difference between MTNP forwarding and IP forwarding and MAC bridge forwarding is that MTNP forwarding exclusively occupies device forwarding resources, does not support statistical multiplexing, and the inlet and outlet of the network node (such as the P node) need to be configured with the same number of MTNS time slots.

As described above, in some embodiments, the slot corresponding to the large bandwidth can be further divided into multiple sub-slots for carrying small-granular services. For example, the slot corresponding to the bandwidth of 5 Gbps is further divided into 480 sub-slots according to the granularity of 10 Mbps. 480 sub-slots are used to carry small-particle services. In this case, MTN FGU can further divide 480 10Mbps time slots in the 5Gbps MTNP in a hierarchical manner. In this scenario, MTNP and MTN FGU can be decoupled, and at this time, MTNP serves as the service layer of MTN FGU. In an example, the fg-BU may include an FGU base frame overhead and an FGU base frame payload. Among them, the FGU base frame overhead can be used to carry small-particle time slot information, and the FGU base frame payload is used to carry the small-particle service data. Among them, the small-particle time slot information can be a mapping relationship between a sub-slot and a sub-client. Among them, the sub-client is similar to the FlexE client and also corresponds to various user interfaces or bandwidths of the network. The difference from the FlexE client is that the sub-client represents the customer data stream transmitted on the sub-slot, and a sub-client can correspond to one or more sub-slots.

For the scenario where the slot corresponding to the bandwidth of 5Gbps is further divided according to the granularity of 10Mbps, in one example, an FGU base frame may include 24 sub-timeslots, each sub-timeslot includes 65 bytes, and each sub-timeslot can carry 8 65-bit code blocks. In other words, the aforementioned base frame payload 120 may include 65*24=1560 bytes. 20 FGU base frames form a multiframe, and 24×20=480 sub-timeslots are provided in the multiframe. For the NNI sending side of PE1, the MTN FGU layer, like the MTNP, first encodes the MAC frame client signal into a 66B code block sequence, and then inserts the OAM code block. It should be noted that the OAM code block of the small-granular MTNP (fgMTNP) is inserted in the MTN FGU layer, not the OAM code block of the MTNP. Subsequently, a series of 66B code block sequences containing fgMTNP OAM code blocks are mapped into the 10Mbps time slot specified in the fg-BU according to the pre-configuration.

The fgBU sequence itself is actually a string of 66B code blocks, which can be equivalent to the client signal of MTNP. After inserting the MTNP OAM code block, it is mapped into the time slot specified by MTNS according to the behavior of the MTNS sending side described above.

The receiving side of the P node recovers the MTNP signal according to the above-mentioned behavior of the receiving side of the MTNP, and then extracts the OAM code block in the MTNP. After the receiving side of the P node recovers the MTNP signal, it can complete the framing of the fg-BU by searching the S code block.

The P node performs fgMTNP forwarding. fgMTNP forwarding is the same as MTNP forwarding, which is TDM forwarding, occupies the device forwarding resources exclusively, and does not support statistical multiplexing. The P node does not terminate the OAM code block of fgMTNP.

The sending side behavior of the P node is the reverse process of the receiving side behavior of the P node, which will not be described in detail here. In addition, the receiving side behavior of the PE2 node is the reverse process of the sending side behavior of the PE1 node, which will not be described in detail this time.

For other contents in the SPN architecture shown in Figure 1a, please refer to the relevant description in China Mobile's SPN small granule white paper, which will not be described in detail here.

Although in the above description, the MAC frame is encoded by using the 64/66B encoding method, the above is only shown as a possible implementation method, and the encoding technology used to encode the MAC frame is not limited to the 64/65B described above. For example, the MAC frame can also be encoded by using the 64/65B encoding method; for another example, the MAC frame can also be encoded by using the 256/257B encoding method, and so on, which are not listed here one by one.

At present, in order to improve the communication quality of FlexE technology, reduce the packet loss rate as much as possible and provide higher service quality for the business, unidirectional or bidirectional path protection can be implemented for the point-to-point SPN Ethernet hard dedicated line. In this protection scheme, the SPN channel layer can be detected for on-off according to the slice channel layer OAM. Among them, SPN Channel OAM can use the mechanism of replacing Idle code blocks to achieve rate adaptation. Fixed-period OAM is sent regularly within T+ΔT, and OAM is sent at the location where it needs to be sent and there is an Idle code block. Among them: T is the sending period of SPN Channel OAM. After sending SPN Channel OAM, if no feedback message is received from the other end for the SPN Channel OAM within 3 detection cycles, it can be considered that the link is interrupted, so the business is switched to the backup path for transmission to keep the business running normally.

However, with this protection solution, since it takes a certain switching time from determining that the link is interrupted to switching the service to the backup path for transmission, the service is interrupted during the switching time.

In view of this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which can achieve a communication effect with almost zero packet loss in a scenario where technology is used for communication between network devices, thereby providing higher service quality for the business.

See Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of an application scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application. In the scenario shown in Figure 2, the provider edge device (provider edge, PE) 1 and PE2 can communicate through FlexE technology. In an example, multiple FlexE channels can be included between PE1 and PE2. For ease of understanding, Figure 2 shows two FlexE channels, namely FlexE channel-1 and FlexE channel-2. Among them, FlexE channel-1 includes the provider backbone device (provider, P) 1, and PE1 can communicate with PE2 through P1; FlexE channel-1 includes P2, and PE1 can communicate with PE2 through P2.

In an example, FlexE channel-1 and FlexE channel-2 may be large-granularity channels for carrying large-granularity services. In an example, FlexE channel-1 and FlexE channel-2 may be small-granularity channels used to carry small-granularity services.

Next, in conjunction with the scenario shown in FIG. 2 , the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application is introduced.

Referring to FIG. 3 , which is a signaling interaction diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, in the method 100 shown in FIG. 3 , the first communication device may correspond to PE1 shown in FIG. 2 , and the second communication device may correspond to PE2 shown in FIG. 2 . The first FlexE channel in the method 100 may correspond to FlexE channel-1 shown in FIG. 2 , and the second FlexE channel in the method 100 may correspond to FlexE channel-2 shown in FIG. 2 .

The communication device mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a network device such as a switch or a router, or may be a component of a network device, such as a single board or a line card on the network device, or may be a functional module on the network device, or may be a chip for implementing the method of the present application, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application. The communication devices may be directly connected, for example, via an Ethernet cable or an optical cable, but not limited thereto. When the communication device is a chip, the device used to perform the transceiver operation in the present application may include, for example, an interface circuit of the chip, and the device used to perform the processing operation may include, for example, a circuit with a processing function in the chip.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first communication device corresponds to PE1, which can be understood as the first communication device being the PE1 itself, or as a component of the PE1. Similarly, the second communication device corresponds to PE2, which can be understood as the second communication device being the PE2 itself, or as a component of the PE2.

The code block stream mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may include multiple code blocks, and the code block stream may also be referred to as a "code stream".

The method 100 shown in FIG. 3 , for example, may include the following S101 - S104 .

S101: A first communication device sends a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to a second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, where the first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, where the first sequence number identifies a sending order of the first FlexE code block stream.

S102: The first communication device sends the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In one example, the first communication device may obtain (e.g., generate) the first FlexE code block stream, and send the FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel, respectively. In one example, after the first communication device obtains the first FlexE code block stream, the first FlexE code block stream may be copied to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams. For example, the first FlexE code block stream may be copied to obtain two first FlexE code block streams, one of which is sent to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel, and the other is sent to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel. In one example, by copying the first FlexE code block stream, a mirror image of the first FlexE code block stream may be obtained.

In another example, the first communication device may generate multiple first FlexE code block streams. For example, two first FlexE code block streams may be generated, one of which is sent to the second communication device via a first FlexE channel, and the other is sent to the second communication device via a second FlexE channel.

In an embodiment of the present application, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are large-granule channels, the first FlexE code block stream is used to carry large-granule services; when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are small-granule channels, the first FlexE code block stream is used to carry small-granule services.

In one example, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream belong to the first client. When the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-granule service, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream belong to the first sub-client, and when the first FlexE code block stream carries a large-granule service, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream belong to the first FlexE client. The first sequence number identifies the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream, which can be understood as the first sequence number identifying the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream in the corresponding client.

In an embodiment of the present application, the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream may be a CBR service or a VBR service, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. In one example, a VBR service may also be referred to as an Ethernet-CBR service. In some scenarios, a VBR service may also be directly understood as an Ethernet service. In an example, when the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream is a VBR service, the first FlexE code block stream also includes a slice type identifier and slice length information, and the slice type identifier is used to identify the slice type corresponding to the first FlexE code block stream, and the slice type includes: a head slice, a middle slice or a tail slice, and the slice length information is used to identify the effective data length of the payload part in the first FlexE code block stream.

In one example, the first FlexE code block stream may be a code block stream obtained after encoding. The FlexE code block stream may be a code block stream obtained after encoding the service flow. In another example, the service flow may be first encapsulated using a container to obtain a container, and then the container is encoded to obtain the first FlexE code block stream.

In one example, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are large-granular channels, after encoding the container, a FlexE OH and a FlexE payload may be obtained. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream may include a FlexE OH and a FlexE payload, and in this case, the container may be carried by the FlexE payload.

In another example, when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are small particle channels, after encoding the container, fgBU can be obtained, and fgBU can include fgBU OH and fgBU payload. In this case, the first FlexE code block stream can include fgBU OH and fgBU payload, and the container can be carried by the fgBU payload.

In the embodiment of the present application, the container is a packaging structure provided by the present application, which is used to encapsulate the business flow.

