SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING ROUTING PROTOCOL EXTENSIONS FOR IMPROVING SPOKE TO SPOKE COMMUNICATION IN A COMPUTER NETWORK

• US 20090157901A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Retana, Alvaro Enrique, Khalid, Mohamed, Savage, Donnie Van, Sethi, Pratima Pramod, Asati, Rajiv
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2521 Translation architectures other than single NAT servers

Abstract

Systems and methods for using routing protocol extensions to improve spoke to spoke communication in a computer network are disclosed. Embodiments provide systems and methods to establish a tunnel between a first spoke and a hub, exchange routing information between the first spoke and the hub using a routing protocol, extend the routing protocol and an associated database to include next hop mapping information, and establish a tunnel between the first spoke and a second spoke according to information in the database.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing a tunnel between a first node and a second node;

exchanging routing information between the first node and the second node using a routing protocol;

extending the routing protocol and an associated database to include next hop mapping information; and

establishing a tunnel between the first node and a third node according to information in the database.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the routing protocol is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the routing protocol is Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP).

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the next hop mapping information includes a mapping of at least one pair of IP addresses.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the pair of IP addresses includes the IP address configured as a tunnel IP address.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the pair of IP addresses includes the IP address configured as a tunnel source IP address.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the next hop mapping information is included in a routing protocol message even if the routing protocol message does not carry any prefix reachability information.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the next hop mapping information is stored in the database.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a change in an IP address associated with the next hop mapping information produces a dynamic routing protocol update from a spoke to a hub and then to other spokes.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a first node to establish a tunnel between the first node and a second node, the first node exchanging routing information with the second node using a routing protocol;

means for extending the routing protocol and an associated database to include next hop mapping information; and

the first node to establish a tunnel between the first node and a third node according to information in the database.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10 wherein the routing protocol is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 10 wherein the routing protocol is Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP).

13. A hub apparatus comprising:

a first spoke interface to receive a routing protocol message from a spoke, the routing protocol message including next hop mapping information for a first spoke;

a hub database to store the next hop mapping information for the first spoke; and

a second spoke interface to advertise the next hop mapping information for the first spoke to a second spoke via a routing protocol.

14. The hub apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein the routing protocol is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

15. The hub apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein the routing protocol is Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP).