MTU discovery over multicast path using bit indexed explicit replication

A network device for implementing a method for path maximum transmission unit (PMTU) discovery (PMTUD) for a multicast distribution implemented in a network using bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) architecture, the network having a set of bit forwarding routers (BFRs) that form a BIER domain including at least one ingress BFR (BFIR) and a set of egress BFRs (BFERs), the method improving efficiency of the PMTUD by limiting probe packet traffic, the network device comprising:

• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored therein a PMTUD module;
• and
• a network processor coupled to the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the network processor configured to execute the PMTUD module, the PMTUD module configured to select a BFER from the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed, to generate a probe packet to the selected BFER using a current MTU, to send the probe packet to the selected BFER, and to update the current MTU and to add BFERs identified by a response to the probe packet to the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed.

A computing device to execute a plurality of virtual machines for implementing network function virtualization (NFV), wherein a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines is configured to implement a method for path maximum transmission unit (PMTU) discovery (PMTUD) for a multicast distribution implemented in a network using bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) architecture, the network having a set of bit forwarding routers (BFRs) that form a BIER domain including at least one ingress BFR (BFIR) and a set of egress BFRs (BFERs), the method improving efficiency of the PMTUD by limiting probe packet traffic, the computing device comprising:

• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored therein a PMTUD module;
• and
• a processor coupled to the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the processor configured to execute a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines, the virtual machine to execute the PMTUD module, the PMTUD module configured to select a BFER from the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed, to generate a probe packet to the selected BFER using a current MTU, to send the probe packet to the selected BFER, and to update the current MTU and to add BFERs identified by a response to the probe packet to the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed.

A control plane device is configured to implement a control plane of a software defined networking (SDN) network including a plurality of network devices forming a content centric network, the control plane device implementing a method for path maximum transmission unit (PMTU) discovery (PMTUD) for a multicast distribution implemented in a network using bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) architecture, the network having a set of bit forwarding routers (BFRs) that form a BIER domain including at least one ingress BFR (BFIR) and a set of egress BFRs (BFERs), the method improving efficiency of the PMTUD by limiting probe packet traffic, the control plane device comprising:

• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored therein a PMTUD module;
• and
• a processor coupled to the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the processor configured to execute the PMTUD module, the PMTUD module configured to select a BFER from the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed, to generate a probe packet to the selected BFER using a current MTU, to send the probe packet to the selected BFER, and to update the current MTU and to add BFERs identified by a response to the probe packet to the set of BFERs in the BIER domain to be processed.