Method and apparatus for providing transport of customer QoS information via PBB networks
View Patent ↗A customer Quality-of-Service (QoS) transport capability is depicted and described herein. The customer QoS transport capability enables transparent transport of customer QoS information via a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network. The customer QoS transport capability enables customer QoS information that would normally be terminated at a point of ingress to a PBB network to be transported via the PBB network transparently and recovered at a point of egress from the PBB network.
1. A method for transporting quality-of-service (QoS) information, comprising:
receiving, at a provider edge (PE) device configured as an ingress point to a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network of a service provider, a customer Ethernet frame of a customer, the customer Ethernet frame comprising a customer payload and a customer header, wherein the customer header comprises at least one header field including customer QoS information specified for the customer Ethernet frame, the PE device comprising a customer-facing Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) Service (VPLS) instance and a provider-facing VPLS instance;
extracting, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information from the at least one header field including the customer QoS information;
providing, from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information extracted by the customer-facing VPLS instance;
stripping, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, at least a portion of the customer header from the customer Ethernet frame to form thereby a modified customer Ethernet frame, the at least a portion of the customer header comprising the at least one header field including the customer QoS information;
providing, from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the modified customer Ethernet frame;
forming, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, a service provider frame comprising a service provider header and a service provider payload, the service provider payload comprising the modified customer Ethernet frame, the service provider header comprising the customer QoS information received by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device; and
providing the service provider frame from the PE device toward the PBB network.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein customer QoS information comprises at least one of Ethernet Class of Service (CoS) bits and a Discard Eligibility (DE) Indication bit.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the Ethernet CoS bits are dot1p bits as defined by the IEEE 802.1p standard.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one header field including customer QoS information comprises at least one customer virtual local area network (VLAN) tag.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customer QoS information is added to a service provider tag of the service provider header.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the service provider tag is an IEEE virtual local area network (VLAN) tag.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the customer Ethernet frame comprises Customer Media Access Control (CMAC) addresses, wherein the service provider tag is placed after the CMAC addresses.
8. An apparatus for transporting quality-of-service (QoS) information, comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured for:
receiving, at a provider edge (PE) device configured as an ingress point to a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network of a service provider, a customer Ethernet frame of a customer, the customer Ethernet frame comprising a customer payload and a customer header, wherein the customer header comprises at least one header field including customer QoS information specified for the customer Ethernet frame, the PE device comprising a customer-facing Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) Service (VPLS) instance and a provider-facing VPLS instance;
extracting, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information from the at least one header field including the customer QoS information;
providing, from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information extracted by the customer-facing VPLS instance;
stripping, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, at least a portion of the customer header from the customer Ethernet frame to form thereby a modified customer Ethernet frame, the at least a portion of the customer header comprising the at least one header field including the customer QoS information;
providing, from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the modified customer Ethernet frame;
forming, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, a service provider frame comprising a service provider header and a service provider payload, the service provider payload comprising the modified customer Ethernet frame, the service provider header comprising the customer QoS information received by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device from the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device; and
providing the service provider frame from the PE device toward the PBB network.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein customer QoS information comprises at least one of Ethernet Class of Service (CoS) bits and a Discard Eligibility (DE) Indication bit.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the Ethernet CoS bits are dot1p bits as defined by the IEEE 802.1p standard.
11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the at least one header field including customer QoS information comprises at least one customer virtual local area network (VLAN) tag.
12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the customer QoS information is added to a service provider tag of the service provider header.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the service provider tag is an IEEE virtual local area network (VLAN) tag.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the customer Ethernet frame comprises Customer Media Access Control (CMAC) addresses, wherein the service provider tag is placed after the CMAC addresses.
15. A method, comprising:
receiving, at a provider edge (PE) device configured as an egress point from a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network of a service provider, a PBB encapsulated frame, wherein the PBB encapsulated frame comprises a customer Ethernet frame of a customer and a service provider header, wherein the customer Ethernet frame comprises a customer payload and a customer header, wherein the service provider header comprises customer quality-of-service (QoS) information specified for the customer Ethernet frame, the PE device comprising a provider-facing Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) Service (VPLS) instance and a customer-facing VPLS instance;
extracting, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information from the service provider header of the PBB encapsulated frame;
providing, from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information extracted by the provider-facing VPLS instance;
stripping, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the service provider header of the PBB encapsulated frame to recover thereby the customer Ethernet frame;
providing, from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer Ethernet frame;
forming, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device based on the customer Ethernet frame, a modified customer Ethernet frame, wherein forming the modified customer Ethernet frame comprises adding, within the customer header of the customer Ethernet frame, the customer QoS information received by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device; and
providing the modified customer Ethernet frame from the PE device toward a customer network.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein customer QoS information comprises at least one of Ethernet Class of Service (CoS) bits and a Discard Eligibility (DE) Indication bit.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the customer QoS information is extracted from a service provider tag of the service provider header.
18. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured for:
receiving, at a provider edge (PE) device configured as an egress point from a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network of a service provider, a PBB encapsulated frame, wherein the PBB encapsulated frame comprises a customer Ethernet frame of a customer and a service provider header, wherein the customer Ethernet frame comprises a customer payload and a customer header, wherein the service provider header comprises customer quality-of-service (QoS) information specified for the customer Ethernet frame, the PE device comprising a provider-facing Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) Service (VPLS) instance and a customer-facing VPLS instance;
extracting, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information from the service provider header of the PBB encapsulated frame;
providing, from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer QoS information extracted by the provider-facing VPLS instance;
stripping, by the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the service provider header of the PBB encapsulated frame to recover thereby the customer Ethernet frame;
providing, from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device to the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device, the customer Ethernet frame;
forming, by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device based on the customer Ethernet frame, a modified customer Ethernet frame, wherein forming the modified customer Ethernet frame comprises adding, within the customer header of the customer Ethernet frame, the customer QoS information received by the customer-facing VPLS instance of the PE device from the provider-facing VPLS instance of the PE device; and
providing the modified customer Ethernet frame from the PE device toward a customer network.
19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein customer QoS information comprises at least one of Ethernet Class of Service (CoS) bits and a Discard Eligibility (DE) Indication bit.
20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the customer QoS information is extracted from a service provider tag of the service provider header.