Method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers within a single network element

• US 20040240429A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Shen, Naiming
• Granted Patent: US 8,045,547 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4679 Arrangements for the registration or de-registration of VLAN attribute values, e.g. VLAN identifiers, port VLAN membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/033 by updating distance vector protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines

Abstract

A method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers is described. A method in a single network element comprises peering a first virtual router to a second virtual router, wherein the first and second virtual routers have separate address spaces and separate routing tables, distributing a set of one or more routes from the first virtual router to the second virtual router, wherein a first of the set of routes identifies the first virtual as a next hop of the first route, said first route including a destination, and downloading to a set of one or more forwarding tables, the destination and the next hop.

Claims

1. A single network element comprising:

a control card having a set of instructions to cause the control card to,

insert in a first virtual router'"'"'s routing table a route, said route to indicate a destination and a next hop, said next hop to identify a second virtual router, wherein said first virtual router corresponds to a first address space different from a second address space that corresponds to the second virtual router, and

download the route to a forwarding table; and

a set of one or more line cards coupled with the control card, at least one of the set of line cards to receive said route.

3. The network element of claim 1 wherein the next hop is a logical interface.

4. The network element of claim 1 wherein the next hop is a virtual router handle.

5. The network element of claim 1 wherein the set of instructions further cause the control card to host a set of one or more routing protocol processes, each of the set of routing protocol processes corresponding to a different routing protocol, the set of routing protocol processes to process packets for a plurality of virtual routers supported by the network element.

6. The network element of claim 1 each of the set of line cards includes a set of instructions to cause the corresponding line card to host a forwarding process, said forwarding process to process sending and receiving of a packet between virtual routers.

2. The network element of claim further comprising a transmission medium to carry routes to said set of line cards.