VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK FORWARDING AND NEXTHOP TO TRANSPORT MAPPING SCHEME

• US 20160380823A1
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhuang, Jun, Shen, Naiming, Chen, Enke
• Granted Patent: US 9,825,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4675 Dynamic sharing of VLAN information amongst network nodes configuration of the network or of network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• 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 45/80 Ingress point selection by the source endpoint, e.g. selection of ISP or POP
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2592 using tunnelling or encapsulation

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes configuring on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and advertising the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertising the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuring further comprises associating a network ID of the first network with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising is performed using a routing protocol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the routing protocol comprises Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

) and wherein the method further comprises establishing a static mapping of a nexthop address of a remote route reflector (“

RR”

) element to a transport address of the RR element, wherein the static mapping is maintained at the network element.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network is an Internet Service Provider (“

ISP”

) network.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating a tunnel ID with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting an overlapping address condition using Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

);

after the detecting, pushing a special route toward a hub site; and

automatically bringing up a bi-directional tunnel between source and destination sites to resolve the overlapping address condition.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

configuring on the network element a second tunnel from the network element to a second network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the second tunnel on the second network to create a second nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertising the second nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising employing a remote push and local pull model to distribute routing information.

10. One or more non-transitory tangible media that includes code for execution and when executed by a processor is operable to perform operations comprising:

configuring on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertising the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the configuring further comprises associating a network ID of the first network with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein the advertising is performed using Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

) and wherein the method further comprises establishing a static mapping of a nexthop address of a remote route reflector (“

RR”

) element to a transport address of the RR element, wherein the static mapping is maintained at the network element.

13. The media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise associating one of a tunnel ID and a weight with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

14. The media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

configuring on the network element a second tunnel from the network element to a second network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the second tunnel on the second network to create a second nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertising the second nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

15. The media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting an overlapping address condition using Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

);

after the detecting, pushing a special route toward a hub site; and

automatically bringing up a bi-directional tunnel between source and destination sites to resolve the overlapping address condition.

16. The media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise employing a remote push and local pull model to distribute routing information.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a memory element configured to store data; and

a processor operable to execute instructions associated with the data;

wherein the apparatus is configured to;

configure on a network element a first tunnel from the network element to a first network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the tunnel on the network to create a first nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertise the first nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the configuring further comprises associating a network ID of the first network with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the advertising is performed using Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

) and wherein the method further comprises establishing a static mapping of a nexthop address of a remote route reflector (“

RR”

) element to a transport address of the RR element, wherein the static mapping is maintained at the network element.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise associating one of a tunnel ID and a weight with the first nexthop-to-transport mapping.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

configuring on the network element a second tunnel from the network element to a second network, wherein the configuring comprises mapping a nexthop address of the local network element to a transport address of the second tunnel on the second network to create a second nexthop-to-transport mapping for the network element; and

advertising the second nexthop-to-transport mapping along with routing information for the network element to remote network elements.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting an overlapping address condition using Border Gateway Protocol (“

BGP”

);

after the detecting, pushing a special route toward a hub site; and

automatically bringing up a bi-directional tunnel between source and destination sites to resolve the overlapping address condition.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise employing a remote push and local pull model to distribute routing information.