Background
With the rapid development of network communication technology, new types of network devices are continuously added, and communication networks become more and more complex. For important core network devices, dual-homing protection measures are usually introduced for disaster tolerance or for ensuring continuity of important services.
In the prior art, dual-homed devices (or systems), such as CE routers, are typically connected to a core network (as shown in fig. 1) via a primary access device and a backup access device (e.g., two different PE routers) respectively, all at the same time over two (or more) communication links. With one link being the primary link (i.e., the current communication link, identified by solid lines in fig. 1) and the other link being the backup link (identified by dashed lines in fig. 1), all traffic is carried on the primary link. When the main link fails, the standby link is switched to the main link, so that dual-homing protection is realized.
Since these core network devices are usually expensive and important, the industry has specifically established many standard protocols (e.g., ICCP protocol) to implement their dual-homing protection scheme to ensure that the switching latency between the primary and backup links is less than the basic 50ms requirement. However, in order for the ICCP protocol to be adaptable to a variety of different client applications (e.g., multi-frame LACP, pseudowire redundancy, SONET APS), the ICCP protocol needs to rely on protocols with multiple protocol layers such as LDP, TCP, etc., which requires that the dual-homed device (in this case the CE router) itself be concerned with both the application layer traffic and the link layer, network layer, and transport layer traffic.
However, for devices such as personal computers, important terminal devices in special industries, and network devices that do not support the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocols, it may be necessary to protect the devices with dual-homing in order to ensure that the devices can reliably and stably access to the network. At this time, if the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocol is directly adopted for implementation, the development difficulty is large, and the cost is high. Therefore, new solutions are needed to implement dual-homing protection for these devices.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a system supporting dual-homing protection, which comprises dual-homing equipment, main access equipment and at least one standby access equipment, wherein the main access equipment and the standby access equipment are respectively in direct communication connection with the dual-homing equipment; the communication between the dual-homing device and the remote device is realized through the main access device, and when the at least one standby access device learns that the access port between the dual-homing device and the main access device is changed from an UP state to a DOWN state, one standby access device in the at least one standby access device is automatically converted into the main access device.
According to the system of the invention, when only one standby access device exists in the system, the standby access device is directly and automatically converted into the main access device; when at least two standby access devices exist in the system, after the at least two standby access devices negotiate through a direct communication connection between the at least two standby access devices, one of the at least two standby access devices is automatically converted into a main access device.
According to the above system of the invention, the direct communication connection is one of the following direct communication connections: serial port communication connection, parallel port communication connection, wired Ethernet communication connection, optical fiber communication connection and wireless communication connection.
According to the system of the invention, the detection and report period of the state information of the access port is at least less than 10ms, and the state information comprises port identification and port state.
The present invention also proposes a method of supporting dual-homing protection for a system as described above, comprising:
step 1: establishing direct communication connection between the access devices, and sharing the state information of the access ports between the dual-homing device and each access device between the access devices;
step 2: enabling communication between the dual-homed device and the remote device via the primary access device;
and step 3: when the at least one standby access device learns that the access port between the dual-homing device and the main access device is changed from an UP state to a DOWN state, one standby access device in the at least one standby access device is automatically changed into the main access device.
According to the above method of the present invention, in step 3:
when only one standby access device exists in the system, the standby access device is directly and automatically converted into a main access device; when at least two standby access devices exist in the system, after the at least two standby access devices negotiate through a direct communication connection between the at least two standby access devices, one of the at least two standby access devices is automatically converted into a main access device.
According to the above method of the invention, the direct communication connection is one of the following direct communication connections: serial port communication connection, parallel port communication connection, wired Ethernet communication connection, optical fiber communication connection and wireless communication connection.
According to the method of the invention, the detection and report period of the state information of the access port is at least less than 10ms, and the state information comprises port identification and port state.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the method is realized without adopting a special standard protocol in the industry, and has low development difficulty and low cost; the basic requirement of finishing protection switching within 50ms can be met, and the service quality is not influenced.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be arbitrarily combined with each other without conflict.
Fig. 1 schematically shows a prior art system supporting dual-homing protection.
As shown in fig. 1, dual-homed CE routers are connected to a core network via primary and backup PE routers, respectively. With one link being the primary link (i.e., the current communication link, identified by solid lines in fig. 1) and the other link being the backup link (identified by dashed lines in fig. 1), all traffic is carried on the primary link. When the main link fails, the standby link is started, and at the moment, the roles of the original main PE router and the standby PE router are exchanged.
Although two links are shown in fig. 1 each connected to a dual-homed CE router. However, a dual-homed CE router may also connect more than two links to implement a more reliable handover protection scheme than using two links.
As described in the background section, the prior art implements the dual-homing protection scheme by implementing the industry-specific standard protocols described above (i.e., the protocols of all relevant layers that must be supported simultaneously in connection with the dual-homing function) simultaneously on the dual-homed CE router, the primary PE router, and the backup PE router shown in fig. 1. In order to ensure that the switching delay between the main link and the standby link can meet the basic requirement of less than 50ms, the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocol is designed to be complicated, difficult to implement and costly.
Therefore, the present invention proposes the following different technical solutions to implement dual-homing protection for devices such as personal computers, important terminal devices in special industries, and network devices that do not support the above industry-specific standard protocols.
Fig. 2 schematically shows a schematic view of a system 200 supporting dual-homing protection according to the present invention.
