Distributing fault indications and maintaining and using a data structure indicating faults to route traffic in a packet switching system
US6990063B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 7, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jan 24, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 7, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/55
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for distributing fault indications and maintaining and using a data structure indicating faults to route traffic in a packet switching system. In one embodiment, a packet switching system detects faults and propagates indications of these faults to the input interfaces of a packet switch, so the packet switch can adapt the selection of a route over which to send a particular packet. Faults are identified by various components of the packet switching system and relayed to one or more switching components to generate a broadcast packet destined for all input ports (i.e., to each I/O interface in a packet switch having folded input and output interfaces). Other embodiments, generate one or more multicast or unicast packets. The I/O interface maintains one or more data structures indicating the state of various portions of the packet switching system. In one embodiment, an output availability table is maintained indicating over which path a particular destination may be reached, as well as a link availability vector indicating which output likes of the input interface may be currently used. Using these as masks against possible routes in a fully func…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.