DESC:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
[39 of 1970]
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(Section 10; Rule 13)

FIBERGRID NETWORK ARCHITECTURE FOR DISTRIBUTION OF OPTICAL SIGNALS TO PLURALITY OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES

Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited,
122, Madhapur Rd, Kavuri Hills Phase 1,
Kavuri Hills, Jubilee Hills,
Telangana 500033,
An Indian Company

The following Specification particularly describes the invention and the method it is being performed

RELATED APPLICATION

The present invention claims benefit of the Indian Provisional Application No. 201641021626 titled “fibergrid network architecture for distribution of optical signals to plurality of communication devices” filed on 23rd June 2016 by Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited, which is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to fiber optic cable communications, and more particularly relates to an architecture of a fibergrid network for distribution of optical signals to plurality of communication devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Current network systems for transmitting television signals to household environments are customized for providing broadcasted signals via the Ethernet cables. Such networks systems are restricted to limited areas and not capable of adopting new type of network entities in the network system. Further, the contents are delivered in a broadcast mode. Moreover, transmission of different types of services such as Voice, VOIP, internet etc over the existing network to the television sets are expensive and may incur additional cost for maintenance.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a network system, which is capable of providing qualitative and affordable digital services (data, voice, video etc) to households.

The above-mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The various embodiments of the present invention disclose a FiberGrid architecture for providing affordable, high-speed broadband connectivity to households, especially to the rural sectors. The present invention uses a fiber infrastructure leveraging the assets of the electricity transmission/distribution for implementation of the fiber cables.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the Multitier Ring architecture provides redundancy and link failure, Dual homing of Mandals to different hubs based on the spread of fiber span. The end- to-end seamless unified IP/MPLS (RFC 3107) design ensures optimum spread of routes across the network.

The present invention describes an architecture of fibergrid network system for distribution of optical signals. The fibergrid network system is based on next generation network (NGN) based architecture and caters to the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) based access needs. The network architecture defines a hierarchical network transport infrastructure for enabling seamless transportation and integration of required services and various components. Being an access agnostic architecture, the NGN architecture enables a seamless and transparent network capability for integration of other access technologies such as FTTH. The NGN network architecture allows a user to transport all information and services such as voice, data, IPTV and all sorts of media such as video by encapsulating these into packets, similar to the ones used on the Internet.

The fibergrid network system has been divided physically into different areas from the aggregation point of view as:
• NOC – Data Centre, Internet Gateways, Caching Servers, BRAS, CG-NAT, Core Switch etc
• District Head Quarter- IP-MPLS District Nodes & District DWDM Nodes
• Zonal Hub – Zonal IP-MPLS Node & Zonal DWDM Nodes
• Mandal – Mandal IP MPLS Node & GPON OLT
• Sub-station Location – GPON OLT

The embodiments disclosed herein is adapted for establishing a scalable infrastructure and network with a business model of infrastructure as a service (IAAS) and Platform as a service (PAAS) on a non-discriminatory basis to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Telephone Service Providers (TSPs), Multi-system Operators (MSOs) and content providers with their service being extended to the last mile users through Point of Presence (POP) at around various substations utilizing the Local Cable Operators (LCO) network.

