Tunnel sub-interface using ip header field
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsPascal Thubert, Michael Behringer, Aswini Kumar Sattaluri
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one implementation, sub-interfaces are defined in Layer three (L3) tunnels, such as generic routing encapsulization (GRE) or Internet protocol security (IPsec) tunnels. Sub-interfaces inside a L3 tunnel may be preferred to using several L3 tunnels. The flow label of the tunnel header is used to define sub-interfaces of a tunnel interface. The flow label is populated with a routing instance identifier to index the sub-interfaces.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- creating tunnels between devices in a network;
- operating multiple routing instances for the network;
- inserting identifiers of the routing instances for packets of data traffic into flow label fields of the tunnels;
- communicating the packets of the data traffic between the devices with the tunnels;
- separating the packets of the data traffic based on the identifiers of the routing instances;
- and
- routing the separated packets according to the respective routing instances from the flow label fields.
Logic encoded in one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that includes code for execution and when executed by a processor is operable to perform operations comprising:
- assigning a sub-interface of an interface of an Internet protocol (IP) tunnel at layer three with a flow label or differentiated services field of the interface of the IP tunnel;
- and
- transmitting traffic for the sub-interface over the IP tunnel.
An apparatus comprising:
- a memory operable to store identifiers for different routing protocol instances of a same virtual routing and forwarding and to store a tunnel header for a tunnel interface;
- and
- a processor configured to tag sub-interfaces of the tunnel interface with the identifiers positioned in a flow label or a differentiated services field of the tunnel header.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.