Patent · US Active

Applying services within MPLS networks

US7948986B1 · kind B1 · utility

574Cited by
6References
42Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 25, 2009
Grant dateMay 24, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 11, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L45/50
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In general, techniques are described that facilitate application of service within MPLS networks. More specifically, a router comprises a forwarding plane, a service plane and a routing engine. The routing engine maintains data defining an association between a handle identifying a property common to a plurality of packets of a particular context and one or more MPLS labels associated with these packets. The routing engine automatically generates and installs a filter to identify these packets within both the forwarding and service planes. The forwarding plane applies the filter to incoming packets to determine whether each of the incoming packets includes a label matching any of the labels of the filter and forwards the incoming packets to the service plane upon a match. The service card selects one or more services identified by the filter and applies the selected one or more services to the incoming packet.

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