Topology discovery, control channel establishment, and datapath provisioning within an aggregation network with centralized control

摘要

An access network is described in which a centralized controller (35) provides seamless end-to-end service from a core-facing edge of a service provider network (20) through aggregation and access infrastructure (24) out to access nodes (28, 36) located proximate to the subscriber devices (18). The controller (35) operates to provide a central configuration point for configuring aggregation nodes (19) of a network of the service provider (20) so as to provide transport services to transport traffic between access nodes (28, 26) and edge routers (30) on opposite borders of the network.