Patent Issued for Inline Packet Replication in Network Devices

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventors Eddleston, Charles J. (Minneapolis, MN); Bernard, Christopher T. (Wayzata, MN); Butler, Duane M. (Anoka, MN), filed on April 8, 2010, was cleared and issued on December 4, 2012.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 8325727, is Calix, Inc. (Petaluma, CA).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "An optical network, such as a passive optical network (PON) as an example, often delivers voice, video and/or other data among multiple network nodes. In the case of a PON, the network nodes are often referred to as optical network terminals (ONTs). The PON can deliver data among multiple ONTs using a common optical fiber link. Passive optical splitters and combiners enable multiple ONTs to share the optical fiber link. An optical line terminal (OLT) transmits information downstream to the ONTs, and receives information transmitted upstream from the ONTs. Each ONT terminates the optical fiber link for a residential or business subscriber, and is sometimes referred to as a subscriber or customer premises node.

"Each ONT is connected to one or more customer premises equipment (CPE) devices, which ultimately receive the voice, video and other data delivered via the PON. Examples of CPE devices include computers, telephones, television set-top boxes or the like. An ONT on a PON may receive traffic from several sources. Some sources may be commonly used among several ONTs on a PON. For example, several ONTs may access a common traffic flow associated with switched digital video (SDV) or other multicast streams. Other sources may produce traffic flows that are unique to an individual ONT. For example, an individual ONT may receive web content from an Internet service provider (ISP) or voice data from the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

"Delivery of data from a given OLT to multiple ONTs often involves replication of data packets. For example, multiple ONTs may each service subscriber stations that have joined a given multicast group that provides the same video, audio or other data to each of the subscribed subscriber stations. The OLT receives this multicast data in the form of a stream of multicast packets and replicates each of these multicast packets to create a copy for each ONT having a (CPE device that has joined the multicast group. The OLT then sends the copies of the same multicast packet to each of the respective ONTs. The ONTs, upon receiving the copy, send the copy of the packet to the corresponding one of the CPE devices, whereupon the CPE device consumes the multicast content."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "In general, the techniques described in this disclosure facilitate inline packet replication in computer networks. More specifically, the techniques of this disclosure may promote a more efficient form of integrated packet replication that does not require the assistance of an external network processor. Instead, packet replication performed in accordance with the techniques of this disclosure remains internal to a data path of the network devices, such as optical line terminals (OLTs), thereby potentially increasing packet throughput, particularly with respect to network traffic requiring packet replication for concurrent delivery of the same content to downstream devices, such as optical network terminals (ONTs). Moreover, the techniques of this disclosure may reduce the load on external processors that normally perform packet replication and reside in a control path of the network device. The reduced load may enable OLTs to feature less power intensive external processors that consume a reduced amount of board space, e.g., space on the physical board that hosts the external processor(s) and other components of the OLTs, and physical memory.

"In one aspect, a method comprises receiving, with a optical line terminal (OLT) a data unit, wherein the OLT couples to one or more of optical network terminals (ONTs) via one or more different logical interfaces supported by a single physical interface, determining, with the OLT, whether the received data unit is a candidate for replication to create multiple copies of the data unit, performing, with an inline packet processing module located in a data path of the OLT, replication to generate at least one copy of the data unit based on the determination that the received packet is a candidate for packet replication and outputting, with the physical interface of the OLT, the at least one copy of the data unit to the one or more ONTs.

"In another aspect, an optical line terminal coupled comprises a customer interface that supports one or more different logical interfaces to which couple a one or more optical network terminals (ONTs), a network interface that receives a data unit and a conversion unit located in a data path of the optical line terminal that determines whether the received data unit is a candidate for replication to create multiple copies of the data unit. The conversion unit includes an inline packet processing module that performs replication to generate at least one copy of the data unit based on the determination that the received packet is a candidate for packet replication. The customer interface outputs the at least one copy of the data unit to the one or more ONTs.

"In another aspect, a network system comprises a public network, one or more optical network terminals (ONTs), a plurality of customer premises equipment coupled to the one or more ONTs, and an optical line terminal (OLT). The optical line terminal comprises a customer interface that supports one or more different logical interfaces to which the plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs) couple, a network interface that receives a data unit from the public network, and a conversion unit located in a data path of the optical line terminal that determines whether the received data unit is a candidate for replication to create multiple copies of the data unit. The conversion unit includes an inline packet processing module that performs replication to generate at least one copy of the data unit based on the determination that the received packet is a candidate for packet replication. The customer interface outputs the at least one copy of the data unit to the one or more ONTs.

"In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that cause a processor to receive, with a optical line terminal (OLT) a data unit, wherein the OLT couples to a plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs) via one or more different logical interfaces supported by a single physical interface, determine, with the OLT, whether the received data unit is a candidate for replication to create multiple copies of the data unit, perform, with an inline packet processing module located in a data path of the OLT, replication to generate at least one copy of the data unit based on the determination that the received packet is a candidate for packet replication, and output, with the physical interface of the OLT, the at least one copy of the data unit to the one or more ONTs.

"In another aspect, an optical line terminal comprises means for receiving, with a optical line terminal (OLT) a data unit, wherein the OLT couples to a plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs) via one or more different logical interfaces supported by a single physical interface, means for determining, with the OLT, whether the received data unit is a candidate for replication to create multiple copies of the data unit, means for performing, with an inline packet processing module located in a data path of the OLT, replication to generate at least one copy of the data unit based on the determination that the received packet is a candidate for packet replication, and means for outputting, with the physical interface of the OLT, the at least one copy of the data unit to the one or more ONTs.

"The details of one or more aspects of the techniques are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the techniques will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims."

For more information, see this patent: Eddleston, Charles J.; Bernard, Christopher T.; Butler, Duane M.. Inline Packet Replication in Network Devices. U.S. Patent Number 8325727, filed April 8, 2010, and issued December 4, 2012. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=44&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=2152&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20121204.PD.&OS=ISD/20121204&RS=ISD/20121204

Keywords for this news article include: Calix Inc., Fiber Optic Network.

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