Patent attributes
This invention broadly comprises a novel segment protection scheme (survivability framework) for a network, which we refer to as PROMISE (Protection using MultIple SEgments). It combines the best of existing link and path protection schemes (e.g., bandwidth efficiency and fast recovery). The PROMISE approach divides an active path or AP (along which a survivable connection is established) into several, possibly overlapping active segments or ASs, and then protects each AS with a detour called backup segment or BS (instead of protecting the AP as a whole as in path protection schemes). This facilitates the bandwidth sharing not only among the BSs for different APs, but also among those for the same AP. In addition, recovery time can be shortened due to the limited length of each AS and BS. This technology can be applied to MPLS, ATM, SONET, WDM and other high-speed link layers under the evolving G-MPLS framework.
