Granted Patent B2

US 8,305,882 · App. 10/322,814 · Granted Nov 6, 2012

Abstract

Claims (59)

1. A method of detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

communicating packets between a first node and a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP) pair;

detecting a failure in the first LSP by not having received a constant rate of packets during a predetermined time interval;

sending packets from the first node to the second node using a second LSP pair responsive to detecting the failure; and

sending packets from the second node to the first node using the second LSP pair responsive to receiving packets at the second node on the second LSP pair;

wherein the packets comprise user packets and dummy packets.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

communicating packets between the first node and the second node using a plurality of backup LSP pairs prior to detecting the failure; and

verifying that at least one of the backup LSP pairs is operational based on communicating packets thereon prior to detecting the failure.

3. A system for detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

means for communicating packets between a first node and a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP) pair;

means for detecting a failure in the first LSP by not having received a constant rate of packets during a predetermined time interval;

means for sending packets from the first node to the second node using a second LSP pair responsive to detecting the failure; and

means for sending packets from the second node to the first node using the second LSP pair responsive to receiving packets at the second node on the second LSP pair;

wherein the packets comprise user packets and dummy packets.

4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising:

means for communicating packets between the first node and the second node using a plurality of backup LSP pairs prior to detecting the failure; and

means for verifying that at least one of the backup LSP pairs is operational based on communicating packets thereon prior to detecting the failure.

5. A computer program product for detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to communicate packets between a first node and a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP) pair;

computer readable program code configured to detect a failure in the first LSP by not having received a constant rate of packets during a predetermined time interval;

computer readable program code configured to send packets from the first node to the second node using a second LSP pair responsive to detecting the failure; and

computer readable program code configured to send packets from the second node to the first node using the second LSP pair responsive to receiving packets at the second node on the second LSP pair;

wherein the packets comprise user packets and dummy packets.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to communicate packets between the first node and the second node using a plurality of backup LSP pairs prior to detecting the failure; and

computer readable program code configured to verify that at least one of the backup LSP pairs is operational based on communicating packets thereon prior to detecting the failure.

7. A method of detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

sending echo request packets from a first node to a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP);

sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node using a plurality of communication paths; and

recognizing a failure in the first LSP if the number of echo request packets for which no response packet was received exceeds a threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

sending the respective echo response packets from the second node to the first node using respective ones of the plurality of communication paths in round robin fashion.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

transmitting each of the echo response packets on multiple ones of the communication paths.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises a plurality of LSPs.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises at least one non-LSP.

12. A system for detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

means for sending echo request packets from a first node to a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP);

means for sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node using a plurality of communication paths; and

means for recognizing a failure in the first LSP if the number of echo request packets for which no response packet was received exceeds a threshold.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the means for sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

means for sending the respective echo response packets from the second node to the first node using respective ones of the plurality of communication paths in round robin fashion.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the means for sending echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

means for transmitting each of the echo response packets on multiple ones of the communication paths.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises a plurality of LSPs.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises at least one non-LSP.

17. A computer program product for detecting a fault in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to send echo request packets from a first node to a second node in the MPLS network using a first label switch path (LSP);

computer readable program code configured to send echo response packets from the second node to the first node using a plurality of communication paths; and

computer readable program code configured to recognize a failure in the first LSP if a difference between a number of echo request packets sent from the first node and a number of response packets received at the first node exceeds a threshold.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the computer readable program code configured to send echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

computer readable program code configured to send the respective echo response packets from the second node to the first node using respective ones of the plurality of communication paths in round robin fashion.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the computer readable program code configured to send echo response packets from the second node to the first node comprises:

computer readable program code configured to transmit each of the echo response packets on multiple ones of the communication paths.

20. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises a plurality of LSPs.

21. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of communication paths comprises at least one non-LSP.

Assignments (11)