The embodiments of the present invention can be effectively utilized in education, health, agriculture and allied sectors, and open up new vistas in the e-governance. The embodiments herein also provides for delivering citizen centric services in an efficient and transparent way.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) of the FiberGrid architecture comprises of headends such as cable TV, IP TV, Internet services, CDN, Application servers, Content Servers, POPs, Internet Gateway, Peering and Caching, Cloud Data Center, Broadcasters Downlink Stations and the like.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the Platform as a Service (PaaS) of the FiberGrid architecture comprises of CATV/IPTV platform, content hosting platform, application hosting platform, VOIP platform, e-governance, Mobile platform, enterprise platform, Cloud platform, OSS and BSS platform, Ad servers and the like.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the Platform as a Service (PaaS) of the FiberGrid architecture comprises of CAS/DRM, Payment gateway, messaging software, ERP/CRM, all cloud enabled software services and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the overall architecture of a FiberGrid Network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the hierarchy of the various components present in the Fibergrid network, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the network architecture of a plurality of District Head Quarters present in the Fibergrid network, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the network architecture of a District head quarter (DHQ) functioning as a core node for all the subrings within that District, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the network architecture of a Zonal node, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an end-to-end ISIS deployment model of the fibergrid network system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an end-to-end border gateway protocol (BGP) deployment model in the fibergrid network system, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Although specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention describes an architecture of fibergrid network system for distribution of optical signals. In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The present invention describes an architecture of fibergrid network system for distribution of optical signals. The fibergrid network system is based on next generation network (NGN) based architecture and caters to the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) based access needs. The network architecture defines a hierarchical network transport infrastructure for enabling seamless transportation and integration of required services and various components. Being an access agnostic architecture, the NGN architecture enables a seamless and transparent network capability for integration of other access technologies such as FTTH. The NGN network architecture allows a user to transport all information and services such as voice, data, IPTV and all sorts of media such as video by encapsulating these into packets, similar to the ones used on the Internet.

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the overall architecture of a FiberGrid Network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The fibergrid network system comprises a multi-tier ring architecture defining a hierarchical network transport infrastructure for enabling seamless transportation and integration of various data services such as voice, data, IPTV, video and rendering to a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). The FiberGrid network system as shown in Figure 1 comprises of service operations center (SOC), Network Operations Center (NOC) connected to a Network, Last Mile Network (LMW) and the end customers. The SOC 102 allows potential service providers including video, data, voice etc to offer services that could in turn be provisioned through the aerial fiber network. This center will allow them to access to assets for a fee. The SOC 102 further comprises of, but not limited to, application service providers (ASP), Mobile Service Providers (MSP) and Telephone service providers (TSP).

The Network Operations center (NOC) 104 is the crucial component of the entire architecture, which is capable of transmitting selected services and monitoring the operations of the network. The NOC 104 comprises of a Data Centre, Internet Gateways, Caching Servers, BRAS, CG-NAT routers and a Core Switch. The network herein is an aerial fiber network leveraging the assets of the energy department with provisions for point of presence (POPs) at all existing substations.

The last mile operators network 106 are the ones capable of provisioning the services to the end users. The LMW supplies customer premises equipment to customers which is capable of providing services by one or more service providers present in the service operations center. The end customers can be households or enterprises. The availability of multiple providers will give the end customers the option to choose services from any of these service providers at the operations center all while paying the same user fee.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary ring structure and hierarchy of the various components present in a Fibergrid network, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The fibergrid network system is divided physically into different areas from the aggregation point of view as:
• NOC – Data Centre, Internet Gateways, Caching Servers, BRAS, CG-NAT, Core Switch etc
• District Head Quarter- IP-MPLS District Nodes & District DWDM Nodes
• Zonal Hub – Zonal IP-MPLS Node & Zonal DWDM Nodes
• Mandal – Mandal IP MPLS Node & GPON OLT
• Sub-station Location – GPON OLT

As shown in Figure 2, a Network Operations Center (NOC) is the crucial component in the overall fibergrid network architecture. The NOC caters to various functional requirements for end-to-end service enablement and monitoring. The logical design of NOC comprises a broadband network gateway (BNG), a Core Router, Caching Servers, Internet Gateway and CGNAT routers are placed in the NOC. The NOC Core Router also acts as district headquarters (DHQ) for a respective district. High availability and redundancy is provided by the placement of two Core Switches, BNGs, Caching servers, CGNATs and Internet Routers in the fibergrid network.

