Patent · US Active

Router and method for protocol process migration

US7583590B2 · kind B2 · utility

12Cited by
12References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 15, 2005
Grant dateSep 1, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 31, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L45/22
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A router and a method for migrating routing protocol processes or Virtual Routers (VRs) from one Route Processor (RP) to another using graceful restart procedures for maintaining packet flow to the router and assisting the router to obtain restart information. The router includes first and second RPs and a forwarding engine for forwarding packets to neighbor routers in the network. When the routing protocol process is terminated on the first RP, the neighbor routers detect a router failure and initiate the graceful restart procedures. A filter rule in the forwarding engine causes it to forward packets to the new routing protocol process on the second RP. The new process learns the network topology from the neighbor routers, and the migration is completed without packet loss and without requiring complex changes to the network protocol stack.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.