HVPLS Hub Connectivity Failure Recovery With Dynamic Spoke Pseudowires

A provider edge network element in a Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service (HVPLS) hub to restore HVPLS hub connectivity upon a failure of hub connectivity, the provider edge network element comprising:

• a plurality of HVPLS hub facing connectivity elements to provide a plurality of HVPLS hub connections to a plurality of other provider edge network element within the HVPLS hub;
• a first set of one or more spoke facing connectivity elements to provide a primary HVPLS spoke connection to a first MTU, and a second set of one or more spoke facing connectivity elements to provide HVPLS hub connectivity to one or more other HVPLS hub network elements;
• a hub connectivity failure recovery module coupled with the plurality of HVPLS hub facing connectivity elements and the first and second set of spoke facing connectivity elements, the hub connectivity failure recovery module including,
• a hub facing connectivity element state detection module to monitor the plurality of HVPLS hub facing connectivity elements to detect hub connectivity failure,
• a hub connectivity failure declaration and reporting module coupled with the hub facing connectivity element state detection module, the hub connectivity failure declaration and reporting module to declare a failure of hub connectivity upon a certain amount of hub facing connectivity elements losing hub connectivity,
• a spoke facing connectivity element state switching module coupled with the hub connectivity failure declaration and reporting module, the spoke facing connectivity element state switching module to fabricate a failure of the primary HVPLS spoke connection to cause the first MTU to transition to a secondary HVPLS spoke connection that couples one of the other provider edge network elements, and
• a dynamic spoke manager to establish a dynamic HVPLS spoke connection to the first MTU to restore HVPLS hub connectivity to the other HVPLS hub network elements.

A machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, will cause said processor to perform operations for a first one of a plurality of hierarchical virtual private LAN service (HVPLS) hub network elements to recover from a failure of HVPLS hub connectivity on behalf of at least some of a plurality of spoke network elements coupled with the first HVPLS hub network element, wherein the first HVPLS hub network element provides HVPLS hub connectivity to those spoke network elements, wherein the plurality of spoke network elements includes a first set of one or more spoke network elements including a multi-tenant unit (MTU) coupled with the first HVPLS hub network element by a first HVPLS spoke connection and a second set of one or more spoke network elements coupled with the first HVPLS hub network element, wherein the first HVPLS hub network is also coupled with each of the other of the plurality of HVPLS hub network elements with a hub connection, operations comprising:

• monitoring for a failure of the HVPLS hub connectivity of the first HVPLS hub network element through a plurality of HVPLS hub facing connectivity elements of the first HVPLS hub network element, wherein the plurality of HVPLS hub facing connectivity elements provide hub connections to the others of the plurality of HVPLS hub network elements;
• detecting the failure of the HVPLS hub connectivity of the first HVPLS hub network element;
• fabricating a failure of the first HVPLS spoke connection by disabling within the first HVPLS hub network element one or more HVPLS spoke facing connectivity elements supporting the first HVPLS spoke connection, wherein a HVPLS spoke recovery mechanism in the MTU will react to the fabricated failure of the first HVPLS spoke connection by transitioning to a second HVPLS spoke connection that couples the MTU to a second of the plurality of HVPLS hub network elements that is designated as a secondary connection point to the HPVLS hub for the MTU;
• and
• the first HVPLS hub network element establishing a third HVPLS spoke connection to the MTU to restore HVPLS hub connectivity to the second set of spoke network elements coupled with the first HVPLS hub network element.