Alternative Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (AMSTP) for Optical Ethernet Backbones

The availability and affordable cost of Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches has impacted the deployment of metropolitan area networks (MAN) and campus networks. This paper presents a new protocol, the alternative multiple spanning tree protocol (AMSTP), that uses multiple source based spanning trees for backbones using Ethernet switches. It provides minimum paths and more efficient usage of optical backbone infrastructure than currently proposed protocols such as resilient packet ring and rapid spanning tree. The protocol exhibits features similar to MAC routing protocols like Link State Over MAC (LSOM) such as optimum path and effective infrastructure usage, without requiring MAC routing due to the use of the spanning tree protocol paradigm. AMSTP is not restricted to specific topologies such as ring or tree, but performs efficiently in arbitrary topologies. Among the application areas are optical backbones of campus and MANs.Publicad

Hierarchical Up/Down Routing Architecture for Ethernet backbones and campus networks

We describe a new layer two distributed and scalable routing architecture. It uses an automatic hierarchical node identifier assignment mechanism associated to the rapid spanning tree protocol. Enhanced up/down mechanisms are used to prohibit some turns at nodes to break cycles, instead of blocking links like the spannning tree protocol does. The protocol performance is similar or better than other turn prohibition algorithms recently proposed with lower complexity O(Nd) and better scalability. Simulations show that the fraction of prohibited turns over random networks is less than 0.2. The effect of root bridge election on the performance of the protocol is limited both in the random and regular networks studied. The use of hierarchical, tree-descriptive addresses simplifies the routing, and avoids the need of all nodes having a global knowleddge of the network topology. Routing frames through the hierarchical tree at very high speed is possible by progressive decoding of frame destination address, without routing tables or port address learning. Coexistence with standard bridges is achieved using combined devices: bridges that forward the frames having global destination MAC addresses as standard bridges and frames with local MAC frames with the proposed protocol.Publicad

Evaluation of tree-based routing Ethernet

Tree-based Routing (TRE) revisits Tree-based Routing Architecture for Irregular Networks (TRAIN)—a forwarding scheme based on a spanning tree that was extended to use some shortcut links.We propose its adaptation to Ethernet, using a new type of hierarchical Ethernet addresses and a procedure to assign them to bridges. We show that compared to RSTP, TRE offers improved throughput. The impact of transient loops in TRE is lower compared to the application of the classical shortest path routing protocols to Ethernet. Finally, TRE is self-configuring and its forwarding process is simpler and more efficient than in standard Ethernet and shortest path routing proposals.Publicad

Evolución conceptual de los protocolos de puentes transparentes

Los puentes Ethernet transparentes son un elemento cada vez más importante en las redes\ud de telecomunicaciones. Este artículo ofrece una visión panorámica de la evolución conceptual de los\ud paradigmas de puentes durante las últimas décadas, desde los puentes transparentes con árbol de\ud expansión hasta las propuestas actualmente en estandarización: por una parte Shortest Path Bridges,\ud Provider Bridges y Provider Backbone Bridges en el IEEE 802.1; por otra parte Routing Bridges en el\ud IETF. Estas propuestas buscan aumentar la escalabilidad y obtener una alta utilización de la infraestructura\ud de red, así como la provisión de servicios basados en Ethernet a gran número de usuarios. Mediante\ud un mapa genealógico y una tabla se resumen e ilustran los aspectos funcionales, la evolución de los\ud puentes propuestos en cuanto a los mecanismos básicos empleados para el encaminamiento, reenvío\ud y la prevención de bucles tales como protocolos de vector distancia y de estado de enlaces, árboles\ud múltiples de expansión, jerarquización mediante encapsulado de tramas y prohibición de algunos giros\ud en los nodos. La evolución reciente de las propuestas muestra claramente varias tendencias: el predominio\ud de los protocolos de estado de enlaces como IS-IS para el encaminamiento y/o construcción de\ud árboles múltiples, de los mecanismos de encapsulado, y la multiplicación de tipos de identificadores\ud para etiquetar y procesar separada y homogéneamente miles de servicios y clientes

ANALYSIS OF DATA & COMPUTER NETWORKS IN STUDENTS' RESIDENTIAL AREA IN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

In Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), most of the students depend on the Internet and computer network connection to gain academics information and share educational resources. Even though the Internet connections and computers networks are provided, the service always experience interruption, such as slow Internet access, viruses and worms distribution, and network abuse by irresponsible students. Since UTP organization keeps on expanding, the need for a better service in UTP increases. Several approaches were put into practice to address the problems. Research on data and computer network was performed to understand the network technology applied in UTP. A questionnaire forms were distributed among the students to obtain feedback and statistical data about UTP's network in Students' Residential Area. The studies concentrate only on Students' Residential Area as it is where most of the users reside. From the survey, it can be observed that 99% of the students access the network almost 24 hours a day. In 2005, the 2 Mbps allocated bandwidth was utilized 100% almost continuously but in 2006, the bottleneck of Internet access has reduced significantly since the bandwidth allocated have been increased to 8 Mbps. Server degradation due to irresponsible acts by users also adds burden to the main server. In general, if the proposal to ITMS (Information Technology & Media Services) Department for them to improve their Quality of Service (QoS) and established UTP Computer Emergency Response Team (UCert), most of the issues addressed in this report can be solved

Mpls/Vpls: servicio de Lan privada virtual sobre Mpls

En la actualidad MPLS se ha convertido en una de las soluciones más apetecidas para la implementación del transporte en Backbones metropolitanos, las ventajas de una red Multiservicio sobre una red IP son innumerables entre ellas están la implementación de soluciones Ethernet punto a punto en las cuales dos equipos remotos pueden compartir el mismo dominio de broadcast; en estos momentos se esta trabajando en la implementación de VPNs de nivel 2 que permitan solucionar el problema de la conversión de direcciones MAC a IP. Dentro de los antecedentes de las investigaciones sobre la emulación de redes LAN en Backbones, encontramos ATM LANE que emulaba una LAN sobre una WAN ATM, el servicio ATM LANE tenía 4 componentes básicos. Un LEC (Lan Emulation Client), un LECS (Lan Emulation Configuration Server), un LES (Lan Emulation Server) y un BUS (Broadcast Unknow Server), estos componentes interactúan Emulando una LAN en la cual los LEC comparten un mismo dominio de Broadcast; otro antecedente importante tiene que ver con AAL5 y con su mecanismo “LLC Encapsulation” que multiplexa varios protocolos sobre un mismo circuito virtual. Cuando se habla de VPLS es de vital importancia hacer un repaso por los conceptos más importantes de MPLS, explicar como opera el Backbone MPLS con todos sus componentes entre ellos los LSR (Label Switching Router), como se realiza el intercambio de etiquetas y como este intercambio de etiquetas optimiza el envío de paquetes en la re

Ethernet Networks for Real-Time Use in the ATLAS Experiment

Ethernet became today's de-facto standard technology for local area networks. Defined by the IEEE 802.3 and 802.1 working groups, the Ethernet standards cover technologies deployed at the first two layers of the OSI protocol stack. The architecture of modern Ethernet networks is based on switches. The switches are devices usually built using a store-and-forward concept. At the highest level, they can be seen as a collection of queues and mathematically modelled by means of queuing theory. However, the traffic profiles on modern Ethernet networks are rather different from those assumed in classical queuing theory. The standard recommendations for evaluating the performance of network devices define the values that should be measured but do not specify a way of reconciling these values with the internal architecture of the switches. The introduction of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard provided a direct gateway from the LAN to the WAN by the means of the WAN PHY. Certain aspects related to the actual use of WAN PHY technology were vaguely defined by the standard. The ATLAS experiment at CERN is scheduled to start operation at CERN in 2007. The communication infrastructure of the Trigger and Data Acquisition System will be built using Ethernet networks. The real-time operational needs impose a requirement for predictable performance on the network part. In view of the diversity of the architectures of Ethernet devices, testing and modelling is required in order to make sure the full system will operate predictably. This thesis focuses on the testing part of the problem and addresses issues in determining the performance for both LAN and WAN connections. The problem of reconciling results from measurements to architectural details of the switches will also be tackled. We developed a scalable traffic generator system based on commercial-off-the-shelf Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards. The generator was able to transmit traffic at the nominal Gigabit Ethernet line rate for all frame sizes specified in the Ethernet standard. The calculation of latency was performed with accuracy in the range of +/- 200 ns. We indicate how certain features of switch architectures may be identified through accurate throughput and latency values measured for specific traffic distributions. At this stage, we present a detailed analysis of Ethernet broadcast support in modern switches. We use a similar hands-on approach to address the problem of extending Ethernet networks over long distances. Based on the 1 Gbit/s traffic generator used in the LAN, we develop a methodology to characterise point-to-point connections over long distance networks. At higher speeds, a combination of commercial traffic generators and high-end servers is employed to determine the performance of the connection. We demonstrate that the new 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology can interoperate with the installed base of SONET/SDH equipment through a series of experiments on point-to-point circuits deployed over long-distance network infrastructure in a multi-operator domain. In this process, we provide a holistic view of the end-to-end performance of 10 Gigabit Ethernet WAN PHY connections through a sequence of measurements starting at the physical transmission layer and continuing up to the transport layer of the OSI protocol stack

