Advertising with a layer three routing protocol constituent link attributes of a layer two bundle

• US 8,942,256 B1
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Barth, Colby, Ward, David, Gredler, Hannes, Drake, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho, Un C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rahman, M Mostazir
• Application Number:
  US13/345,243
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• US Class Current: 370/469
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1611 Synchronous digital hierarchy [SDH] or SONET H04J3/1664 takes precedence for interactions with OTN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/03 by updating link state protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0066 Provisions for optical burst or packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0083 Testing; Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for extending routing protocol advertisements to include respective attributes of constituent links of an aggregation group. In one example, a network device includes a management interface that receives configuration information that specifies first and second constituent links for a layer two (L2) aggregated interface. The first and second constituent links are physical links connected to respective physical interfaces of forwarding units of the network device. A routing protocol daemon of the control unit generates a link state message that specifies layer three (L3) routing information associated with the aggregated interface and further specifies an attribute of the first constituent link and an attribute of the second constituent link. The routing protocol daemon sends the link state message from the network device to another network device of the network in accordance with a routing protocol.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, with a network device of a network, configuration information that specifies first and second constituent links for a layer two (L2) aggregated interface, wherein the first and second constituent links are physical links connected to respective physical interfaces of the network device;

generating, with the network device, a link state message that specifies layer three (L3) routing information associated with the aggregated interface and includes a first sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of the first constituent link of the aggregated interface and a second sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of the second constituent link of the aggregated interface; and

sending the link state message from the network device to another network device of the network in accordance with a routing protocol.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein each of the first and second constituent links are L2 links, and

wherein the configuration information for the aggregated interface defines an L3 network address that sources traffic forwarded by the network device over each of the first and second constituent links.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the link state message specifies one or more attributes of the aggregated interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a link state message comprises:

generating the link state message as one of a single Opaque Link State Advertisement that conforms to an Open Shortest Path First interior gateway routing protocol or a single Link State Protocol Data Unit that conforms to an Intermediate System to Intermediate System interior gateway routing protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a first performance statistic value for the first constituent link and a second performance statistic value for the second constituent link,

wherein the attribute of the first constituent link comprises the first performance statistic value and the attribute of the second constituent link comprises the link performance statistic value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the first performance statistic value and the second performance statistic value is one of a jitter, delay, bit error rate, forward error correction count, or packet data unit loss value.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first performance statistic value is an optical performance characteristic value of the first constituent link.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute of the first constituent link and the attribute of the second constituent link are each one of a maximum transmission unit, link color, administrative metric, optical path, link type, link identifier, or configured bandwidth.

9. A network device comprising:

a control unit comprising one or more processors;

one or more forwarding units each having one or more interfaces, coupled to respective physical links, to exchange packet data units with other network devices of a network;

a management interface of the control unit that receives configuration information that specifies first and second constituent links for a layer two (L2) aggregated interface, wherein the first and second constituent links are physical links connected to respective physical interfaces of the forwarding units; and

a routing protocol daemon of the control unit that generates a link state message that specifies layer three (L3) routing information associated with the aggregated interface and includes a first sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of the first constituent link of the aggregated interface and a second sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of the second constituent link of the aggregated interface,

wherein the routing protocol daemon sends the link state message from the network device to another network device of the network in accordance with a routing protocol.

10. The network device of claim 9,

wherein the respective interfaces of the first and second constituent links are L2 interfaces, and

wherein the configuration information for the aggregated interface defines an L3 network address that sources traffic forwarded by the network device over each of the first and second constituent links.

11. The network device of claim 9,

wherein the link state message specifies one or more attributes of the aggregated interface.

12. The network device of claim 9,

wherein the routing protocol daemon generates the link state message as one of a single Opaque Link State Advertisement that conforms to an Open Shortest Path First interior gateway routing protocol or a single Link State Protocol Data Unit that conforms to an Intermediate System to Intermediate System interior gateway routing protocol.

13. The network device of claim 9, further comprising:

a link analysis module of each of the forwarding units that determines a first performance statistic value for the first constituent link and a second performance statistic value for the second constituent link,

wherein the attribute of the first constituent link comprises the first performance statistic value and the attribute of the second constituent link comprises the link performance statistic value.

14. The network device of claim 13, wherein each of the first performance statistic value and the second performance statistic value is one of a jitter, delay, bit error rate, forward error correction count, or packet data unit loss.

15. The network device of claim 13, wherein the first performance statistic is an optical performance characteristic of the first constituent link.

16. The network device of claim 9, wherein the attribute of the first constituent link and the attribute of the second constituent link are each one of a maximum transmission unit, link color, administrative metric, optical path, link type, link identifier, or configured bandwidth.

17. A method comprising:

receiving, with a network device in accordance with a routing protocol, a link state message for a layer two (L2) aggregated interface having first and second constituent links, wherein the link state message specifies layer three (L3) routing information associated with the aggregated interface and includes a first sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of a first constituent link of the aggregated interface and a second sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of a second constituent link of the aggregated interface; and

computing a path through a network with the network device that includes the first constituent link when the attribute of the first constituent link satisfies a computation constraint for the path and the attribute of the second constituent link does not satisfy the computation constraint.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

storing the attribute of the first constituent link and the attribute of the second constituent link to a traffic engineering database; and

computing the path using the traffic engineering database.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the link state message comprises attributes for the aggregated interface, the method further comprising:

storing the first constituent link to the traffic engineering database as a first L3 link that is associated with the L3 routing information and is further associated with the attribute of the first constituent link; and

storing the second constituent link to the traffic engineering database as a second L3 link that is associated the L3 routing information and is further associated with the attribute of the second constituent link.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving packet data units with the network device; and

forwarding the packet data units along the computed path toward the first constituent link.

21. A network device comprising:

a control unit comprising one or more processors; and

a routing protocol daemon of the control unit that receives a link state message in accordance with a routing protocol for a layer two (L2) aggregated interface having first and second constituent links, wherein the link state message specifies layer three (L3) routing information associated with the aggregated interface and includes a first sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of a first constituent link of the aggregated interface and a second sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) that specifies an attribute of a second constituent link of the aggregated interface,

wherein the routing protocol daemon computes a path through a network that includes the first constituent link when the attribute of the first constituent link satisfies a computation constraint for the path and the attribute of the second constituent link does not satisfy the computation constraint.

22. The network device of claim 21, further comprising:

a traffic engineering database,

wherein the routing protocol daemon stores the attribute of the first constituent link and the attribute of the second constituent link to the traffic engineering database and computes the path using the traffic engineering database.

23. The network device of claim 22,

wherein the routing protocol daemon stores the first constituent link to the traffic engineering database as a first L3 link that is associated with the L3 routing information and is further associated with the attribute of the first constituent link, and

wherein the routing protocol daemon stores the second constituent link to the traffic engineering database as a second L3 link that is associated the L3 routing information and is further associated with the attribute of the second constituent link.

24. The network device of claim 21, further comprising:

a forwarding unit that includes an interface for the computed path that includes the first constituent link and forwards packet data units received by the network device to the aggregated interface.