Regarding the container, its structure can be understood with reference to Figure 4a, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a container provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4a: the container may include a container overhead and a container payload, and the container overhead may be used to carry the first serial number. For example, the container overhead may include a serial number field, and the serial number field is used to carry the first serial number. The container payload can be used to carry business flows. When the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are large-granular channels, the container payload can be used to carry business flows corresponding to multiple clients; when the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are small-granular channels, the container payload can be used to carry business flows corresponding to multiple sub-clients.

In one example, the container overhead may include verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead, so as to ensure the legitimacy of the container overhead, and correspondingly, to ensure the accuracy of the first sequence number carried in the container overhead. As an example, the container overhead may include a check word field, and the check word field is used to carry the verification information.

In one example, as shown in FIG. 4a , the container overhead may include an overhead control field in addition to the sequence number field and the check word field. As an example, the overhead control field may be used to indicate that the container overhead carries the first sequence number.

In addition, when the service carried by the first FlexE code block stream is a VBR service, the container overhead may also include a slice type identifier and slice length information. For example, the container overhead may include a slice type field and a slice length field, the slice type field is used to carry the slice identifier, and the slice length field is used to carry the slice length information.

In one example, the first FlexE code block stream may include an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new O code block may be defined, and the newly defined O code block may be used to carry the first sequence number. In one example, when the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may also include a first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block is used to carry the first sequence number. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the carrying position of the first indication information in the first FlexE code block stream. In one example, an Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the first indication information. In another example, in order to avoid excessive expansion of the first FlexE code block stream, the first indication information may be carried by the type field of the O code block.

Regarding the O code block, its structure can refer to Figure 4b, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of an O code block provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4a, the O code block may include a type field, four value fields, namely, a value 1 field, a value 2 field, a value 3 field, and a value 4 field. In addition, it also includes a sequence number (SEQ) field and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field.

In one example, the type field may be used to carry the first indication information, and one or more of the four value fields are used to carry the first serial number. For example, the three value fields, value 1 field, value 2 field, and value 3 field, are used to carry the first serial number.

The values of other fields such as the SEQ field and the reserved field can be set according to the actual situation and are not specifically limited here. For example, the value 3 field can be used to carry the check information corresponding to the O code block. The value of the SEQ field can be the default value.

In one example, the first FlexE code block stream may include an SDT code block sequence consisting of an S code block, at least one D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number. As an example, a new SDT code block sequence may be defined, and the newly defined SDT code block sequence may be used to carry the first sequence number. In one example, when the SDT code block sequence is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may also include second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the SDT code block sequence. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the carrying position of the second indication information in the first FlexE code block stream. In one example, an Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream may be replaced with the second indication information. In another example, in order to avoid excessive expansion of the first FlexE code block stream, the The second indication information may be carried by the T code block of the SDT code block sequence. As an example, the T code block may include a control block, which is used to carry the second indication information. In a specific example, a field may be defined in the control block to carry the second indication information. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the field in the control block used to carry the second indication information. As an example, the field may be a magic word field.

Regarding the SDT code block sequence, its structure can be understood by referring to FIG. 4c , which is a schematic diagram of the structure of an SDT code block sequence provided in an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG4c, the SDT code block includes an S code block, a D code block and a T code block, and the S code block includes a block type field and a preamble field. The D code block includes a sequence number field for carrying a first sequence number, and optionally, the D code block may also include a check word field for carrying check information. The T code block may adopt any T code block including a control block, for example, a TO code block, a T1 code block, a T2 code block, a T3 code block, a T4 code block, a T5 code block or a T6 code block, and FIG4c takes the T0 code block as an example for explanation. The control block includes a Magic Num field, and the magic word field is used to carry the second indication information. For example, the value of the Magic Num field may take a special value to represent the second indication information.

In one example, the first FlexE code block stream may include a preamble, which is used to carry the first sequence number. As can be seen from the previous description of Figure 4c, the preamble is part of the S code block in the SDT code block sequence. For the preamble, it is not repeated here. As an example, a new preamble can be newly defined, and the newly defined preamble is used to carry the first sequence number. In one example, when the preamble is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may also include a third indication information, which is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the SDT code block sequence. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the carrying position of the third indication information in the first FlexE code block stream. In one example, a certain Idle code block in the first FlexE code block stream can be replaced with the third indication information. In another example, in order to avoid excessive expansion of the first FlexE code block stream, the third indication information can also be carried by the S code block to which the preamble belongs. For example, a part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block may be used to carry the first sequence number, and another part of the field of the preamble included in the S code block may be used to carry the third indication information.

In one example, when the first FlexE code block stream is used to carry a small particle service, the first FlexE code block stream includes a fgBU OH and a fgBU payload. For this case, in one example, the fgBU OH may include the first serial number. As described above, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream belong to the first client. In the scenario where the first serial number is carried by the fgBU OH, the fgBU OH may also include an fg-client identifier. The fg-client identifier may be an identifier of the first fg-client. The fg-client identifier may enable the receiving end to cache the code block streams corresponding to the fg-client identifier received from multiple FlexE channels based on the fg-client. In one example, fg-client may also be referred to as sub-client, and the two may be used interchangeably.

