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US 8,948,023 B2Granted
Enhancing mtrace to detect failure in multicast diverse paths
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorHeidi H. Ou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a network device may receive an mtrace query, where the mtrace query identifies two or more multicast routing paths. The network device may generate two or more mtrace requests using at least a portion of information obtained from the mtrace query such that each of the two or more mtrace requests identifies a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths. The network device may send each of the two or more mtrace requests via a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths. The network device may then receive at least one response including information pertaining to the two or more multicast routing paths.
Claims26
An apparatus, comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being adapted for:
- receiving, by a network device at a merge point, an mtrace query that identifies two or more multicast routing paths from a source, wherein the two or more multicast routing paths converge at the merge point;
- generating, by the network device, two or more mtrace requests using at least a portion of information obtained from the mtrace query such that each of the two or more mtrace requests identifies a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths;
- forwarding, by the network device, each of the two or more mtrace requests via a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths towards a multicast router associated with the source;
- and
- receiving, by the network device, at least one response originating from the multicast router, the at least one response comprising information pertaining to the two or more multicast routing paths.
5 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving by an intermediate device an mtrace request, the mtrace request comprising a source identifier, a group identifier, a destination identifier, and a query identifier;
- providing an identifier of the intermediate device in a topology portion of the mtrace request such that topology information in the mtrace request is updated;
- upon determining whether the intermediate device is a merge point of two or more multicast routing paths from the source identifier, updating the mtrace request with a merge point indicator;
- and
- transmitting the mtrace request to the source identifier, wherein the mtrace request includes one or more topology portions that include identifiers of one or more devices including the intermediate device.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being adapted for:
- receiving, by a network device, two or more mtrace requests originating from a merge point where two or more multicast routing paths from the network device converge, each of the two or more mtrace requests corresponding to a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths and including topology information identifying one or more other network devices in the corresponding one of the two or more multicast routing paths;
- generating by the network device an mtrace response including the topology information from each of the two or more mtrace requests;
- and
- transmitting by the network device the mtrace response to a destination identifier identified in the two or more mtrace requests.
4 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving, by an intermediate device, a first mtrace request transmitted via a first one of two or more multicast routing paths;
- receiving, by the intermediate device, a second mtrace request transmitted via a second one of the two or more multicast routing paths;
- determining from the first mtrace request and the second mtrace request whether the intermediate device is a merge point of the first one of the two or more multicast routing paths and the second one of the two or more multicast routing paths;
- and
- transmitting information indicating whether the intermediate device is the merge point according to a result of the determining step.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- means for receiving, by a network device, two or more mtrace requests originating from a merge point where two or more multicast routing paths from the network device converge, each of the two or more mtrace requests corresponding to a different one of the two or more multicast routing paths and including information pertaining to the corresponding one of the two or more multicast routing paths;
- means for generating by the network device an mtrace response including information pertaining to each of the two or more multicast routing paths, wherein the mtrace response includes at least a portion of the information from each of the two or more mtrace requests;
- and
- means for transmitting by the network device the response to a destination identified in the two or more mtrace requests.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.