A new carrier grade aggregation network model for delivering broadband services to fast moving users

In this article, we present the research challenges that are associated with designing a cost-effective network architecture for delivering broadband services to fast moving users (e.g. in trains). We specifically extended the standard Switched Ethernet technology towards a truly Carrier Grade network solution for fast moving users. Prototype implementations allow us to evaluate dynamic tunnel setup mechanisms and to prove that fast Ethernet recovery is feasible by extending the existing spanning tree mechanisms. For architectures with multiple spanning trees the problem arises as to how the spanning trees have to be configured. Therefore, we propose time-efficient algorithms which solve the problem of aggregating paths into a minimal set of spanning trees. In the performance evaluation section, we compare vulnerable centralized backup systems to systems relying on distributed spanning tree-based recovery and it is shown that the former require more spanning tree instances to be configured than the latter for the same set of backup paths. The presented methods and results show that Ethernet technologies are well suited for building flexible and robust network solutions that can support fast moving users. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.