In one example, when the fgBU OH is used to carry the first sequence number, the first FlexE code block stream may further include fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the first sequence number is carried in the fgBU OH. In one example, the fourth indication information may be carried by an identification field in the fgBU OH.

Regarding the fgBU OH, its structure can be understood with reference to FIG. 4d, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a fgBU OH provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4d, the fgBU OH may include a reserved field, a multiframe indication (MFI) field, a flags field, and a sequence number field. Among them:

The flags field is used to carry the fourth indication information, and the sequence number field is used to carry the first sequence number. Of course, the fgBU OH may also include other fields, such as a check word field for carrying the check information of the fgBU OH, which will not be described in detail here.

In addition, the MFI field is used to indicate the number of each fgBU in the multiframe. In the scenario where 20 fgBUs form a multiframe, the value range of the MFI field is 0-19. For the first fgBU in the multiframe, the value of the MFI field is 0. For the second FGU base frame in the multiframe, the value of the MFI field is 1, and so on. For the last fgBU in the multiframe, the value of the MFI field is 19.

S103: The second communication device receives the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the first FlexE channel.

S104: The second communication device receives the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the second FlexE channel.

The first communication device sends a first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel, and sends the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel. Correspondingly, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the first FlexE channel, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the second FlexE channel.

From the above description, it can be seen that, using the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, since the second communication device can The first FlexE code block stream is received, and the possibility that both FlexE channels fail when transmitting the first FlexE code block stream is low. Therefore, the second communication device can at least receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device from a non-faulty FlexE channel. For example, when the first FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the second FlexE channel; when the second FlexE channel fails, the second communication device can receive the first FlexE code block stream from the first FlexE channel. Thereby, a communication effect with almost zero packet loss is achieved, and the service quality provided to the business is improved. Since the FlexE channel can achieve hard isolation of the business, the adoption of this solution can achieve a communication effect with almost zero packet loss while achieving hard isolation of the business.

In one example, the first communication device may add a sequence number to the code block stream corresponding to the first client at a certain period, for example, at a period of 20 milliseconds. In this case, after executing the above method 100, the first communication device may also perform the following steps A1-A3.

Step A1: Obtain a second FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the second serial number identifies the sending order of the second FlexE code block stream, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered sequentially according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client client.

Step A2: Send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel.

Step A3: Send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel.

The embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit the sequential numbering according to the preset rule, and the preset rule can be determined according to actual conditions. For example, the sequential numbering according to the preset rule can be sequential numbering according to a fixed step length. The embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit the fixed step length, and the fixed step length can be 1. Assuming that the first sequence number is 1, the second sequence number is 2. For another example, the sequential numbering according to the preset rule can be sequential numbering according to a variable step length, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

For the specific implementation of steps A1-A3, reference may be made to the specific implementation of S101-S102 in the above method 100, which will not be repeated here.

In one example, in order to improve the quality of service, after the second communication device receives the first FlexE code block stream through two FlexE channels, it can determine further operations according to the time sequence of receiving the first FlexE code block stream from the two FlexE channels. As an example, the second communication device can forward the code block stream received by the FlexE channel with an earlier receiving time, and not forward the code block stream received by the FlexE channel with a later receiving time. In order to achieve this effect, in a specific example:

The second communication device may create a first cache instance corresponding to the first FlexE channel, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to the first cache unit through the first cache instance. As a specific example, after receiving the first sequence number, the second communication device may cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after the first sequence number to the first cache unit. Specifically, in the case where the first sequence number is carried by container overhead, O code block, SDT code stream or preamble, the second communication device may receive the first sequence number from a specific time slot, and determine the first client corresponding to the time slot according to the time slot mapping relationship, and further cache the code block stream of the first client. In the scenario where the first sequence number is carried by fg-BU OH, after receiving the first sequence number, the second communication device may further extract the fg-client identifier carried in the fg-BU OH, and determine the sub-time slot carrying the code block stream corresponding to the fg-client identifier according to the time slot mapping relationship, and further cache the code block stream corresponding to the sub-time slot carrying the code block stream corresponding to the fg-client identifier to the first cache unit.

Similarly, the second communication device may create a second cache instance corresponding to the second FlexE channel, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to the second cache unit through the second cache instance. For the specific implementation of "the second communication device caches the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to the second cache unit", please refer to the above specific implementation of "the second communication device caches the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to the first cache unit", which will not be repeated here.

In one example, the second communication device may also receive the aforementioned second FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, and cache the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit. Further, the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream stored in the first cache unit are extracted to perform forwarding processing operations.

As mentioned above, after receiving the first sequence number, the second communication device can cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after the first sequence number to the first cache unit. In one example, if the second communication device receives the second sequence number, the first cache unit includes the code block stream belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number. In this case, the second communication device can extract the code block belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number. The forwarding processing operation mentioned here may include forwarding and/or processing operations. The forwarding operation mentioned here may, for example, be forwarding the code block stream to a downstream node. The processing operation mentioned here may, for example, be recovering the client frame. In one example, the forwarding processing operation may be performed by a shim module of the second communication device.

