Back to results
US 12,756,651 B2Granted
Bit index explicit replication (BIER) with anycast
AssigneeHewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
InventorZhaohui Zhang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
BIER architecture currently does not support anycast, in that each BIER Forwarding Router (BFR) has its own unique BFR-prefix and BFR-ID. BIER signaling protocols also check if there are duplicate BFR-IDs advertised. Anycast support with BIER is described. The description updates (e.g., relaxes and/or removes some requirements of) RFC 8279, RFC 8401, and RFC 8444.
Claims20
A Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) sub-domain comprising:
- at least two BIER forwarding routers (BFRs) configured with a shared, non-zero, BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) associated with a shared BFR-prefix,
- wherein the shared BFR-prefix of the at least two BFRs is an anycast address, whereby a packet transmitted to the anycast address is delivered to any one of the at least two BFRs, and
- wherein at least one of the at least two BFRs belongs to a single BFR subdomain.
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- a) receiving, by a Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) forwarding router (BFR) in a BIER sub-domain, at least one advertisement collectively having a first, non-zero, BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with a first BFR-prefix, wherein the BFR-ID is shared by at least two different BFRs in the BIER sub-domain;
- and
- b) processing the at least one advertisement by not treating the first BFR-ID for the BIER sub-domain, associated with the first BFR-prefix as a duplicate and does not log an error or ignore the duplicate shared BFR-ID regardless of whether or not the BFR had previously received at least one advertisement from another BFR in the BFR sub-domain having the same non-zero BFR-ID associated with the same BFR-prefix, without any intervening check of whether or not the at least one advertisement includes an anycast indicator since the shared BFR-prefix is presumed to be an Anycast address.
A Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) forwarding router (BFR) in a BIER sub-domain, the BFR comprising:
- a) a least one processor;
- and
- b) a non-transitory storage device storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
- 1) receive, by the BFR, at least one advertisement collectively having a first, non-zero, BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with a first BFR prefix, wherein the BFR-ID is shared by at least two different BFRs in the BIER sub-domain;
- and
- 2) process the at least one advertisement by not treating the shared first BFR-ID for the BIER sub-domain, associated with the shared first BFR-prefix as a duplicate and does not log an error or ignore the duplicate shared BFR-ID regardless of whether or not the BER had previously received at least one advertisement from another BFR in the BFR sub-domain having the same non-zero BFR-ID associated with the same BFR-prefix, without any intervening check of whether or not the at least one advertisement includes an anycast indicator since the shared BFR-prefix is presumed to be an Anycast address.
3 more elements
A non-transitory storage device storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) forwarding router (BFR) in a BIER sub-domain, cause the at least one processor to:
- a) receive, by the BFR, at least one advertisement collectively having a first, non-zero, BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with a first BFR-prefix, wherein the BER-ID is shared by at least two different BFRs in the BIER sub-domain;
- and
- b) process the at least one advertisement by not treating the shared first BFR-ID for the BIER sub-domain, associated with the shared first BFR-prefix as a duplicate and does not log an error or ignore the duplicate shared BFR-ID regardless of whether or not the BFR had previously received at least one advertisement from another BFR in the BFR sub-domain having the same non-zero BFR-ID associated with the same BFR-prefix, without any intervening check of whether or not the at least one advertisement includes an anycast indicator since the shared BFR-prefix is presumed to be an Anycast address.
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- a) generating, by a first BFR in a Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) sub-domain, at least one first advertisement collectively having a non-zero BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with a BFR-prefix belonging to the BIER sub-domain;
- b) transmitting, by the first BFR, the at least one first advertisement to a BFR in the BIER sub-domain other than the first BFR;
- c) generating, by a second BFR in the BIER subdomain, at least one second advertisement collectively having the non-zero BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with the BFR-prefix belonging to the BIER sub-domain;
- and
- d) transmitting, by the second BFR, the at least one second advertisement to a BFR in the BIER sub-domain other than the second BFR,
- wherein the BFR-prefix of the at least two BFRs is an anycast address, whereby a packet transmitted to the anycast address is delivered to any one of the first and second BERS, and
- wherein at least one of the first BFR and the second BFR belongs to a single BFR subdomain.
4 more elements
A BIER subdomain comprising:
- a) a first Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) forwarding router (BFR) in the BIER sub-domain, the first BFR including (i) at least one first processor, and (ii) a first non-transitory storage device storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one first processor, cause the at least one first processor to:
- 1) generate, by the first BFR in the BIER subdomain, at least one first advertisement collectively having a non-zero BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with a BFR-prefix belonging to the BIER sub-domain;
- 2) Transmit, by the first BFR, the at least one first advertisement to a BFR in the BIER sub-domain other than the first BFR;
- and
- b) a second BFR in the BIER sub-domain, the second BFR including (i) at least one second processor, and (ii) a second non-transitory storage device storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one second processor, cause the at least one second processor to:
- 1) generate, by a second BFR in the BIER subdomain, at least one second advertisement collectively having the non-zero BIER forwarding router (BFR) identifier (BFR-ID) for the BIER sub-domain, associated with the BFR-prefix belonging to the BIER sub-domain;
- and
- 2) transmit, by the second BFR, the at least one second advertisement to a BFR in the BIER sub-domain other than the second BFR,
- wherein the BFR-prefix shared by the first and second BFRs is an anycast address, whereby a packet transmitted to the anycast address is delivered to any one of the first and second BFRs, and
- wherein at least one of the first BFR and the second BFR belongs to a single BFR subdomain.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.