Resilient data communications with physical layer link aggregation, extended failure detection and load balancing

1. A method of providing resilient data communications, comprising:

using a physical-layer link-aggregation protocol to aggregate, at a physical layer of a network, wireless links in the network to generate a virtual channel for data communications, the network having at least the physical layer, a data link layer and a network layer;

detecting, at the physical layer, a link failure of a particular wireless link of the virtual channel;

segmenting a data frame or a group of data frames across the wireless links of the virtual channel to generate a segmented data frame or a segmented group of data frames; and

using one of the segmented data frame or the segmented group of data frames to perform load balancing of the wireless links by automatically redistributing data traffic from the particular wireless link to at least one other wireless link of the virtual channel after the detecting of the link failure of the particular wireless link to render data communications through the virtual channel resilient to the link failure.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a ‘good’ status condition for the virtual channel, and maintaining the ‘good’ status condition for the virtual channel unless all of the wireless links of the virtual channel fail.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

monitoring for recovery of the particular wireless link from the link failure; and

automatically redistributing data traffic in the virtual channel to the particular wireless link after detecting a recovery of the particular wireless link.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a data access card performs the steps of using the physical-layer link-aggregation protocol to aggregate the wireless links and of automatically redistributing the data traffic by managing ports associated with the data access card.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting, at the physical layer, the link failure includes monitoring for a failure in at least one of traffic alignment, packet delay, or packet integrity.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

each wireless link of the virtual channel communicates data traffic between at least a first node and a second node;

the at least the first and second nodes have an associated transmit status and an associated receive status, the transmit status associated with the first node being a reflection of the receive status associated with the second node; and

the step of detecting, at the physical layer, the link failure includes detecting a failure in at least one of the transmit status or the receive status.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising formatting packets at the first node with an extended header field that contains the receive status associated with the first node, a cyclic redundancy checksum (CRC), and the transmit status associated with the first node.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining at the second node whether each of the packets from the first node has valid integrity; and

determining a ‘good’ transmit status or a ‘good’ receive status by detecting that a predetermined number of successive packets have valid integrity.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the segmenting the data frame or the group of data frames includes segmenting the data frame or the group of data frames to a segment size based on one or more link capacities or link speeds of the wireless links of the virtual channel.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular wireless link is a time division multiplexed link, and the virtual channel is an aggregation of time division multiplexed links.

11. A system for providing resilient data communications, comprising:

a virtual channel that implements a physical-layer link-aggregation protocol configured to aggregate, at a physical layer of a network, wireless links in the network to generate the virtual channel for data communications, the network having at least the physical layer, a data link layer and a network layer;

a physical-layer failure detection circuit configured to detect, at the physical layer, a link failure of a particular wireless link of the virtual channel; and

a redistribution mechanism in communication with the physical-layer failure detection circuit and configured to segment a data frame or a group of data frames across the wireless links of the virtual channel to generate a segmented data frame or a segmented group of data frames, and to use one of the segmented data frame or the segmented group of data frames to perform load balancing of the wireless links by automatically redistributing data traffic from the particular wireless link to at least one other wireless link of the virtual channel after detection of the link failure of the particular wireless link to render data communications through the virtual channel resilient to the link failure.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a virtual channel manager for assigning a ‘good’ status condition for the virtual channel, and maintaining the ‘good’ status condition for the virtual channel unless all of the wireless links of the virtual channel fail.

13. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a recovery manager configured to monitor for recovery of the particular wireless link from the link failure, and to automatically redistribute data traffic in the virtual channel to the particular wireless link after detecting a recovery of the particular wireless link.

14. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a data access card that manages ports associated with the data access card.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the physical-layer failure detection circuit monitors, at the physical layer, for a failure in at least one of traffic alignment, packet delay, or packet integrity.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein:

each wireless link of the virtual channel communicates data traffic between at least a first node and a second node;

the at least the first and second nodes have an associated transmit status and an associated receive status, the transmit status associated with the first node being a reflection of the receive status associated with the second node; and

the physical-layer failure detection circuit detects, at the physical layer, a failure in at least one of the transmit status or the receive status.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first node formats packets with an extended header field that contains the receive status associated with the first node, a cyclic redundancy checksum (CRC), and the transmit status associated with the first node.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein:

the second node includes the physical-layer failure detection circuit; and

the physical-layer failure detection circuit determines whether each of the packets from the first node has valid integrity, and determines a ‘good’ transmit status or a ‘good’ receive status by detecting that a predetermined number of successive packets have valid integrity.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the redistribution mechanism comprises a load balancer that uses the physical layer of the network to perform load balancing by segmenting the data frame or the group of data frames across the wireless links of the virtual channel.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the load balancer segments the data frame or the group of data frames to a segment size based on one or more link capacities or link speeds of the wireless links of the virtual channel.

21. The system of claim 11 , wherein the particular wireless link is a time division multiplexed link, and the virtual channel is an aggregation of time division multiplexed links.