The DHQs are connected to the NOC using Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) Nodes. The DWDM nodes at the NOC allows 100GHz dedicated bandwidth at each district. The DHQ act as the Core Node for all the subrings within the district. The DHQ consists of one Core Router and a DWDM node. As shown in Figure 3, the DHQ comprise a total of 11 districts in the network in the form of ring architecture for reliability and traffic routing. Also, a 100GHz is available in the DHQ to provide Point to Point link from every DHQ to NOC located at the district and 20G between the DHQs.

Figure 4 illustrates a Zonal node (AGG – Aggregation node) and functions as second layer of aggregation within the overall next generation network (NGN) framework. The Zonal Node contains a Zonal Router and a Zonal DWDM which is then connected to respective the DHQ DWDMs. A zonal ring can connect up to 5 Zonal hubs and a District ring terminates on a Zonal node and Zonal Router will be connected to nearest Mandal nodes.

Figure 5 illustrates a Mandal (Pre-AGG) Node of the NGN based network architecture. The Mandal Node functions as a pre-aggregation node within the overall NGN architecture. Up to 5 Mandal rings can be connected to the zonal hub and each Mandal ring will have up to 11 nodes. The Mandal node is the fiber to the X (FTTx) services insertion point. Each Mandal Node is provided with 10Giga hertz bandwidth.

The network also comprises of a Substation OLT (Access) Node functioning as the Access Edge Node to which the last mile subscribers are connected through GPON interface using the customer premise equipment (CPEs) located at the customer premises. These substation OLTs are connected to the Mandal Nodes to bring the customers on to the network. Each OLT is provided with 1 Giga hertz of bandwidth and can serve up to 1000 subscribers.

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an end-to-end ISIS deployment model of the fibergrid network system, according to one embodiment. The fibergrid network system is based on a unified Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) framework. Further, the fibergrid network uses Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) as Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) within the NOC Domain (between the CGNAT, Core Router, Core Switch and the Internet Gateway) to exchange loopback prefix. The IS-IS is used as the IGP for the IP/MPLS transport network and is enabled at every layer of the network hierarchy. The Network is based on multi area IGP topology. In one embodiment, two IS-IS instances are running in the fibergrid network. They are:
• Core-ISIS
• Zone-ISIS

From a multi-area IGP organization perspective, the DHQ to NOC 100 Gig Links and the DHQ to DHQ 20 Gig Links are running the Process Core-ISIS. These links form the intermediate system to intermediate system (IS-IS) Level 2 backbone area (Process Core-ISIS L2). The DHQ to NOC 100 Gig Links are used to carry the traffic between non adjacent districts and DHQ to DHQ 20 Gig Links are used to carry the inter-district traffic.

The Zonal Rings are part of the same Process Core-ISIS. All the Zonal Hubs which are part of the Zonal Rings form the intermediate system to intermediate system (IS-IS) Level 1 backbone area (Process Core-ISIS L1). The Mandal Rings are part of the Process Zone-ISIS. All the Mandals in the Mandal Ring attached to the Zonal Hub form the intermediate system to intermediate system (IS-IS) Level 1 backbone area (Process Zone-ISIS L1). The Zonal Hub nodes run two distinct ISIS processes, with the first process corresponding to Process Core (IS-IS Level 1) and the second ISIS process corresponding to the Process Zone (IS-IS Level 2).

Partitioning these network layers into such independent and isolated IS-IS domains helps reduce the size of routing and forwarding tables on individual routers in these domains. This in turn, leads to better stability and faster convergence within each of these domains.

Since routes between the Core IS-IS Level 2 and Core IS-IS Level 1 are not redistributed, the DHQs act as BGP inline Route-reflector for the Zonal Hubs. The DHQs reflect the labeled BGP prefixes and thus allowing the Zonal Hub and DHQ ISIS routing domains to remain isolated. Similarly, since the Mandals and Zonal Hubs are in different ISIS processes, the Zonal Hubs have to reflect the labeled BGP prefixes hence acting as BGP inline Route-reflector for the Mandal Nodes.

