Bulk data transport in a network

摘要

A network is configured to utilize available bandwidth to conduct bulk data transfers without substantially affecting the successful transmission of time-sensitive traffic in the network. In order to avoid this interference, the packets carrying data for bulk data transfers are associated with a low priority class such that the routers of the network will preferentially drop these packets over packets associated with the normal traffic of the network. As such, when the normal traffic peaks or there are link or equipment failures, the normal traffic is preferentially transmitted over the bulk-transfer traffic and thus the bulk-transfer traffic dynamically adapts to changes in the available bandwidth of the network. Further, to reduce the impact of dropped packets for the bulk-transfer traffic, the packets are encoded at or near the source component using a loss-resistant transport protocol so that the dropped packets can be reproduced at a downstream link.

主权项

1. A network comprising:
a memory that stores instructions; and a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising:
encoding, at one of a plurality of components of the network, first packets associated with a bulk data transfer;associating the first packets with a select priority class;transmitting the first packets via the network such that the first packets are preferentially dropped in favor of second packets in the event of a congested network link, the second packets being associated with a priority class having higher priority than the select priority class, wherein transmitting the first packets via the network comprises:
dropping a select packet of the first packets at a first router;transmitting a subset of the first packets from the first router to a second router; andreplicating data of the select packet at the second router based on redundancy encoding information included in the subset of the first packets received at the second router; andconsidering a bandwidth needed for transmitting the second packets and omitting consideration of a bandwidth needed for transmitting the first packets in a capacity planning process for the network.