US 11,757,771 B2
Method for routing packets in a communication network having a variable and predictable topology
Bertrand Claude, Toulouse (FR); Raphaël Ihamouine, Toulouse (FR); and Antoine Auger, Toulouse (FR)
Appl. No. 17/927,672
Filed by AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE SAS, Toulouse (FR)
PCT Filed May 25, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/063928
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 23, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/239740, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 2, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2005483 (FR), filed on May 25, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0179514 A1, Jun. 8, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 45/50 (2022.01); H04L 45/24 (2022.01); H04L 45/745 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 45/50 (2013.01) [H04L 45/24 (2013.01); H04L 45/745 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for routing data packets within a communication network, said network comprising several nodes, each of the nodes capable of being connected at least temporarily to one or more other nodes of the nodes of the communication network, wherein the method is adapted for using the communication network with a constellation of satellites in non-geostationary orbit around the Earth, said method includes:
a determination, by an orchestration entity, of a plurality of temporary paths between at least one source node of the several nodes and at least one destination node of the several nodes for a plurality of determined successive time periods, each of the temporary paths being guaranteed for one of the time periods and determined as a function of a variable and predictable topology of the network so as to connect said source node and said destination node via one or more intermediate nodes of the several nodes during said one of the time periods,
a generation, by said orchestration entity, of at least one table of label stacks, each of the label stacks of the at least one table corresponding to one of the temporary paths defined for one of said determined successive time periods between said source node and said destination node, each label corresponding to one of said intermediate nodes of the temporary path, said table of label stacks being provided to said source node, an encapsulation, by said source node, in each data packet transmitted during a time period of said determined successive time periods, of the label stack corresponding to said time period in the table,
a transmission of the data packet to the intermediate node corresponding to a label present at the top of the label stack,
upon reception of each data packet by the intermediate node corresponding to the label present at the top of the label stack encapsulated in the data packet, an extraction of said label from the label stack and a transmission of the data packet to another of the nodes corresponding to a label newly placed at the top of the label stack, until the label stack is empty or all labels in the label stack have been placed at the top of the label stack.