Method and apparatus for detecting and locating failure in telecommunication network

Abstract

In a telecommunications network, a broken connection can be detected and located by the next-hop loopback technique. The next hop loopback technique involves generating, sending, and analyzing specific data packets attempting to traverse a telecommunications connection node by node. It is then possible to determine whether a connection has been disconnected based on the fact that data packets cannot properly traverse the link, notify the network management system of the location of the disconnected connection, and determine whether to authorize appropriate action so that the network operator can make the data Reroute to bypass that part of the network. In addition, the next-hop loopback technique can be initiated by the end user on an "as needed" basis rather than on a periodic basis, thereby saving network time and resources.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to data transmission in telecommunication networks. More particularly, but not limited thereto, the present invention relates to methods and devices for detecting and locating faults in telecommunication networks. Background technique [0002] Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a standard protocol for transmitting telecommunication data over telecommunication networks. It is based on the transmission of data in fixed-sized data packets, called ATM cells, each ATM cell having a payload part of 48 octets and a header part of 5 octets. ATMs are well known in the art. [0003] ATM is often used to transport low bit rate data, eg low bit rate voice data, in telecommunication networks. However, standard ATM cannot efficiently transport low bit rate data. More specifically, standard ATM necessarily imposes significant delays on low bit rate data transmissions. Unfortunately, low bit rate data, such as low bit r...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0009] Actually, the ATM loopback procedure is very complex

For example, the end-to-end loopback packet procedure cannot accurately locate a broken connection between a source node and a non-adjacent destination node

Furthermore, the segment loopback procedure neither detects nor accurately locates a broken connection between the source node and the destination node unless the breakpoint specifically occurs between the source node and the neighbor specified by the segment loopback packet. between destination nodes

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