×

Load balancing multicast join requests over interior and exterior BGP paths in a MVPN

  • US 8,953,446 B1
  • Filed: 12/20/2011
  • Issued: 02/10/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2011
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method comprising:

  • receiving a join request on a downstream interface of a network device, wherein the join request specifies a source device and a multicast group, wherein the network device is positioned within a core network of a multicast virtual private network (MVPN) that transmits multicast traffic between the source device and a plurality of receivers associated with customer sites; and

    determining whether to send the join request to an upstream router positioned on an Exterior Border Gateway Protocol (EBGP) path toward the source device or to an upstream router positioned on an Interior BGP (IBGP) path toward the source device from among a plurality of upstream routers, based at least in part on;

    identifying a least-loaded upstream router, wherein state information maintained by the network device indicates that the least-loaded upstream router is currently set as an upstream router for a least number of multicast flows as compared to other upstream routers in the plurality of upstream routers;

    when the least-loaded router is on the EBGP path toward the source device, selecting the least-loaded router as the upstream router to which to send the join request; and

    when the least-loaded router is on the IBGP path toward the source device, running a hash calculation to select an upstream router on one of a plurality of IBGP paths toward the source device, wherein running the hash calculation ensures that the network device selects the same upstream router for a given combination of multicast source device, rendezvous point, and multicast group; and

    sending the join request to the selected upstream router.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×