Innovative aspects. Scientific domains. UNESCO Codes

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1 Ref.: TIC_UAH_11 Industrial Sector Researcher Department Information and Communication Technologies Guillermo Ibáñez Fernández Automatic Contact Details Web Site Title DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS ARP-Path Shortest Path Bridges (FastPath Ethernet Transparent Bridges) Abstract Universidad de Alcalá and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid offer the patent licence for protocols for Fastpath Ethernet switches, a new concept of simple and compatible all-links Ethernet switch that avoids link blocking by spanning tree and provides shortest path performance. It has been implemented successfully on Linux and Openflow/NetFPGA boards. We look for financial collaboration for international patent protection a for advanced, pure hardware prototype construction and validation. Description and special features Most current proposals for Advanced Ethernet Bridges and Routing Bridges use link state protocol to compute shortest paths or multiple shortest path spanning trees. Although Link state protocols like IS-IS are mature and have good performance, they require full topology knowledge and high computation. They also require synchronization mechanisms between the bridges before setting ports in forwarding state to adequately prevent transient loops. Fastpath (also known as ARP-Path) is a radical departure from this approach. It is a natural evolution of the transparent bridge paradigm to implement near shortest path bridging (or strictly 1

2 shortest, depending on the loop prevention mechanism). Instead of interchanging topology information, short unicast paths and source rooted multicast trees are built directly in the data plane without any ancillary routing protocol, just by controlled flooding (to bridges or to hosts) of an on-demand or periodically broadcasted beacon frame. The fastest unicast path in transmission direction, among the paths permitted by the loop prevention mechanism, gets selected at every bridge. This path is then confirmed as a bidirectional, symmetric path, after reception of the unicast reply frame from the destination host or bridge(s). In this way, unicast paths and/or source rooted spanning trees are set up directly in the data plane. The proposed FastpathUD protocol prevents loops by enforcing a simple and limited prohibition of some turns of frames at bridges (down-up turns only, around one fifth of the total possible turns), instead of the full link prohibition applied by the spanning tree protocol. Throughput is close to that of shortest path protocols. Alternative mechanisms for loop prevention may be used to attain full shortest paths performance. The resulting architecture requires zero-configuration, uses standard Ethernet frame format, relies on standard Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol, is fully transparent to hosts with or without frame encapsulation, and compatible with 802.1D bridges in core-island mode Innovative aspects FastpathUD is the first proposal using for Layer two Shortest Path Bridging and unicast/multicast source rooted tree construction, without need of an additional (control plane) routing protocol and the simplest one. Scientific domains Information and Communication Technologies Industrial Manufacture, Material and Transport technologies Other Industrial Technologies Energy Physical and Exact Sciences UNESCO Codes Biological Sciences Agriculture and Marine Resources Agrofood Industry Measurements and standards Environment and risk prevention Socioeconomics Tecnología de las telecomunicaciones (Redes de comunicación de paquetes) Scientific Area Codes D-28 Redes de comunicación de paquetes 2

3 Current stage of development of the research result Development phase Developed, available for demonstration Already on the market Funding Research European RTD project National project Regional project Private funding COMMERCIAL ASPECTS Competitive advantages Provides very simple and performant Ethernet Shortest Path bridging devices Zero configuration. Compatible with IEEE 802.1D standard in core-island mode. Ethernet switches are used everywhere, but have severe limitations (blocking of many links by the spanning tree protocol to prevent loops, complex configuration) Ethernet Fastpath switches provide high network utilization and performance equal to Shortest Path Bridges (under standardization at 802.1aq), without the need of running complex link state protocols on switches. The volume of Ethernet switches Current state of industrial and intellectual property Patent applied Patent granted Software registered Comments Exclusive rights Secret know how Copyright protected - This IPR field is very active, in coincidence with new protocols being approved at IEEE Investment is very low when compared with the potential returns of patent if related ideas are standardized at IEEE or implemented by vendors in the near future. - Suited for Ethernet switch manufacturers and investors on patent portfolios 3

4 Type of collaboration sought Technical cooperation Joint venture agreement Manufacturing agreement Commercial agreement with technical assistance License agreement Comments The group is looking for big companies or SMEs manufacturers of routers, switches. They also look for Ethernet switch manufacturers and investors on patent portfolios. The tasks to be performed of the partner sought would be the support in financial collaboration for international patent protection and for advanced, pure hardware prototype construction and validation. Additional information 4

5 Contact Details Universidad de Alcalá-Oficina de Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación (OTRI) Parque Científico Tecnológico de la UAH (Campus Universitário) Edificio Multiservicios Avda. Punto Com Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) / otriuah@uah.es 5