PROTOCOL CIRCUIT LAYER

摘要

A protocol circuit layer is described. The protocol circuit layer may employ a routing layer to determine optimal routes when establishing a circuit. The circuit layer may employ a link layer to send data packets over links to other network nodes. A naming layer may employ circuits to establish a distributed database of associations between network node addresses and their network locations.

主权项

1. A system that enables network communications over circuits defined by a plurality of nodes, wherein adjacent ones of the plurality of nodes are communicatively coupled together via at least one leg, and wherein each of the circuits are defined by a source node and a destination node that are interconnected via a series of the nodes, and wherein each circuit is uniquely identified by a circuit identifier (ID), wherein each node of a circuit comprises:
a circuit table that identifies at least one circuit that the node is a member of,
wherein the circuit table identifies the at least one circuit by its circuit ID, andwherein the circuit table includes a 4-tuple that has an identifier of the source node, an identifier of the destination node, an identifier of a source service from the source node, and an identifier of a destination service to the destination node; and a leg table that identifies an incoming leg and an outgoing leg that are associated with the at least one circuit,
wherein the incoming leg communicatively couples the node with a first adjacent node that is used when the node receives packets from the first adjacent node,wherein the outgoing leg communicatively couples the node to a second adjacent node that is used when the node communicates packets to the second adjacent node,wherein the leg table identifies the incoming leg using a first triple that has at least a link ID, a first local leg ID, and a direction that defines an incoming travel direction of packets from the first adjacent node to the node, andwherein the first triple of the leg table is associated with the circuit ID in the circuit table,wherein the leg table further identifies the outgoing leg using a second triple that has at least the link ID, a second local leg ID, and a direction that defines an outgoing travel direction of packets from the node to the second adjacent node, andwherein the second triple of the leg table is associated with the circuit ID in the circuit table, wherein the first adjacent node and the second adjacent node are members of the at least one circuit identified in the circuit table.