In one example, after performing a forwarding processing operation on the code block stream belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number, the second communication device can clear the code block stream belonging to the first client received between the first sequence number and the second sequence number from the first cache unit, and further cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after the second sequence number to the first cache unit.

In one example, since the second sequence number has been received from the first FlexE channel, in this case, the second communication device can also clear the code blocks belonging to the first FlexE code block stream stored in the second cache unit. In this scenario, even if the second communication device has not received the second sequence number from the second FlexE channel, before the second communication device receives the second sequence number from the second FlexE channel, other code block streams belonging to the first client are no longer cached in the second cache unit to avoid repeated caching of code block streams that have been received through the first FlexE channel and forwarding processing operations have been performed. In one example, the second communication device can continue to cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after receiving the next sequence number until the next sequence number is received through the second FlexE channel.

In another example, after receiving the first FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, wherein the third FlexE code block stream includes a third sequence number. After receiving the first FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second sequence number, the first sequence number, the second sequence number and the third sequence number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream and the third FlexE code block stream belong to the same client client. In this case, the second communication device can cache the code blocks included in the third FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit, and store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the second cache unit. Specifically, the second communication device can first clear the first cache unit, and further cache the code block stream belonging to the first client received after receiving the third sequence number to the first cache unit. The second communication device may store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream received within a period of time after receiving the first sequence number and before receiving the second sequence number in the second cache unit. Further, the second communication device may extract the code blocks stored in the second cache unit to perform a forwarding processing operation.

In this way, even if packet loss occurs in the first FlexE channel, for example, before the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device has not received the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel. The second communication device can also receive the second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, thereby avoiding packet loss.

In addition, in this way, the service transmission delay can be reduced as much as possible. For example, before the second communication device receives the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second communication device receives the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second serial number through the first FlexE channel. However, the moment when the second communication device receives the second serial number through the first FlexE channel is later than the moment when the second communication device receives the second serial number through the second FlexE channel. In this case, the second communication device can perform a forwarding processing operation on the second FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first cache unit and the second cache unit may correspond to different memories, for example, the first cache unit is a cache unit in the first memory, and the second cache unit is a cache unit in the second memory. The first cache unit and the second cache unit may also correspond to the same memory, in which case, the first cache unit and the second cache unit may correspond to two non-overlapping storage spaces in the same memory.

To facilitate understanding of this solution, the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is now introduced in conjunction with Figure 5.

In the scenario shown in FIG5 , PE1 can mark the code block stream corresponding to the first client with a serial number according to a period, and the way in which PE1 marks the code block stream corresponding to the first client with a serial number is: sequentially numbering with a fixed step size of 1. As shown in FIG5 , the code block stream corresponding to the first client includes three code block streams, namely, code block stream 510, code block stream 520, and code block stream 530. In an example, the serial number of the code block stream is located in the code block stream (for example, it can be carried by an O code, a preamble, etc.), and PE1 sends the three code block streams to PE2 through FlexE channel-1 and FlexE channel-2 respectively.

After PE2 receives serial number 0 through FlexE channel-1, it creates a corresponding cache instance and caches the code blocks belonging to the first client received from FlexE channel-1 after receiving the serial number 0 into cache unit 1.

After receiving the sequence number 0 through FlexE channel-2, PE2 creates a corresponding cache instance and sends the received sequence number 0 to the cache instance. Afterwards, the code blocks belonging to the first client received from FlexE channel-2 are cached in cache unit 2.

Assuming that PE2 first receives sequence number 1 through FlexE channel-1, at this time, the PE2 can clear the cache unit 2 and extract the code block in the cache unit 1 to perform the forwarding processing operation. After extracting the code block in the cache unit 1, the cache unit 1 is cleared. It is not difficult to understand that when PE2 receives sequence number 1 through FlexE channel-1, the code blocks cached in the cache unit 1 include: code block 511 and code block 521.

In addition, PE2 continues to cache the code blocks belonging to the first client received from FlexE channel-1 after receiving the sequence number 1 into cache unit 1.

After PE2 clears the code blocks in the cache unit 2, it does not cache data in the cache unit 2 before receiving the sequence number 1 through FlexE channel-2. When PE2 receives the sequence number 1 through FlexE channel-2, PE2 continues to cache the code blocks belonging to the first client received from FlexE channel-2 after receiving the sequence number 1 into the cache unit 2.

Assuming that PE2 first receives sequence number 2 through FlexE channel-2, at this time, the PE2 can clear the cache unit 1 and extract the code block in the cache unit 2 to perform the forwarding processing operation. After extracting the code block in the cache unit 2, the cache unit 2 is cleared. It is not difficult to understand that when PE2 receives sequence number 2 through FlexE channel-2, the code blocks cached in the cache unit 2 include: code block 522 and code block 531.

