ON-DEMAND BOOT STRAP ROUTER SOURCE ANNOUNCEMENTS

• US 20140269412A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wijnands, Ijsbrand, Venaas, Stig Ingvar
• Granted Patent: US 9,325,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing

Abstract

In one embodiment, a node in a communication network receives a request for messages of a particular group, determines a rendezvous point, and transmits the request to the rendezvous point to cause the rendezvous point to return a source-message indicating a source-node of the particular group. The node further creates a path from itself to the source-node and receives messages of the particular group according to the path.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a node in a communication network, a request for messages of a particular group;

determining, relative to the node, a rendezvous point;

transmitting the request from the node to the rendezvous point to cause the rendezvous point to return a source-message indicating a source-node of the particular group;

creating a path from the node to the source-node; and

receiving messages of the particular group at the node according to the path.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein creating the path from the node to the source node comprises creating the path from the node to the source node according to a shortest path tree.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein creating the path from the node to the source node comprises creating the path from the node to the source node according to a minimum hop count.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the rendezvous point is a bootstrap router advertising rendezvous point mapping.

5. The method as in claim 4, wherein the bootstrap router is a First Hop Router (FHR) relative to the source-node.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the source-message is a bootstrap router announcement message.

7. The method as in claim 6, wherein the bootstrap router message is a control plane message.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the request to receive messages for the group is a control plane message and messages of the group are data plane messages.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein the node is a Last Hop Router (LHR) that receives the request for messages of the particular group from a receiver.

10. The method as in claim 9, wherein the rendezvous point is a router having information regarding all active sources.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a rendezvous point in a communication network, an announcement message indicating one or more source-nodes and associated groups;

receiving, at the rendezvous point, a request from a node for messages of a particular group;

determining a corresponding source-node of the particular group;

transmitting, in response to the request, a source-message indicating the corresponding source-node for the particular group to cause the node to create a path from the node to the source-node to receive messages of the group according to the created path.

12. The method as in claim 11, wherein the source-message is a bootstrap router message (BSR) comprising source-to-group mapping.

13. The method as in claim 11, wherein the rendezvous point is a bootstrap router advertising rendezvous point mapping.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein the bootstrap router is a first hop router relative to the source-node.

15. The method as in claim 11, wherein the source-message is a bootstrap router announcement message.

16. The method as in claim 15, wherein the bootstrap router message is a control plane message.

17. The method as in claim 11, wherein the request to receive messages for the group is a control plane message and messages of the group are data plane messages.

18. The method as in claim 17, wherein the rendezvous point is a router having information regarding all sources.

19. The method as in claim 11, wherein the node is a last hop router that receives the request for messages of the particular group from a receiver.

20. The method as in claim 11, wherein the announcement messages are bootstrap router messages comprising source-to-group mapping.

21. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having software encoded thereon, the software when executed by a processor operable to:

receive, at a node in a communication network, a request for messages of a particular group;

determine, relative to the node, a rendezvous point;

transmit the request from the node to the rendezvous point to cause the rendezvous point to return a source-message indicating a source-node of the particular group;

create a path from the node to the source-node; and

receive messages of the particular group at the node according to the path.