FAULT-TOLERANT RECONFIGURABLE ETHERNET-BASED IP NETWORK PROXY

摘要

Using commonly available hardware and software, we present a proxy scheme for IP over Ethernet networks that provides a fault-tolerant solution without the need for modification of existing networking equipment. This type of fault-tolerant reconfigurable Ethernet-based proxy (FREP) is transparent to current applications and provides full redundancy with minimal packet loss and fast reconfiguration times. A prototype implementation yielded a reconfiguration time of 1.55 sec. Used in conjunction with optimized dynamic routing protocols, it yielded an average recovery time of three seconds. The proposed proxy scheme can be deployed in any network based on a topology that allows two connections between a subnet and the backbone. The solution relies on a dynamic routing protocol to provide backbone-level routing around the malfunctioning internetwork link.