Method and apparatus for non-disruptive call modification
View Patent ↗A method and system for changing the extent of data plane resources controlled by a control plane for a network connection which spans a contiguous set of nodes controlled by existing network control resources is disclosed. This is done in a non-disruptive manner. This typically involves two steps: i) Creating a new set of control plane resources for said network connection such that said data plane resources are shared with said existing network control resources; and ii) then terminating the existing network control resources such that said data plane resources are fully transferred to the new set of control plane resources without disrupting said network connection. The existing network control resources can be either a control plane resource or a non control plane resource. An example of a non control plane resource is network management software (e.g., an OSS (Operation Support System)), which forms part of the Management Plane. It should be noted that this does not need to be done for a complete end-to-end connection, but rather can be executed for the portion of the end-to-end connection which is to be controlled by the control plane.
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for controlling at least a portion of a network having a set of nodes, data plane resources of the network allocated to a data plane connection spanning a first subset of said set of nodes being controlled by a first control plane connection, said computer readable medium comprising:
computer executable instructions for establishing a second control plane connection spanning a second subset of said set of nodes in such a manner that: said second control plane connection is established in parallel with said first control plane connection; the second subset of said set of nodes at least partially overlaps the first subset of said set of nodes; and at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, said second control plane connection shares data plane resources allocated to the data plane connection with said first control plane connection; and
computer executable instructions for terminating the first control plane connection, such that control of said data plane resources of the network allocated to the data plane connection is transferred to said second control plane connection without disrupting said data plane connection,
wherein said set of nodes comprises a number of nodes greater than one, and each of the first and second subsets comprise respective numbers of nodes, greater than one and less than the number of nodes in said set of nodes.
2. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 1 wherein the respective number of nodes of the second subset does not equal the respective number of nodes of the first subset.
3. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 1 wherein the respective number of nodes of the first and second subsets are equal, but the data plane resources controlled by the second control plane connection differ from the data plane resources controlled by the first control plane connection.
4. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 1 wherein said computer executable instructions for establishing the second control plane connection further comprise instructions for:
creating new connection control states for the second control plane connection on each of said second subset of said set of nodes; and
at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, mapping shared data plane resources to each new connection control state.
5. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 1 wherein said computer executable instructions for establishing the second control plane connection further comprise instructions for:
creating new call control states for the second control plane connection;
creating new connection control states for the second control plane connection on each of said second subset of said set of nodes;
associating the new connection control states with the new call states; and
at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, mapping shared data plane resources to each new connection control state.
6. A method for controlling at least a portion of a network having a set of nodes, data plane resources of the network allocated to a data plane connection spanning a first subset of said set of nodes being controlled by a first control plane connection, method comprising:
establishing a second control plane connection spanning a second subset of said set of nodes in such a manner that: said second control plane connection is established in parallel with said first control plane; the second subset of said set of nodes at least partially overlaps the first subset of said set of nodes; and at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, said second control plane connection shares data plane resources allocated to the data plane connection with said first control plane connection; and
terminating the first control plane connection, such that control of said data plane resources of the network allocated to the data plane connection is transferred to said second control plane connection without disrupting said data plane connection,
wherein the set of nodes comprises a number of nodes greater than one and each of the first and second subsets comprise respective of nodes, greater than one and less than the number of nodes in the set of nodes.
7. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the respective number of nodes of the second subset does not equal the respective number of nodes of the first subset.
8. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the respective number of nodes of the first and second subsets are equal, but the data plane resources controlled by the second control plane connection differ from the data plane resources controlled by the first control plane connection.
9. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein establishing the second control plane connection further comprises:
creating new connection control states for the second control plane connection on each of said second subset of said set of nodes; and
at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, mapping shared data plane resources to each new connection control state.
10. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein establishing the second control plane connection further comprises:
creating new call control states for the second control plane connection;
creating new connection control states for the second control plane connection on each of said second subset of said set of nodes;
associating the new connection control states with the new call states; and
at each node of the network spanned by both the first and second control plane connections, mapping shared data plane resources to each new connection control state.
11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising changing the data plane resources.
12. The method of claim 8 , wherein respective data plane resources controlled by the first and second control plane connections have respective different bandwidths.
13. The method of claim 6 , wherein said method is carried out via distributed processing techniques for implementing a distributed control plane, and wherein said steps are executed by said set of nodes with each one of said set of nodes performing portions of overall Link Resource Manager functions of said distributed control plane associated with the first and second control plane connections.