FIG5 is an illustration of an example in which the code block stream corresponding to the first client includes three code block streams. The number of code block streams corresponding to the first client may be much greater than three. When the number of code block streams corresponding to the first client is greater than three, the operations performed by PE2 may be inferred from the example shown in FIG5 , and are not described in detail one by one here.

In Figure 5, PE1 can be equivalent to the first communication device in the above method embodiment; PE2 can be equivalent to the second communication device in the above method embodiment; FlexE channel-1 can correspond to the first FlexE channel in the above method embodiment; FlexE channel-2 can correspond to the second FlexE channel in the above method embodiment; cache unit 1 can correspond to the first cache unit in the above method embodiment; cache unit 2 can correspond to the second cache unit in the above method embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, see Figure 6, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 600 shown in Figure 6 may include a transceiver unit 601 and a processing unit 602. The transceiver unit 601 is used to perform operations related to receiving and/or sending; the processing unit 602 is used to perform operations other than operations related to receiving and/or sending. In a specific implementation, the transceiver unit 601 may include a receiving unit and/or a sending unit, the receiving unit is used to perform operations related to receiving, and the sending unit is used to perform operations related to sending.

In a specific example, when the communication device 600 corresponds to the first communication device mentioned in the above embodiment, the transceiver unit 601 may include a sending unit, and the sending unit is used to send a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, and the first sequence number identifies the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream; send the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.

In a possible implementation manner, the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-grained service, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate Indicates that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the second indication information is a magic word.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble, and the preamble includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble includes the message sequence number.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first sequence number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a constant bit rate CBR service.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate VBR service.

In a possible implementation, the device 600 also includes: an acquisition unit, used to acquire the first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream; the processing unit 602, used to copy the first FlexE code block stream to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams, so as to facilitate sending the multiple first FlexE code block streams to the second communication device respectively through multiple FlexE channels between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the multiple FlexE channels include the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel.

In a possible implementation, the acquisition unit included in the device is also used to: acquire a second FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the second serial number identifies the sending order of the second FlexE code block stream, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client client; the sending unit is also used to send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel; and send the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel.

In a specific example, when the communication device 600 corresponds to the second communication device mentioned in the above embodiment, the transceiver unit 601 may include a receiving unit, which is used to receive a first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, the first FlexE code block stream including a first serial number, the first serial number identifying the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit 602 is configured to cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel into a first cache unit, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel into a second cache unit.

In a possible implementation, the receiving unit is also used to receive a second FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the first serial number and the second serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client; the processing unit included in the device is also used to cache the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit; extract the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream stored in the first cache unit to perform forwarding processing operations.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit 602 is further configured to: clear the code blocks belonging to the first FlexE code block stream stored in the second cache unit.

In a possible implementation, the receiving unit is also used to receive a third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, wherein the third FlexE code block stream includes a third serial number; receive a second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the first serial number, the second serial number and the third serial number are numbered in sequence according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream and the third FlexE code block stream belong to the same client; the processing unit is also used to cache the code blocks included in the third FlexE code block stream to the first cache unit; store the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream to the second cache unit; and extract the code blocks stored in the second cache unit to perform forwarding processing operations.

In a possible implementation, before receiving the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the first communication device has not received the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second sequence number through the first FlexE channel.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.

In a possible implementation manner, the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-grained service, and the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation manner, the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the second indication information is a magic word.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble, and the preamble includes the first sequence number.

In a possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble includes the message sequence number.

In one possible implementation, the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first sequence number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a constant bit rate CBR service.

In a possible implementation manner, the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate VBR service.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 700, as shown in Figure 7, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 700 includes a communication interface 701 and a processor 702 connected to the communication interface 701. The communication device 700 can be used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment.

In one example, the communication device 700 can execute the method 100 in the above embodiment. When the communication device 700 is used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment, the communication device 700 is equivalent to the first communication device in the method 100. The communication interface 701 is used to execute the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device in the method 100. The processor 702 is used to execute operations other than the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device in the method 100. For example: the communication interface 701 is used to send a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, the first FlexE code block stream including a first sequence number, the first sequence number identifying the sending order of the first FlexE code block stream, and sending the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device. As an example, the processor 702 is used to copy the first FlexE code block stream to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams.

In one example, the communication device 700 can execute the method 100 in the above embodiment. When the communication device 700 is used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment, the communication device 700 is equivalent to the second communication device in the method 100. The communication interface 701 is used to execute the transceiver operation performed by the second communication device in the method 100. The processor 702 is used to execute operations other than the transceiver operation performed by the second communication device in the method 100. For example: the communication interface 701 is used to receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the first FlexE channel, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the second FlexE channel. As an example, the processor 702 is used to cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to the first cache unit, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to the second cache unit.

The processor 702 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and a NP. The processor may also be, for example, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPG), or a combination thereof. FPGA), generic array logic (GAL) or any combination thereof. Processor 702 may refer to one processor or may include multiple processors.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device 800, as shown in Figure 8, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 can be used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment.

