METHOD FOR PROVIDING SCALABLE MULTICAST SERVICE IN A VIRTUAL PRIVATE LAN SERVICE
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Multicast capability in a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) is provided in a provider IP/MPLS infrastructure without headend replications by encapsulating a customer data packet to use an established multicast protocol, such as IP multicast. In one example, the customer data packet is encapsulated by an IP header having an IP multicast group address and an Ethernet header. In one implementation, a DNS type mechanism is provided to distribute the IP multicast addresses for VPLS use. Such IP multicast group address can be set aside from an administratively scoped address range. An efficient IP routing algorithm running on the provider'"'"'s network provides an efficient distribution tree for routing IP-encapsulated customer packet for the VPLS.
18 Citations
53 Claims
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1-32. -32. (canceled)
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33. A network device comprising:
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means for encapsulating a data packet of a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet designating an IP multicast group address, the IP multicast group address being associated with the VPLS and being selected from a private multicast domain; and means for transmitting the IP packet using an IP multicast routing protocol. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A network device comprising:
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means for determining whether an IP multicast group address associated with a received IP packet corresponds to a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) of which the network device is a member; means for de-encapsulating the IP packet to recover a data packet; and means for transmitting the data packet to one or more devices of the VPLS connected to the network device. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. A method comprising:
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encapsulating, by a network device, a data packet of a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet designating an IP multicast group address, the IP multicast group address being associated with the VPLS and being selected from a private multicast domain; and transmitting, by the network device, the IP packet using an IP multicast routing protocol.
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51. A method comprising:
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determining, by a network device, whether an IP multicast group address associated with a received IP packet corresponds to a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) of which the network device is a member; de-encapsulating, by the network device, the IP packet to recover a data packet; and transmitting, by the network device, the data packet to one or more devices of the VPLS connected to the network device.
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52. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor of a network device, the program code comprising:
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code that causes the processor to encapsulate a data packet of a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet designating an IP multicast group address, the IP multicast group address being associated with the VPLS and being selected from a private multicast domain; and code that causes the processor to transmit the IP packet using an IP multicast routing protocol.
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53. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor of a network device, the program code comprising:
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code that causes the processor to determine whether an IP multicast group address associated with a received IP packet corresponds to a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) of which the network device is a member; code that causes the processor to de-encapsulate the IP packet to recover a data packet; and code that causes the processor to transmit the data packet to one or more devices of the VPLS connected to the network device.
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Specification