Probing specific customer flow in layer-2 multipath networks
US8634297B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 1, 2010 |
| Grant date | Jan 21, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 22, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L43/106
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Techniques are provided to enable a switch in a layer-2 multipath network to determine connectivity of a path to a destination switch. At a source switch, user flow parameters are determined for user flow packets to be transported in the layer-2 multipath network to a destination switch. The sourced switch determines a number of hops from it to the destination switch based on the user flow parameters. Timestamping is activated for time-to-live expiry packets received at the source switch and for time-to-live expiry packets received at the destination switch. One or more probe packets having user flow parameters matching the user flow parameters of user flow packets are generated so that the probe packets use the same path taken by the user flow packets between the source switch and the destination switch. In addition, a time-to-live value corresponding to the number of hops from the source switch to the destination switch is included in a hop count field of the one or more probe packets. The time-to-live value distinguishes the one or more probe packets from user flow packets. The one or more probe packets are sent in the layer-2 multipath network from the source switch to the dest…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.