As shown in FIG8 , the communication device 800 may include a processor 810 and a transceiver 830. In a specific implementation, the communication device may further include a memory 820 coupled to the processor 810. The transceiver 830 may be, for example, a communication interface, an optical module, etc. The processor 810 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and a NP. The processor may also be, for example, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The above-mentioned PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof. The processor 810 may refer to one processor or may include multiple processors. The memory 820 may include a volatile memory (English: volatile memory), such as a random access memory (English: random-access memory, abbreviated: RAM); the memory may also include a non-volatile memory (English: non-volatile memory), such as a read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory (English: flash memory), a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory 820 may also include a combination of the above-mentioned types of memories. The memory 820 may refer to one memory or may include multiple memories. In one embodiment, the memory 820 stores computer-readable instructions, and the computer-readable instructions include multiple software modules, such as a sending module 821, a processing module 822 and a receiving module 823. After executing each software module, the processor 810 may perform corresponding operations according to the instructions of each software module. In this embodiment, the operation performed by a software module actually refers to the operation performed by the processor 810 according to the instructions of the software module.

In one example, the communication device 800 can execute the method 100 in the above embodiment. When the communication device 800 is used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment, the communication device 800 is equivalent to the first communication device in the method 100. The transceiver 830 is used to execute the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device in the method 100. The processor 810 is used to execute operations other than the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device in the method 100. For example: the transceiver 830 is used to send a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, the first FlexE code block stream including a first sequence number, the first sequence number identifying the order of sending the first FlexE code block stream, and sending the first FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device. As an example, the processor 810 is used to copy the first FlexE code block stream to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams.

In one example, the communication device 800 may execute the method 100 in the above embodiment. When the communication device 800 is used to execute the method 100 in the above embodiment, the communication device 800 is equivalent to the second communication device in the method 100. The transceiver 830 is used to execute the transceiver operation performed by the second communication device in the method 100. The processor 810 is used to execute operations other than the transceiver operation performed by the second communication device in the method 100. For example: the transceiver 830 is used to receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the first FlexE channel, and receive the first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device through the second FlexE channel. As an example, the processor 810 is used to cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel to the first cache unit, and cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel to the second cache unit.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which instructions are stored. When the computer-readable storage medium is executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute any one or more operations of the methods (eg, method 100) described in the foregoing embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product, including a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any one or more operations of the method (eg, method 100) described in the foregoing embodiments.

The present application also provides a communication system, comprising the first communication device and the second communication device mentioned in the above method embodiment.

The terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth", etc. (if any) in the specification and claims of the present application and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchangeable where appropriate, so that the embodiments described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, for example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units that are clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific embodiments of the systems, devices and units described above are For the whole working process, reference can be made to the corresponding process in the aforementioned method embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of units is only a logical business division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each business unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated into a processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software business units.

If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software business unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), disk or optical disk and other media that can store program code.

Those skilled in the art should be aware that in one or more of the above examples, the services described in the present invention can be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, the services can be stored in a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media and communication media, wherein communication media include any media that facilitates the transmission of computer programs from one place to another. Storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by general or special-purpose computers.

The above specific implementation modes further describe the objectives, technical solutions and beneficial effects of the present invention in detail. It should be understood that the above are only specific implementation modes of the present invention.

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than to limit them. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments may still be modified, or some of the technical features thereof may be replaced by equivalents. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims (48)

1. A communication method, characterized in that it is applied to a first communication device, the method comprising:

   Sending a first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, where the first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, where the first sequence number identifies a sending order of the first FlexE code block stream;

   The first FlexE code block stream is sent to the second communication device through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.
2. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.
3. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.
5. The method according to claim 4 is characterized in that the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.
6. The method according to claim 4 or 5 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries small-grained services, the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.
7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.
8. The method according to claim 7 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream also includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.
9. The method according to claim 8 is characterized in that the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.
10. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.
11. The method according to claim 10 is characterized in that the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.
12. The method according to claim 11 is characterized in that the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.
13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the second indication information is a magic word.
14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble code, and the preamble code includes the first sequence number.
15. The method according to claim 14 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble code includes the message sequence number.
16. The method according to claim 2 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first serial number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.
17. The method according to any one of claims 1-16 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries a fixed bit rate CBR service.
18. The method according to any one of claims 1-16 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate (VBR) service.
19. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 18, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    Acquire the first Flexible Ethernet FlexE code block stream;

    The first FlexE code block stream is copied to obtain multiple first FlexE code block streams, so as to respectively send the multiple first FlexE code block streams to the second communication device through multiple FlexE channels between the first communication device and the second communication device, and the multiple FlexE channels include the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel.
20. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 19, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    Acquire a second FlexE code block stream, where the second FlexE code block stream includes a second sequence number, where the second sequence number identifies a sending order of the second FlexE code block stream, where the first sequence number and the second sequence number are sequentially numbered according to a preset rule, and where the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client client;

