US 2019/0058657 A1 · OSPF EXTENSIONS FOR FLEXIBLE PATH STITCHNG AND SELECTION FOR TRAFFIC TRANSITING SEGMENT ROUTING AND MPLS NETWORKS

Abstract

A router operates in both a Segment Routing (SR) network portion and a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network portion of a network that utilizes Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). The router receives an OSPF advertisement message originated by a mapping server that includes a sub-Type-length-value (sub-TLV) element that identifies a preferred type of path across the MPLS network portion for an identifiable set of traffic that is to be received by the router from the SR network portion. The router identifies, based at least in part upon the sub-TLV element, one path of a plurality of available paths across the MPLS network portion for the identifiable set of traffic, and configures its forwarding plane to utilize the identified one path accordingly for the identifiable set of traffic. The OSPF advertisement message can be an OSPF LSA, and can carry an Extended Prefix Range TLV including the sub-TLV element.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method in a device implementing a router network element, wherein the router network element is part of a network including a Segment Routing (SR) network portion and a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network portion, wherein the router network element is part of both the SR network portion and the MPLS network portion, and wherein the network also utilizes an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol for exchanging routing information, the method comprising:

receiving, at the router network element, an OSPF advertisement message originated by a mapping server, wherein the OSPF advertisement message includes a sub-Type-length-value (sub-TLV) element that identifies a preferred type of path across the MPLS network portion for an identifiable set of traffic that is to be received from the SR network portion;
identifying, by the router network element based at least in part upon the sub-TLV element, one path of a plurality of available paths across the MPLS network portion for the identifiable set of traffic;
and
configuring, by the router network element, a forwarding plane of the router network element to utilize the identified one path to forward any received traffic from the SR network portion that can be determined to belong to the identifiable set of traffic.

1 more element

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to implement a router network element that performs operations and that is to be part of a network including a Segment Routing (SR) network portion and a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network portion, wherein the router network element is to be part of both the SR network portion and the MPLS network portion, and wherein the network also utilizes an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol for exchanging routing information, the operations comprising:

receiving an OSPF advertisement message originated by a mapping server, wherein the OSPF advertisement message includes a sub-Type-length-value (sub-TLV) element that identifies a preferred type of path across the MPLS network portion for an identifiable set of traffic that is to be received from the SR network portion;
identifying, based at least in part upon the sub-TLV element, one path of a plurality of available paths across the MPLS network portion for the identifiable set of traffic;
and
configuring a forwarding plane of the router network element to utilize the identified one path to forward any received traffic from the SR network portion that can be determined to belong to the identifiable set of traffic.

1 more element

A device, comprising:

one or more processors;
and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to implement a router network element that is to be part of a network including a Segment Routing (SR) network portion and a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network portion, wherein the router network element is to be part of both the SR network portion and the MPLS network portion, and wherein the network also utilizes an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol for exchanging routing information, wherein the router network element is adapted to:
receive an OSPF advertisement message originated by a mapping server, wherein the OSPF advertisement message includes a sub-Type-length-value (sub-TLV) element that identifies a preferred type of path across the MPLS network portion for an identifiable set of traffic that is to be received from the SR network portion,
identify, based at least in part upon the sub-TLV element, one path of a plurality of available paths across the MPLS network portion for the identifiable set of traffic, and
configure a forwarding plane of the router network element to utilize the identified one path to forward any received traffic from the SR network portion that can be determined to belong to the identifiable set of traffic.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Ospf extensions for flexible path stitchng and selection for traffic transiting segment routing and mpls networks

Life of this patent

Ospf extensions for flexible path stitchng and selection for traffic transiting segment routing and mpls networks

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19