Multicast trees for virtual private local area network (LAN) service multicast
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- establishing a multicast tree comprising a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) label switched path (LSP) forming a P2MP tunnel, the P2MP tunnel having a source device providing an ingress to the P2MP tunnel and a plurality of destination devices providing a plurality of different egresses from the P2MP tunnel, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances, and wherein establishing the multicast tree comprises allocating, with the source device, an inner label for each of the VPLS multicast instances; and
transmitting multicast data packets for a plurality of different ones of the VPLS multicast instances from the source device through the P2MP tunnel to the destination devices on the multicast tree, wherein transmitting the multicast data packets from the source device comprises encapsulating each of the multicast data packets at the source device with an outer label and one of the inner labels, wherein the outer label identifies the multicast tree and the inner label is based on the VPLS multicast instance with which the multicast data packet is associated.
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Abstract
Principles of the invention are described for providing virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances across a public network by utilizing multicast trees. In particular, the VPLS multicast instances transport layer two (L2) multicast traffic, such as Ethernet packets, between customer networks via the public network. The principles described herein enable VPLS multicast instances to handle high bandwidth multicast traffic. The principles also reduce the state and the overhead of maintaining the state in the network by removing the need to perform snooping between routers within the network.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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establishing a multicast tree comprising a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) label switched path (LSP) forming a P2MP tunnel, the P2MP tunnel having a source device providing an ingress to the P2MP tunnel and a plurality of destination devices providing a plurality of different egresses from the P2MP tunnel, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances, and wherein establishing the multicast tree comprises allocating, with the source device, an inner label for each of the VPLS multicast instances; and transmitting multicast data packets for a plurality of different ones of the VPLS multicast instances from the source device through the P2MP tunnel to the destination devices on the multicast tree, wherein transmitting the multicast data packets from the source device comprises encapsulating each of the multicast data packets at the source device with an outer label and one of the inner labels, wherein the outer label identifies the multicast tree and the inner label is based on the VPLS multicast instance with which the multicast data packet is associated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A network device operating as a source device of a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) tunnel, comprising:
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a control unit that establishes a multicast tree comprising the label switched path (LSP) forming the P2MP tunnel having the source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and a plurality of destination devices providing a plurality of different egresses from the multicast tree, wherein each of the destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instances, and wherein the source device allocates an inner label for each of the VPLS multicast instances; and one or more output interfaces that transmit multicast data packets for a plurality of the VPLS multicast instances through the P2MP tunnel on the multicast tree, wherein the control unit encapsulate each of the multicast data packets with an outer label and one of the inner labels, the outer label identifying the multicast tree and the inner label being selected by the control unit based on the VPLS multicast instance with which the multicast data packet is associated. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that cause a programmable processor to:
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establish a multicast tree comprising a label switched path (LSP) that forms a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) tunnel, the P2MP tunnel having a source device providing an ingress to the multicast tree and a plurality of destination devices providing a plurality of different egresses from the multicast tree, wherein each of the one or more destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instance, and wherein the instructions cause the source device to allocate inner label for each of the VPLS multicast instances; and transmit multicast data packets for the VPLS multicast instances from the source device through the P2MP tunnel to the destination devices on the multicast tree by encapsulating each of the multicast data packets at the source device with an outer label and one of the inner labels, wherein the outer label identifies the multicast tree and the inner label is based on the VPLS multicast instance with which the multicast data packet is associated. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A system comprising:
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a source device within a network, wherein the source device provides an ingress to a point to multi-point (P2MP) tunnel, the P2MP tunnel comprising a label switched path (LSP) that forms a multicast tree a tunnel for transmitting multicast data packets for a plurality of different virtual private local area network service (VPLS) multicast instance; one or more destination devices within the network that provide egresses to the P2MP tunnel, wherein each of the one or more destination devices belongs to at least one of a plurality of VPLS multicast instances; wherein the source device allocates a different inner label for each of the plurality of different VPLS multicast instances and communicates the allocated inner labels to the destination devices, and wherein the destination devices demultiplex the multicast data packets received over the multicast tree for the plurality of different VPLS multicast instances and select a virtual routing and forward (VRF) for forwarding the multicast data packets based on the different inner labels of the multicast data packets. - View Dependent Claims (36)
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Specification