Auto-discovery and convergent multi-protocol label switching rings

A router comprising:

• a plurality of physical interfaces interconnecting the router as one of a plurality of routers forming a ring network;
• a processor executing an interior gateway routing protocol (IGP), wherein the processor is configured to exchange enhanced IGP messages to discover neighboring ones of the routers that are members of a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) ring associated with the ring network, wherein each of the enhanced IGP messages output by the routers specifies an identifier of the MPLS ring to indicate that the respective router is a member of the MPLS ring and further specifies an index that indicates a position around the MPLS ring for the respective router;
• wherein the processor is further configured to, responsive to discovering the neighboring routers that are members of the MPLS ring, establish a plurality of ring label switched paths (LSPs) for the MPLS ring, each of the ring LSPs configured to transport MPLS packets around the ring network to a different one of the routers that is designated as an egress router for the respective ring LSP, wherein each of the ring LSPs is configured as a multipoint-to-point (MP2P) LSP for which any of the routers within the ring network can operate as an ingress to source packet traffic into the ring LSP for transport to the respective egress router for the ring LSP;
• and
• a forwarding component to forward network traffic as MPLS packets around the ring network in accordance with the ring LSPs.

A computer-readable storage device storing instructions that cause a processor to:

• receive enhanced interior gateway routing protocol (IGP) messages from neighboring ones of a plurality of routers that are designated as members of a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) ring associated with a ring network, wherein each of the enhanced IGP messages specifies an identifier of the MPLS ring to indicate that the respective router is a member of the MPLS ring and specifies an index that indicates the position around the MPLS ring for the respective router;
• select, based on the IGP messages and along the ring network, an upstream neighboring one of the routers and a downstream one of the neighboring routers;
• and
• output messages to the upstream neighboring one of the routers and the downstream one of the neighboring routers in accordance with a label distribution protocol to establish a plurality of ring label switched paths (LSPs) for the MPLS ring.