Circuit bundle for resiliency/protection of circuits

摘要

A device having circuit bundles and a method of configuring the network device to provide resiliency and protection for network circuits. A circuit bundle provides the ability to group multiple circuits of the same type for resiliency/protection. There is an active virtual circuit that is selected based on a user configured priority value defining priority for carrying circuit traffic. When the active virtual circuit fails, alternative virtual circuits are selected to carry the circuit traffic, again based on user configured priority. Virtual circuits included in the circuit bundle can have different destinations, and include at least multipoint virtual circuits.

主权项

1. A device deployed in a network for providing a virtual circuit service, the device comprising:
a packet switch constructed to (i) correlate an identifier included in a received packet with first information representing at least one of a circuit identifier, a circuit bundle identifier, and a status identifier included in a circuit table, (ii) retrieve from a forwarding table, output interface information corresponding to the first information, and (iii) determine whether the output interface information corresponds to a circuit bundle with an active virtual circuit by identifying whether (a) the output interface information specifies an output circuit bundle identifier, and (b) the output circuit bundle identifier corresponds to second information, in a circuit bundle table, specifying the active virtual circuit, wherein the circuit bundle table includes information specifying a type of virtual circuits that included in each respective circuit bundle; and wherein the circuit bundle table includes data indicating whether a Media Access Control address withdraw message should be sent in a case where the active virtual circuit fails, and data indicating whether individual traps should be sent for the circuit bundle.