LDP is used for label distribution to build intra-domain LSPs within each independent domain. Inter-domain reachability is enabled with hierarchical LSPs using BGP-labeled unicast as per RFC 3107 procedures, where iBGP is used to distribute IPv4 Loopbacks across the Core and aggregation domain. The end-to-end BGP deployment model is shown in Figure 7.

As shown in Figure 7, the NOC-DHQ-1 and NOC-DHQ-2 Nodes act as the Centralized Route-reflector for the network. Below is the summary of ISIS deployment on various types of nodes for APSFL network:

• NOC and DHQs - Single Process Core ISIS. L2 domain towards the District Ring and L1 domain towards the Zonal Ring
• Zonal Hubs - Two ISIS processes, Core and Zone. Core ISIS L1 process towards Zonal ring and Process Zone ISIS L2 domain towards the Mandal Ring
• Mandal - Single Process Zone ISIS L2

The fibergrid network uses a Single AS Multi-Area design. The network has adopted Cisco’s UMMT architecture for the transport and service architecture. The details of BGP framework for the network and the uses of BGP in the fibergrid network for connecting local network to gain access to the Internet are explained in Figure 7.

The peer group is used in all routers running BGP. The following table illustrates the
Peer Group Name and the neighbors that are associated with the peer group in fibergrid Network.

Also, as shown in Figure 7, BGP peering IP address is used to establish BGP peering. It is required to use Loopback address as the source for BGP session establishment.

All devices except Zonal Hub i.e. NOC DHQ, DHQ, Mandal are using Loopback 0 interface as the source for BGP session establishment. The Zonal Hub is using Loopback 0 interface (part of Core ISIS L1 process) for BGP session establishment with DHQ and Loopback 1 interface (part of Zone ISIS L2 process) for session establishment with Mandal.

Depiction of different features as modules/units is intended to highlight different functional aspects of the devices illustrated and does not necessarily imply that such modules/units must be realized by separate hardware or software components. Rather, functionality associated with one or more modules/units may be integrated within common or separate hardware or software components. Various embodiments have been described. These and other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
,CLAIMS:CLAIMS
We Claim

1. A fiber grid network system for distribution of optical signals to one or more end users, the system comprising:
a Service Operations Center (SOC) for receiving services from one or more service providers;
a Network Operations Center (NOC) adapted for transmitting selected services and monitoring operations of a network;
a Last Mile Network (LMW) for provisioning services from the network to the end users,
wherein the fibergrid network system comprises a multi-tier ring architecture defining a hierarchical network transport infrastructure for enabling seamless transportation and integration of various data services such as voice, data, IPTV, video and rendering to a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE).

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the Service operations center comprises at least one of an application service providers (ASP), Mobile Service Providers (MSP) and Telephone service providers (TSP).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the network is an aerial fiber network leveraging assets of energy department with provisions for Point of Presence (POPs) at all existing substations.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the NOC comprises of a Data Centre, Internet Gateways, Caching Servers, BRAS, CG-NAT routers and a Core Switch.

5. The system of claim 1, is further adapted for establishing a scalable infrastructure and network with a Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) unit and a Platform as a service (PAAS) unit on a non-discriminatory basis to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Telephone Service Providers (TSPs), Multi-system Operators (MSOs) and content providers with their service being extended to last mile users through Point of Presence (POP) at around various substations utilizing a Local Cable Operators (LCO) network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) unit of the FiberGrid network comprises of headends such as cable TV, IP TV, Internet services, CDN, Application servers, Content Servers, POPs, Internet Gateway, Peering and Caching, Cloud Data Center and Broadcasters Downlink Stations.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the Platform as a Service (PaaS) comprises of CATV/IPTV platform, content hosting platform, application hosting platform, VOIP platform, e-governance, Mobile platform, enterprise platform, Cloud platform, OSS and BSS platform, and Ad servers, CAS/DRM, Payment gateway, messaging application, ERP/CRM and one or more cloud enabled service centers.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the end users can be household customers or enterprises.

Dated this the 23rd day of June 2017
Signature

KEERTHI J S
Patent agent
Agent for the applicant