ETHERNET DIFFERENTIATED SERVICES ARCHITECTURE
An edge node of a communication network and method to classify incoming Ethernet traffic based on predetermined criteria. An ingress switch is configured to receive an incoming Ethernet frame. A frame classifier is configured to identify flows and to correlate a flow to a corresponding bandwidth profile and corresponding forwarding treatments defined for the flow.
1 . A method of operating a communications network, the method comprising:
classifying traffic to select a per-hop behavior according to header information in the traffic, the header information comprising at least one of Layer 1 to Layer 7 (L1-L7) information;
setting priority bits in tag fields of headers of Ethernet frames carrying the classified traffic to identify the per-hop behavior; and
processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein an edge node of the communications network receives the traffic, classifies the traffic to select the per-hop behavior and sets the priority bits to identify the selected per-hop behavior.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one core node of the communications network processes the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises dropping Ethernet frames.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein Ethernet frames are dropped based on respective drop precedence levels of the frames.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the respective drop precedence levels of frames are associated with respective classifications of the frames which correspond to selected respective per-hop behaviors.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises shaping Ethernet frames.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises remarking Ethernet frames.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises expedited forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises assured forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises default forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the header information identifies a differentiated services code point.
13 . A method of operating a core node of an communications network, the method comprising:
receiving Ethernet frames carrying traffic, the Ethernet frames comprising headers, the headers comprising tag fields, the tag fields comprising priority bits that are set to identify per-hop behavior for the frames selected based on classification of the traffic according to header information in the traffic, the header information comprising at least one of Layer 1 to Layer 7 (L1-L7) information; and
processing the received Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises dropping Ethernet frames.
15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises shaping Ethernet frames.
16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises remarking Ethernet frames.
17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises expedited forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises assured forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
19 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises default forwarding of the Ethernet frames.
20 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the header information identifies a differentiated services code point.