Method and apparatus for providing congruent multicast and unicast routing
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorMaria Napierala
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) are disclosed. For example, the present method receives a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic by a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router. The method then discovers a multicast source to allow said remote PE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source.
Claims14
A method for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN), comprising:
- receiving a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic from a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router or a locally connected Customer Edge (CE) router;
- and
- discovering a multicast source to allow said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source, wherein said VPN is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) multicast VPN, wherein said discovering comprises:
- receiving a PIM (*,G) Join message by a Provider Edge (PE) router with a Customer Rendezvous Point (C-RP) behind said PE router from said remote PE router, where G is a multicast group;
- sending said received PIM (*,G) Join message by said PE router with said C-RP behind said PE router to said C-RP without forwarding multicast traffic on an interface that leads toward said VPN;
- and
- announcing said multicast source.
A method for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN), comprising:
- receiving a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic from a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router or a locally connected Customer Edge (CE) router;
- and
- discovering a multicast source to allow said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source, wherein said VPN is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) multicast VPN, wherein said discovering comprises:
- receiving a first PIM (S,G) Join message by a Provider Edge (PE) router with a multicast source behind said PE router from said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router, where S is a multicast source and G is a multicast group;
- announcing a tunnel to be used for (S,G) multicast traffic to all remote PE routers in said VPN by said PE router with said multicast source behind said PE router;
- and
- joining the tunnel for a (S,G) distribution tree announced by said a remote PE router with a multicast group receiver behind said PE router only if said PE router with a multicast source behind said PE router is a best next hop router from said remote PE router to said multicast source.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps of a method for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN), comprising:
- receiving a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic from a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router or a locally connected Customer Edge (CE) router;
- and
- discovering a multicast source to allow said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source, wherein said VPN is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) multicast VPN, wherein said discovering comprises:
- receiving a PIM (*,G) Join message by a Provider Edge (PE) router with a Customer Rendezvous Point (C-RP) behind said PE router from said remote PE router, where G is a multicast group;
- sending said received PIM (*,G) Join message by said PE router with said C-RP behind said PE router to said C-RP without forwarding multicast traffic on an interface that leads toward said VPN;
- and
- announcing said multicast source.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps of a method for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN), comprising:
- receiving a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic from a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router or a locally connected Customer Edge (CE) router;
- and
- discovering a multicast source to allow said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source, wherein said VPN is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) multicast VPN, wherein said discovering comprises:
- receiving a first PIM (S,G) Join message by a Provider Edge (PE) router with a multicast source behind said PE router from said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router, where S is a multicast source and G is a multicast group;
- announcing a tunnel to be used for (S,G) multicast traffic to all remote PE routers in said VPN by said PE router with said multicast source behind said PE router;
- and
- joining the tunnel for a (S,G) distribution tree announced by said a remote PE router with a multicast group receiver behind said PE router only if said PE router with a multicast source behind said PE router is a best next hop router from said remote PE router to said multicast source.
An apparatus for enabling congruent multicast and unicast routing in a Virtual Private Network (VPN), comprising:
- means for receiving a request to join a multicast group to receive multicast data traffic from a receiver behind a remote Provider Edge (PE) router or a locally connected Customer Edge (CE) router;
- and
- means for discovering a multicast source to allow said remote PE router or said locally connected CE router to use a direct path to receive said multicast data traffic from a source, wherein said VPN is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching/Border Gateway Protocol (MPLS/BGP) multicast VPN, wherein said discovering means comprises:
- means for receiving a PIM (*,G) Join message by a Provider Edge (PE) router with a Customer Rendezvous Point (C-RP) behind said PE router from said remote PE router, where G is a multicast group;
- means for sending said received PIM (*,G) Join message by said PE router with said C-RP behind said PE router to said C-RP without forwarding multicast traffic on an interface that leads toward said VPN;
- and
- means for announcing said multicast source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.