As shown in fig. 2, the system 200 supporting dual-homing protection includes a dual-homing device (e.g., a personal computer, an important terminal device in a special industry, a CE network device that does not support the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocol, etc.), a primary access device (e.g., a first PE network device that does not support the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocol), and at least one backup access device (e.g., other PE network devices that do not support the above-mentioned industry-specific standard protocol), where the primary access device and the backup access device are respectively in direct communication connection with the dual-homing device, and a direct communication connection (link C in fig. 2) exists between the access devices, and is used for sharing status information of access ports between the dual-homing device and each access device between the access devices (corresponding to using an internal private protocol between the primary access device and the backup access; the communication between the dual-homing device and the remote device is realized via the main access device (i.e. the message is transmitted through the link where the port a of the main access device is located), and when at least one standby access device learns that the access port between the dual-homing device and the main access device is changed from the UP state to the DOWN state, one standby access device of the at least one standby access device is automatically changed into the main access device (i.e. the message is transmitted through the link where the port B of the standby access device is located).
Take the example that the dual-homing device initially receives the message from the remote device through the port a of the main access device and then suddenly fails. Through the technical scheme, the standby access equipment can timely acquire the information that the port A of the main access equipment has a fault (namely, the port A is changed from the UP state to the DOWN state, which is equivalent to the abnormal state of the internal private protocol and proves that the working port A has the fault), so that a query message is timely sent to the dual-homing equipment (through the port B of the standby access equipment), the forwarding information table (and the routing information table) of the dual-homing equipment is updated according to the response message of the dual-homing equipment, and then flooding is carried out on all ports of the dual-homing equipment, so that a new main link is quickly established, the dual-homing equipment finally receives the message from the remote equipment through the port B of the standby access equipment, and the role exchange between the original main access equipment and the standby access equipment is completed. The number of messages lost due to handover is reduced, thereby reducing the number of messages that need to be retransmitted.
Alternatively, when only one standby access device exists in the system 200, the standby access device is directly and automatically converted into the main access device; when there are at least two backup access devices in the system 200, one of the at least two backup access devices automatically transitions to the primary access device after the at least two backup access devices negotiate via a direct communication connection between the at least two backup access devices.
For example, using at least two backup access devices may enable a more reliable handover protection scheme than using one backup access device.
Optionally, the direct communication connection is one of the following direct communication connections: serial port communication connection, parallel port communication connection, wired Ethernet communication connection, optical fiber communication connection and wireless communication connection.
Since only a small amount of data (port state information, negotiation information) needs to be transmitted, a serial communication connection can be used for data transmission.
In addition, the direct communication connection (link) is a dedicated link, so that a small transmission delay (no influence of other data transmission) can be ensured.
Optionally, a detection and reporting period of the status information of the access port is at least less than 10ms, and the status information includes port identification and port status.
In order to meet the basic requirement that the switching delay between the main link and the standby link can meet less than 50ms, the detection and reporting period of the status information of the access port can also be set smaller (less than 10ms) according to the needs of the actual implementation scheme.
The state information, including port identification (including device ID, port number, etc.), port status (including UP, DOWN, administrator DOWN, test, etc.) is equivalent to the specific information in the internal proprietary protocol (i.e., user-defined protocol) message.
For example, the sending and receiving of status information (e.g., in the form of proprietary protocol detection messages) may be implemented in hardware such as a DSP, ASIC, etc. The technical scheme can further achieve the purposes of finishing protection switching within 50ms and not influencing the service quality of the dual-homing equipment (or system).
Fig. 3 shows schematically a flow chart of a method of supporting dual-homing protection according to the present invention.
As shown in fig. 3, a method of supporting dual-homing protection (e.g., as may be used in conjunction with system 200 shown in fig. 2) includes the steps of:
step S302: establishing direct communication connection between the access devices, and sharing the state information of the access ports between the dual-homing device and each access device between the access devices;
step S304: enabling communication between the dual-homed device and the remote device via the primary access device;
step S306: when at least one standby access device learns that the access port between the dual-homing device and the main access device is changed from an UP state to a DOWN state, one standby access device in the at least one standby access device is automatically changed into the main access device.
Optionally, in step S306:
when only one standby access device exists in the system, the standby access device is directly and automatically converted into a main access device; when at least two standby access devices exist in the system, one of the at least two standby access devices is automatically converted into a main access device after the at least two standby access devices negotiate through a direct communication connection between the at least two standby access devices.
Optionally, the direct communication connection is one of the following direct communication connections: serial port communication connection, parallel port communication connection, wired Ethernet communication connection, optical fiber communication connection and wireless communication connection.
Optionally, a detection and reporting period of the status information of the access port is at least less than 10ms, and the status information includes port identification and port status.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the standard protocol (namely, the external protocol) special for the industry is not required to be adopted for realization, so that the development difficulty is low and the cost is low.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the dual-homing protection function of various dual-homing devices (or systems) can be realized, and the dual-homing devices (or systems) and the main/standby (network) access equipment have no requirements on protocols and functions (the special standards in the industry). The separation of the application layer service and the network layer service of the dual-homing (access) equipment (or system) is ensured to the maximum extent. The stability of the dual-homing (access) device (or system) is guaranteed.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, because the dedicated link of direct communication connection is adopted, the network layer service does not need to be concerned, and no special protocol or function requirement exists.
According to the technical scheme of the invention, the basic requirement of finishing protection switching within 50ms can be met, and the service quality is not influenced.
The above-described aspects may be implemented individually or in various combinations, and such variations are within the scope of the present invention.
Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only for illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not limited thereto. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.