Shared multicast trees for multicast virtual private networks

• US 7,933,267 B1
• Filed: 08/26/2005
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Aggarwal, Rahul, Rekhter, Yakov
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh; Ayaz R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Aga; Sori A
• Application Number:
  US11/213,638
• Time in Patent Office: 2,069 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/225, 370/489, 370/390, 370/396, 370/432
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272

Abstract

Principles of the invention are described for providing multicast virtual private networks (MVPNs) across a public network that are capable of carrying high-bandwidth multicast traffic with increased scalability. In particular, the MVPNs may transport layer three (L3) multicast traffic, such as Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between remote sites via the public network. The principles described herein may reduce the overhead of protocol independent multicast (PIM) neighbor adjacencies and customer control information maintained for MVPNs. The principles may also reduce the state and the overhead of maintaining the state in the network by removing the need to maintain at least one dedicated multicast tree per each MVPN.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a label switching protocol to establish a multicast tree having a source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and one or more destination devices providing egresses from the multicast tree within a network, wherein the source device and each of the one or more destination devices belongs to at least one multicast virtual private network (MVPN), wherein using a label switching protocol to establish a multicast tree includes;

discovering, with the source device, the remote MVPNs of which the source device is not a member and the one or more destination devices are members;

mapping a plurality of the discovered remote MVPNs to the multicast tree;

advertising mapping information to the one or more destination devices, wherein the mapping information specifies the plurality of the discovered remote MVPNs that are mapped to the multicast tree by the source device; and

transmitting, with the source device, multicast data packets on the multicast tree for a local one of the MVPNs of which the source device is a member and a remote one of the MVPNs of which the source device is not a member.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the label switching protocol comprises one of the resource reservation protocol (RSVP) or the label distribution protocol (LDP).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast tree comprises one of a resource reservation protocol (RSVP) point to multi-point (P2MP) label switched path (LSP), a label distribution protocol (LDP) signaled P2MP LSP, or a protocol independent multicast (PIM) signaled P2MP LSP.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating, with the source device, an inner label for each of the MVPNs mapped to the multicast tree, wherein each of the inner labels identifies the corresponding MVPN.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining which of the discovered MVPNs to aggregate onto the multicast tree.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving mapping information from the source device of the multicast tree;

associating the multicast tree with one or more of the MVPNs to which the destination device belongs; and

creating a forwarding entry in the destination device that corresponds to the multicast tree.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising creating a logical interface to a label space within the destination device that corresponds to the multicast tree.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the multicast data packets from the source device of the multicast tree; and

sending the multicast data packets to a virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) of the destination device that corresponds to one of the remote MVPNs for which the multicast data packets were intended based on an inner label allocated by the source device that identifies the remote MVPN of which the source device is not a member.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the multicast data packets comprises transmitting multicast data packets of specific multicast groups that belong to the MVPNs from the source device to the one or more destination devices on the multicast tree.

9. A method comprising:

using a label switching protocol to establish a multicast tree having a source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and one or more destination devices providing egresses from the multicast tree within a network, wherein the source device and each of the one or more destination devices belongs to at least one multicast virtual private network (MVPN); and

transmitting, with the source device, multicast data packets on the multicast tree for a local one of the MVPNs of which the source device is a member and a remote one of the MVPNs of which the source device is not a member,

wherein transmitting multicast data packets comprises;

receiving the multicast data packets from a multicast source;

encapsulating the multicast data packets for the MVPNs that have destination devices requesting the multicast data packets; and

transmitting the encapsulated packet for the MVPNs on the multicast tree.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to:

use a label switching protocol to establish a multicast tree having a source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and one or more destination devices providing egresses from the multicast tree, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one multicast virtual private network (MVPN);

discover, with the source device, the MVPNs of which the one or more destination devices are members;

map at least one of the discovered MVPNs to the multicast tree, and

advertise mapping information to the one or more destination devices, wherein the mapping information specifies which of the discovered MVPNs are mapped to the multicast tree by the source device; and

transmit, with the source device, multicast data packets on the multicast tree for at least one MVPN of which the source device is a member and at least one MVPN of which the source device is not a member.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions that cause the programmable processor to:

receive mapping information from the source device of the multicast tree;

associate the multicast tree with one or more of the MVPNs to which the destination device belongs; and

create a forwarding entry in the destination device that corresponds to the multicast tree.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions that cause the programmable processor to transmit multicast data packets cause the programmable processor to:

receive the multicast data packets from a multicast source;

encapsulate the multicast data packets for the MVPNs that have destination devices requesting the multicast data packets; and

transmit the encapsulated packet for the MVPNs on the multicast tree.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions that cause the programmable processor to:

receive the multicast data packets from the source device of the multicast tree; and

send the multicast data packets to a virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) of the destination device that corresponds to the MVPN for which the multicast data packets were intended based on an inner label allocated by the source device that identifies the MVPN.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions that cause the programmable processor to transmit multicast data packets cause the programmable processor to transmit multicast data packets of specific multicast groups that belong to the MVPNs from the source device to the one or more destination devices on the multicast tree.