ABridges: Scalable, self-configuring Ethernet campus networks

This article describes a scalable, self-configuring architecture for campus networks, the ABridges architecture. It is a two-tiered hierarchy of layer two switches in which network islands running independent rapid spanning tree protocols communicate through a core formed by island root bridges (ABridges). ABridges use AMSTP, a simplified and self configuring version of MSTP protocol, to establish shortest paths in the core using multiple spanning tree instances, one instance rooted at each core edge ABridge. The architecture is very efficient in terms of network usage and path length due to the ability of AMSTP to provide optimum paths in the core mesh, while RSTP is used to aggregate efficiently the traffic at islands networks, where sparsely connected, tree-like topologies are frequent and recommended. Convergence speed is as fast as existing Rapid Spanning Tree and Multiple Spanning Tree Protocols.Publicad

Evolución conceptual de los protocolos de puentes transparentes

Los puentes Ethernet transparentes son un elemento cada vez más importante en las redes de telecomunicaciones. Este artículo ofrece una visión panorámica de la evolución conceptual de los paradigmas de puentes durante las últimas décadas, desde los puentes transparentes con árbol de expansión hasta las propuestas actualmente en estandarización: por una parte Shortest Path Bridges, Provider Bridges y Provider Backbone Bridges en el IEEE 802.1; por otra parte Routing Bridges en el IETF. Estas propuestas buscan aumentar la escalabilidad y obtener una alta utilización de la infraestructura de red, así como la provisión de servicios basados en Ethernet a gran número de usuarios. Mediante un mapa genealógico y una tabla se resumen e ilustran los aspectos funcionales, la evolución de los puentes propuestos en cuanto a los mecanismos básicos empleados para el encaminamiento, reenvío y la prevención de bucles tales como protocolos de vector distancia y de estado de enlaces, árboles múltiples de expansión, jerarquización mediante encapsulado de tramas y prohibición de algunos giros en los nodos. La evolución reciente de las propuestas muestra claramente varias tendencias: el predominio de los protocolos de estado de enlaces como IS-IS para el encaminamiento y/o construcción de árboles múltiples, de los mecanismos de encapsulado, y la multiplicación de tipos de identificadores para etiquetar y procesar separada y homogéneamente miles de servicios y clientes

Boosting Ethernet Performance by Segment-Based Routing

Ethernet is turning out to be a cost-effective solution for building Cluster networks offering compatibility, simpli-city, high bandwidth, scalability and a good performance-to-cost ratio. Nevertheless, Ethernet still makes inefficient use of network resources (links) and suffers from long fail-ure recovery time due to the lack of a suitable routing algo-rithm. In this paper we embed an efficient routing algorithm into 802.3 Ethernet technology, making it possible to use off-the-shelf equipment to build high-performance and cost-effective Ethernet clusters, with an efficient use of link band-width and with fault tolerant capabilities. The algorithm, referred to as Segment-Based Routing (SR), is a determinis-tic routing algorithm that achieves high performance with-out the need for virtual channels (not available in Ether-net). Moreover, SR is topology agnostic, meaning it can be applied to any topology, and tolerates any combination of faults derived from the original topology when combined with static reconfiguration. Through simulations we ver-ify an overall improvement in throughput by a factor of 1.2 to 10.0 when compared to the conventional Ethernet rou-ting algorithm, the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), and other topology agnostic routing algorithms such as Up*/Down* and Tree-based Turn-prohibition, the last one being recently proposed for Ethernet.