Router and routing protocol redundancy

• US 6,910,148 B1
• Filed: 12/07/2000
• Issued: 06/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Ho, Chi Fai, Gupta, Amar, Grandhi, Madhu, Bachmutsky, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOHN, JOSHUA A
• Application Number:
  US09/733,284
• Time in Patent Office: 1,657 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/6, 714/15, 714/43, 370/219
• US Class Current: 714/4.4
• 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 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/56 Routing software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A router and routing protocol redundancy are disclosed to reduce service outage or degradation for a network device and thus to increase service availability on a network due to software and hardware failures of the network device. A network device such as router includes a redundancy platform having an active controller system and a standby controller system. A routing protocol state change is received or generated by the active controller system. The received or generated routing protocol state change is replicated to the standby controller system. By replicating the routing protocol state change, the standby controller system can maintain the routing protocol sessions for the network device if a failure occurs in the active controller system. Furthermore, the routing protocol states are maintained in realtime to handle the dynamic changes created by routing protocols.

Claims

1. In a network device having a redundancy platform including an active controller system and a standby controller system, a method comprising:

receiving a routing protocol state change from a peer node by the active controller system;

sending the routing protocol state change to the standby controller system;

receiving a commitment to the routing protocol state change by the active controller system from the standby controller system;

committing to the routing protocol state change in the active controller system; and

sending the commitment to the peer node by the active controller system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the commitment from the standby controller system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the routing protocol state change from the peer node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing protocol state change includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) state change, a Routing Internet Protocol (RIP) state change, an Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF) state change, or an Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System Protocol (IS-IS) state change.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving or generating a routing protocol message by the active controller system; and

selectively replicating the received or generated routing protocol message in the standby controller system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the routing protocol message includes a BGP message, a RIP message, an OSPF message, or an IS-IS message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a failure in the active controller system; and

maintaining the same routing protocol state changes in the active controller system prior to failure in the standby controller system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing Internet Protocol (IP) layer 3 service or a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) service.

9. A network device comprising:

a standby controller; and

an active controller to receive a routing protocol state change from a peer node, to send the routing protocol state change to the standby controller, to receive a commitment to the routing protocol state change from the standby controller system, to commit to the routing protocol state after receiving the commitment from the standby controller, and to send the commitment to the peer node.

10. The network device of claim 9, wherein the active controller is to send the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the commitment from the standby controller.

11. The network device of claim 9, wherein the active controller is to send the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the routing protocol state change from the peer node.

12. The network device of claim 9, wherein the routing protocol state change includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) state change, a Routing Internet Protocol (RIP) state change, an Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF) state change, or an Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System Protocol (IS-IS) state change.

13. The network device of claim 9, wherein the active controller system is to receive or generate a routing protocol message and to replicate selectively the received or generated routing protocol message to the standby controller system.

14. The network device of claim 13, wherein the routing protocol message includes a BGP message, a RIP message, an OSPF message, or an IS-IS message.

15. The network device of claim 9, wherein the active controller system is to detect a failure and the standby controller system is to maintain the same routing protocol state changes in the active controller system prior to the failure.

16. The network device of claim 9, wherein the active controller system or standby controller system is to perform an Internet Protocol (IP) layer 3 service or a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) service.

17. The network device of claim 9, wherein the network device includes a network router, switch, optical switch, bridge, hub, or gateway.

18. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which if executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the operations comprising:

receiving a routing protocol state change from a peer node by an active controller system;

sending the routing protocol state change to a standby controller system;

receiving a commitment to the routing protocol state change by the active controller system from the standby controller system;

committing to the routing protocol state change in the active controller system; and

sending the commitment to the peer node by the active controller system.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, that further provides instructions, which if executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations comprising:

sending the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the commitment from the standby controller system.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, that further provides instructions, which if executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations comprising:

sending the routing protocol state change to a routing protocol after receiving the routing protocol state change from the peer node.

21. A system having a redundancy platform including an active controller system and a standby controller system, the system comprising:

first receiving means for receiving a routing protocol state change from a peer node by the active controller system;

first sending means for sending the routing protocol state change to the standby controller system;

second receiving means for receiving a commitment to the routing protocol state change by the active controller system from the standby controller system;

committing means for committing to the routing protocol state change in the active controller system; and

second sending means for sending the commitment to the peer node by the active controller system.