Modular high capacity network
View Patent ↗A high capacity network increases its capacity by adding switching modules at the core side. Network expansion is achieved by incrementally adding one plane of switches to each core node so as to form virtual parallel plane (VPP) networks, one wavelength to each VPP network to achieve full interconnection, and by making corresponding upgrades to WDM equipment at each point-of-presence (POP) switch. An optical distribution unit (ODU) is used to control the connectivity of the VPP networks. The expansion of the network capacity is performed without increasing the number of hops. By using wavelength multiplexing, several VPP networks, and logical traffic distribution, the present invention provides for a wide range of network capacities coverage and allows to dynamically reconfigure the connections to accommodate increased traffic demands.
1. A scalable communication network for establishing full connectivity between a plurality of points of presence (POP), comprising:
a plurality K of access routers, each for consolidating data received from one or more access networks/nodes over a plurality of trunks, said access router being a packet router;
a transport network of a plurality M of core nodes, each core node connected to the remaining (M−1) of said core nodes by (M−1) core links, and connected with an access router via one of said trunks, each said core node including:
an optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting (M−1) points and N×(M−1) ports bi-directionally, each point communicating with a respective trunk; and
a plurality N of switching modules S 1 to S N , each connected to a plurality (M−1) of said ports, said optical cross-connect and said core nodes forming plurality N of virtual parallel plane (VPP) network.
2. A scalable communication network as in claim 1 , further comprising: an additional switching module S N+1 ;
an additional input distribution point, and
(M−1) additional output ports on said cross-connect for routing traffic received on said additional distribution point from each said trunk to said (M−1) additional output ports, according to a supplement connectivity map.
3. A scalable communication network as in claim 2 , wherein said trunk comprises N multiplexed wavelength connections and each said core links comprises N multiplexed wavelength serial links.
4. A scalable communication network as in claim 3 , wherein said serial links and said connections are of equal capacity and support the same bitrate.
5. A scalable communication network as in claim 1 , wherein said core links and said trunks have different capacities as required by the traffic demands.
6. A scalable communication network as in claim 1 , wherein said switching modules have an equal routing capacity.
7. A scalable communication network as in claim 1 , wherein said switching modules have a number of ports which is greater or equal to (K+M−1).
8. A scalable communication network as in claim 1 , wherein each VPP network includes an optical switch for routing traffic received over an input access trunk to a plurality (M−1) of associated core links for connecting a core node with a subset of the remaining core nodes of said scalable communication network.
9. A scalable communication network as claimed in claim 8 , wherein said core network further comprises an additional virtual parallel plane (VPP) network for incremental increase of the bandwidth of said core network.
10. A scalable communication network as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the traffic is split at each of said access routers to equally access said N virtual parallel plane (VPP) networks.
11. A scalable communication network for establishing full connectivity between a plurality of access networks/nodes, comprising:
a plurality K of points of presence (POP) provided with access routers, each for consolidating data received from an access networks/nodes over a plurality of input access trunks, each of said access routers being a packet router; and
a core network of plurality N of virtual parallel plane (VPP) networks, each VPP network including means for routing traffic received over an input access trunk; said core network comprising:
a single core node,
an optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting K points and N×K ports by-directionally, each point communicating with a respective access router; and
a plurality N of switching modules S 1 to S N , each connected to a plurality K of said ports.
12. A scalable communication network as claimed in claim 8 wherein said means for routing traffic comprises means for routing packets and wherein each switching module being a router.
13. A scalable communication network for establishing full connectivity between a plurality of points of presence (POP), comprising:
a plurality K of access routers, each for consolidating data received from one or more access networks/nodes over a plurality K of trunks, said access router being a packet router; a transport network of a plurality M of core nodes, each core node connected to the remaining (M−1) of said core nodes by (M−1) core links, and connected with an access router via one of said trunks, each said core node including:
a first optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting M−1 first points and N×(M−1) first ports bi-directionally, each first point communicating with a respective core link; a second optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting K second points and N×K second ports bi-directionally, each second point communicating with a respective second trunk; and
a plurality N of switching modules S 1 to S N , each connected to a plurality M−1 of said first ports and to a plurality K of said second ports, said switching module being a packet router.
14. A scalable communication network for establishing full connectivity between a plurality of points of presence (POP), comprising:
a plurality K of access routers, each for consolidating data received from one or more access networks/nodes over a plurality K of trunks, said access router being a packet router; a transport network of a plurality M of core nodes, each core node connected to the remaining (M−1) of said core nodes by (M−1) core links, and connected with an access router via one of said trunks, each said core node including:
an optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting K+M−1 points and N×(K+M−1) ports bidirectionally, a plurality M−1 of the points communicating with a respective core link, and a plurality K of the points communicating with a respective trunk; and
a plurality N of switching modules S 1 to S N , each connected to a plurality M−1 of said first ports and to a plurality K of said second ports, said switching module being a packet router.
15. A scalable communication network for establishing full connectivity between a plurality of access networks/nodes, comprising:
a plurality K of points of presence (POP) provided with access routers, each for consolidating data received from one or more access networks/nodes over a plurality K of trunks, said access router being a packet router;
a core network of a plurality N of virtual parallel plane (VPP) networks, each VPP network including means for routing packets received over said trunk, said core network comprising a plurality of M core nodes, each said core node including:
an optical cross-connect with a connectivity map for connecting K points and N×K ports bidirectionally, each point communicating with a respective trunk; and
a plurality N of switching modules S 1 to S N , each connected to a plurality K of said ports, said switching module being a packet router.