A Network Architecture with Virtual Path Hopping and Dynamic Virtual Path Allocation Algorithm

Connection oriented packet networks such as IP/MPLS can better meet the QoS guarantees in terms of delay jitter, bandwidth etc. required by premium traffic (PT). These connection oriented networks are more vulnerable to failures and they can be classified into link/path and degraded failures. Virtual path hopping concept eliminates all terminations of data communications due to degraded type failures detected by control plane timers. Dynamic virtual path allocation (DVPA) algorithm proposed here can achieve very fast recovery for PT from link/path failures while keeping the utilization efficiency of network resources high. This recovery time consists of two main parts; time taken to detect failures and time taken to activate the backup path (BP). DVPA algorithm virtually makes the time taken to activate the BP 'zero' for PT as it uses an active BP (ABP). Also DVPA algorithm makes sure that ABP is always occupied by best effort traffic (BET) when there are no failures, increasing the efficiency of the network. Simulation results confirm that implementing DVPA algorithm in conjunction with VPH concept in connection oriented networks can achieve a very high availability for PT in future IP/MPLS packet networks