US 2014/0153578 A1 · Border Gateway Protocol Extended Community Attribute for Layer-2 and Layer-3 Virtual Private Networks

Abstract

Described are a network, computer program product, and method of distributing routing information for a virtual private network (VPN) application through a packet-switched network (PSN) having fully meshed provider edge (PE) routers through Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) tunnels. A PE router is configured to participate in a VPN and to run a BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) as an auto-discovery process for finding one or more other PE routers participating in the VPN. The VPN is associated with a PBB tunnel. A service instance identifier (I-SID) is assigned to the VPN. The PE router advertises membership in the VPN by including the I-SID assigned to the VPN in a BGP message issued during the auto-discovery process.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A border gateway protocol (BGP) network device for use in a network in which the BGP device is in communication with at least one BGP peer over a packet-switched network, the BGP network device comprising:

at least one processor;
and
at least one storage device having a routing table for storing routing information for supporting a virtual private network (VPN) application over an Ethernet switched path and instructions for execution by the at least one processor, the instructions comprising:
instructions executable to generate a BGP message based on at least some of the routing information, the routing information in the BGP message providing an association between a VPN route and the Ethernet switched path;
and
instructions executable to communicate the BGP message to at least one BGP peer.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Border Gateway Protocol Extended Community Attribute for Layer-2 and Layer-3 Virtual Private Networks

Life of this patent

Border Gateway Protocol Extended Community Attribute for Layer-2 and Layer-3 Virtual Private Networks

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims28