Ethernet differentiated services architecture

Abstract

An edge node of a communication network and method to classify incoming Ethernet traffic based on predetermined criteria. An ingress switch is configured to receive an incoming Ethernet frame. A frame classifier is configured to identify flows and to correlate a flow to a corresponding bandwidth profile and corresponding forwarding treatments defined for the flow.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a communications network, the method comprising:
 classifying traffic to select a per-hop behavior according to header information in the traffic, the header information comprising at least one of Layer 1 to Layer 7 (L1-L7) information;   setting priority bits in tag fields of headers of Ethernet frames carrying the classified traffic to identify the per-hop behavior; and   processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein an edge node of the communications network receives the traffic, classifies the traffic to select the per-hop behavior and sets the priority bits to identify the selected per-hop behavior. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one core node of the communications network processes the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises dropping Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein Ethernet frames are dropped based on respective drop precedence levels of the frames. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the respective drop precedence levels of frames are associated with respective classifications of the frames which correspond to selected respective per-hop behaviors. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises shaping Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises remarking Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises expedited forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises assured forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises default forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the header information identifies a differentiated services code point. 
     
     
         13 . A method of operating a core node of an communications network, the method comprising:
 receiving Ethernet frames carrying traffic, the Ethernet frames comprising headers, the headers comprising tag fields, the tag fields comprising priority bits that are set to identify per-hop behavior for the frames selected based on classification of the traffic according to header information in the traffic, the header information comprising at least one of Layer 1 to Layer 7 (L1-L7) information; and   processing the received Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises dropping Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises shaping Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises remarking Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises expedited forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises assured forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein processing the Ethernet frames according to the per-hop behavior identified by the priority bits comprises default forwarding of the Ethernet frames. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the header information identifies a differentiated services code point.