High available method for border gateway protocol version 4
First Claim
1. A method of highly-available Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing in a network, comprising the steps of:
- establishing BGP peer router connections;
exchanging routing information with said BGP peer routers;
running BGP protocol on two redundant physically separated control plane master control units, such that one is an active BGP instance and the other is a backup BGP instance;
synchronizing the running configuration of said backup BGP instance with the running configuration of said active BGP instance using explicit message transmission from said active instance to said backup instance;
copying routing information from said BGP peer routers onto said backup BGP instance;
processing said routing information at said backup BGP instance, such that said backup BGP instance does not advertise said routing information;
maintaining dynamic state synchronization of said backup BGP instance with said active BGP instance, such that said active BGP instance enters an ACTIVE-PROTECTED state and said backup BGP instance enters a BACKUP-PROTECT state; and
in the event of fail-over of said active BGP instance, then seamlessly recovering without detection of said fail-over by said BGP peer routers in said network, by functionally substituting said BACKUP-PROTECT backup BGP instance for said ACTIVE-PROTECTED active BGP instance, such that said BACKUP-PROTECT backup BGP instance establishes itself as a new active BGP instance.
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Abstract
High availability BGP4 is based on redundant hardware as well as redundant software that replicates the RUN state of BGP4. There are two copies, respectively active and backup, of BGP4 running on two separate redundant hardware platforms. All BGP4 internal implementations apply various methods to replicate the running state of BGP4 independently of peer network routers. When this hardware or software fails on one redundant hardware platform, peer routers are unaware of the failure. Internally, based on duplicative states, the local router recovers from the failure and keeps the protocol running. During the recovery period, the local router can bring up a backup again. In the HA architecture, these activities are not detected by peer routers, such that there is no instability to the Internet backbone caused by BGP4 failure.
40 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of highly-available Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing in a network, comprising the steps of:
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establishing BGP peer router connections;
exchanging routing information with said BGP peer routers;
running BGP protocol on two redundant physically separated control plane master control units, such that one is an active BGP instance and the other is a backup BGP instance;
synchronizing the running configuration of said backup BGP instance with the running configuration of said active BGP instance using explicit message transmission from said active instance to said backup instance;
copying routing information from said BGP peer routers onto said backup BGP instance;
processing said routing information at said backup BGP instance, such that said backup BGP instance does not advertise said routing information;
maintaining dynamic state synchronization of said backup BGP instance with said active BGP instance, such that said active BGP instance enters an ACTIVE-PROTECTED state and said backup BGP instance enters a BACKUP-PROTECT state; and
in the event of fail-over of said active BGP instance, then seamlessly recovering without detection of said fail-over by said BGP peer routers in said network, by functionally substituting said BACKUP-PROTECT backup BGP instance for said ACTIVE-PROTECTED active BGP instance, such that said BACKUP-PROTECT backup BGP instance establishes itself as a new active BGP instance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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- 9. A system for highly-available Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing in a network, comprising a local BGP router and BGP peer network routers, said local BGP router having a centralized control plane containing an active BGP instance and a physically separated redundant backup BGP instance.
Specification