Aggregate multicast trees for virtual private local area network (LAN) service multicast
AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.
InventorsRahul Aggarwal, Yakov Rekhter
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Abstract
Principles of the invention are described for providing virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances across a public network by utilizing multicast trees. In particular, the VPLS multicast instances transport layer two (L2) multicast traffic, such as Ethernet packets, between customer networks via the public network. The principles described herein enable VPLS multicast instances to handle high bandwidth multicast traffic. The principles also reduce the state and the overhead of maintaining the state in the network by removing the need to perform snooping between routers within the network.
Claims39
A method comprising:
- establishing a multicast tree comprising a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) tunnel for transporting multicast data packets from a source device providing an ingress to the P2MP tunnel to a plurality of destination devices providing egresses from the P2MP tunnel, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of different virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances;
- and
- transmitting multicast data packets for more than one of the VPLS multicast instances from the source device through the P2MP tunnel to the plurality of destination devices on the multicast tree.
A network device comprising:
- a control unit that establishes a multicast tree comprising a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) tunnel for transporting multicast data packets through a network, wherein the multicast tree includes a source device providing an ingress to the P2MP and a plurality of destination devices providing egresses from the P2MP tunnel, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instance;
- and
- one or more output interfaces that transmit the multicast data packets for more than one of the VPLS multicast instances through the P2MP tunnel on the multicast tree.
A computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program comprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to:
- establish a multicast tree comprising a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) tunnel for transporting multicast data packets through a network, wherein the multicast tree includes a source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and a plurality of destination devices providing egresses from the multicast tree, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instance;
- and
- transmit multicast data packets for more than one of the VPLS multicast instances from the source device to the plurality of destination devices on the multicast tree.
A system comprising:
- a source device within a network, wherein the source device provides an ingress to a point-to multipoint (P2MP) multicast tree comprising a tunnel that transmits multicast data packets for a plurality of virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances;
- and
- a plurality of destination devices within the network that provide egresses to the multicast tree, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one of the VPLS multicast instances,
- wherein the source device allocates a different inner label for each of the plurality of VPLS instances and advertises the allocated inner labels to the destination devices,
- wherein each of the multicast data packets received from the P2MP tunnel by the destination devices includes an inner label and an outer label, wherein the outer label identifies a label space within the receiving destination device that corresponds to the P2MP tunnel, and the inner label identifies the VPLS for which the multicast data packets are intended, and wherein the destination devices demultiplex the multicast data packets received over the multicast tree for the more than one VPLS instance and selects a virtual routing and forward (VRF) for forwarding the multicast data packets based on the different inner labels of the multicast data packets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.