MPLS virtual rings
US7623446B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 14, 2005 |
| Grant date | Nov 24, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 5, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L41/20
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A virtual ring representing a community of interest is constructed from an interconnected mesh of nodes in a packet network. The virtual ring instantiates ring labels in respective forwarding tables for each node in the virtual ring and then advertises the ring labels to all other nodes in the virtual ring, for example by flooding BGP advertisements. Data packets entering the ring are assigned a ring label which is then stripped off when exiting the ring. The data packets are forwarded around the virtual ring using the ring labels. The virtual ring can operate using BGP/LDP Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). Multiple virtual rings can be bridged together using a central hub or alternatively multiple virtual rings can be redundantly bridged together using tandem hubs.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.