System and method for routing packet traffic
AssigneeAt&T Intellectual Preperty I, L.P.
InventorsSHERRY SOJA-MOLLOY, MARK A. ELIAS, BRAD J. BLEDSOE
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Abstract
A system and method are disclosed for routing packet traffic. A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a Provider Edge (PE) router having a routing element that routes packet traffic between a plurality of autonomous systems according to one or more Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) tables each having a plurality of Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) Autonomous System (AS) numbers. Other embodiments are disclosed.
Claims13
A Provider Edge (PE) router, comprising a routing element that routes packet traffic between a plurality of autonomous systems according to one or more Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) tables each having a plurality of Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) Autonomous System (AS) numbers, wherein the routing element comprises:
- a communications interface for processing packets from a plurality of Customer Edge (CE) routers;
- a memory for storing the VRF table and routing information;
- and
- a controller that manages operations of the routing element according to protocols conforming to EIGRP and BGP (Border Gateway Protocol),
- wherein when the routing element detects an interruption in a select one of the CE routers, the routing element removes one or more EIGRP AS numbers from one of the VRF tables associated with the affected CE router, and advertises said update of the VRF table to one or more network elements of a communication system coupled to the PE router, and
- wherein when the routing element detects no interruption in the select one of the CE routers, the routing element checks for routing updates received from the select one of the CE routers, and if an update is received, the VRF table associated with the select one of the CE routers is updated and advertised to the communication system.
A method comprising:
- routing packet traffic according to one or more Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) tables each having a plurality of Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) Autonomous System (AS) numbers;
- receiving packet traffic;
- selecting one of the VRF tables according to its association with a select one of a plurality of Customer Edge (CE) routers from which the packet traffic was received;
- determining a destination route according to a select one of one or more entries in the selected VRF table that match an IP network address associated with the packet traffic, each entry having a corresponding one of the EIGRP AS numbers;
- and
- routing said packet traffic to a communication system according to the destination route;
- detecting an interruption in a select one of the CE routers;
- removing one or more EIGRP AS numbers from one of the VRF tables associated with the affected CE router;
- and
- advertising said removal of one or more EIGRP AS numbers from one of the VRF tables to one or more network elements of the communication system,
- wherein when no interruption is detected in the select one of the CE routers, checking for routing updates received from the select one of the CE routers, and if an update is received, updating the VRF table associated with the select one of the CE routers and advertising the update to the communication system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.