    Sending the second FlexE code block stream to the second communication device through the first FlexE channel;

    The second FlexE code block stream is sent to the second communication device through the second FlexE channel.
21. A communication method, characterized in that it is applied to a second communication device, the method comprising:

    receiving, through a first FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device, a first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device, where the first FlexE code block stream includes a first sequence number, where the first sequence number identifies a sending order of the first FlexE code block stream;

    The first FlexE code block stream sent by the first communication device is received through a second FlexE channel between the first communication device and the second communication device.
22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    Cache the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the first FlexE channel in a first cache unit;

    The code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream received through the second FlexE channel are cached in a second cache unit.
23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    receiving a second FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, where the second FlexE code block stream includes a second serial number, the first serial number and the second serial number are sequentially numbered according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream belong to the same client;

    Cache the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream into the first cache unit;

    The code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream and the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream stored in the first cache unit are extracted to perform a forwarding processing operation.
24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    Clear the code blocks belonging to the first FlexE code block stream stored in the second cache unit.
25. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that the method further comprises:

    receiving a third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, wherein the third FlexE code block stream includes a third sequence number; receiving a second FlexE code block stream through the second FlexE channel, wherein the second FlexE code block stream includes a second sequence number, the first sequence number, the second sequence number, and the third sequence number are sequentially numbered according to a preset rule, and the code blocks included in the first FlexE code block stream, the second FlexE code block stream, and the third FlexE code block stream belong to the same client;

    Cache the code blocks included in the third FlexE code block stream into the first cache unit;

    Storing the code blocks included in the second FlexE code block stream in the second cache unit;

    The code blocks stored in the second cache unit are extracted to perform a forwarding processing operation.
26. The method according to claim 25 is characterized in that before receiving the third FlexE code block stream through the first FlexE channel, the first communication device has not received the second FlexE code block stream carrying the second serial number through the first FlexE channel.
27. The method according to claim 21 is characterized in that the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE small particle channels.
28. The method according to claim 21 is characterized in that the first FlexE channel and the second FlexE channel are both FlexE large particle channels.
29. The method according to any one of claims 21-28 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream is a FlexE code block stream obtained by encoding a container, the container includes a container overhead and a container payload, the container overhead includes the first sequence number, and the container payload carries service data.
30. The method according to claim 29 is characterized in that the container overhead also includes verification information, and the verification information is used to verify the container overhead.
31. The method according to claim 29 or 30 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries a small-granularity service, the first FlexE code block stream includes a fine-grained basic unit overhead fgBU OH and an fgBU payload, and the fgBU payload includes the container.
32. The method according to any one of claims 21-28 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes an O code block, and the O code block includes the first sequence number.
33. The method according to claim 32 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream also includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the O code block includes the first sequence number.
34. The method according to claim 33 is characterized in that the type field of the O code block is used to carry the first indication information.
35. The method according to any one of claims 21-28 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes an SDT code block sequence consisting of a start S code block, at least one data D code block, and an end T code block, and the SDT code block sequence includes the first sequence number.
36. The method according to claim 35 is characterized in that the SDT code block sequence also includes second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the SDT code block includes the first sequence number.
37. The method according to claim 36 is characterized in that the T code block includes a control block, and the control block is used to carry the second indication information.
38. The method according to claim 36 or 37 is characterized in that the second indication information is a magic word.
39. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 28 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes a preamble code, and the preamble code includes the first sequence number.
40. The method according to claim 39 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate that the preamble code includes the message sequence number.
41. The method according to claim 27 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream includes fgBU OH and fgBU payload, the fgBU OH includes the first serial number, and the fgBU OH also includes a fine-grained client fg-client identifier.
42. The method according to any one of claims 21-41 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries a fixed bit rate CBR service.
43. The method according to any one of claims 21-41 is characterized in that the first FlexE code block stream carries a variable bit rate (VBR) service.
44. A first communication device, characterized in that the device comprises:

    Transceiver unit and processing unit;

    The transceiver unit is used to perform the receiving and/or sending operation performed by the first communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 20;

    The processing unit is used to perform operations other than the receiving and/or sending operations performed by the first communication device as described in any one of claims 1-20.
45. A second communication device, characterized in that the device comprises:

    Transceiver unit and processing unit;

    The transceiver unit is used to perform the receiving and/or sending operation performed by the second communication device as described in any one of claims 21-43;

    The processing unit is used to perform operations other than the receiving and/or sending operations performed by the second communication device as described in any one of claims 21-43.
46. A communication device, comprising: a processor and a memory;

    The memory is used to store instructions;

    The processor is used to execute the instructions so that the communication device performs the method described in any one of claims 1-43.
47. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it includes instructions, and when the instructions are executed on a processor, the method described in any one of claims 1-43 is implemented.
48. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises a computer program, which, when running on a processor, executes the method described in any one of claims 1 to 43 above.