Signaling of attachment circuit status and automatic discovery of inter-chassis communication peers

• US 9,197,583 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2013
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mullooly, John Joseph, Sajassi, Ali, Mohapatra, Pradosh Kumar, Salam, Samer M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, KEVIN H
• Application Number:
  US13/958,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20130315255A1
• Time in Patent Office: 841 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/58 Association of routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of signaling status at a routing device is provided. In this method, the routing device establishes an inter-chassis control plane channel session with a remote routing device. Here, the routing device and the remote routing device are linked to a multi-homed routing device. The routing device then synchronizes with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session to identify a state of a link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device. The state of the link is thereafter advertised by way of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Additionally, a method of discovering inter-chassis communication peers via BGP between the first and remote routing devices is provided.

Claims

1. A method performed at a routing device, the method comprising:

identifying a first system identifier associated with a multi-homed routing device linked to the routing device, the first system identifier identifying a redundancy group to provide redundant links for the multi-homed device;

receiving a second system identifier from a remote routing device by way of a routing protocol in a domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device;

comparing the first system identifier with the second system identifier;

establishing an inter-chassis control plane channel session with the remote routing device based on a match of the first system identifier with the second system identifier, the match indicating that the routing device and the remote routing device are each linked to the multi-homed routing device and that the routing device and the remote routing device are both part of the redundancy group;

synchronizing with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session to identify a state of a link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device; and

advertising the state of the link by way of the routing protocol in the domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing protocol includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises:

encoding the state of the link in a BGP update message; and

advertising the BGP update message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises advertising Network Layer Reachability Information of the routing device based on the state of the link being in an active state.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises withdrawing a route based on the state of the link being in a standby state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising of the state of the link is based on the link being in an active state, the method further comprising suppressing advertisement of Network Layer Reachability Information of the routing device based on the state of the link being in a standby state.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronization with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session comprises:

identifying information associated with the link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device;

transmitting the information associated with the link to the remote routing device within the inter-chassis control plane channel session;

receiving additional information from the remote routing device within the inter-chassis control plane channel session; and

identifying the state of the link based on the information and the additional information.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores instructions, which, when performed by a routing device, cause the routing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying a first system identifier associated with a multi-homed routing device linked to the routing device, the first system identifier identifying a redundancy group to provide redundant links for the multi-homed device;

receiving a second system identifier from a remote routing device by way of a routing protocol in a domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device;

comparing the first system identifier with the second system identifier;

establishing an inter-chassis control plane channel session with the remote routing device based on a match of the first system identifier with the second system identifier, the match indicating that the routing device and the remote routing device are each linked to the multi-homed routing device and that the routing device and the remote routing device are both part of the redundancy group;

synchronizing with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session to identify a state of a link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device; and

advertising the state of the link by way of the routing protocol in the domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the routing protocol includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises:

encoding the state of the link in a BGP update message; and

advertising the BGP update message.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the multi-homed routing device is multi-homed to the routing device and the remote routing device based on a link aggregation protocol.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the inter-chassis control plane channel session is an Inter-Chassis Communication Protocol (ICCP) session.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises advertising Network Layer Reachability Information of the routing device based on the state of the link being in an active state.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises withdrawing a route based on the state of the link being in a standby state.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the advertising of the state of the link is based on the link being in an active state, and the operations further comprise suppressing advertisement of Network Layer Reachability Information of the routing device based on the state of the link being in a standby state.

16. An apparatus comprising:

at least one computer configured to perform operations for a routing device including;

identifying a first system identifier associated with a multi-homed routing device linked to the routing device, the first system identifier identifying a redundancy group to provide redundant links for the multi-homed device;

receiving a second system identifier from a remote routing device by way of a routing protocol in a domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device;

comparing the first system identifier with the second system identifier;

establishing an inter-chassis control plane channel session with the remote routing device based on a match of the first system identifier with the second system identifier, the match indicating that the routing device and the remote routing device are each linked to the multi-homed routing device and that the routing device and the remote routing device are both part of the redundancy group;

synchronizing with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session to identify a state of a link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device; and

advertising the state of the link by way of the routing protocol in the domain that includes the routing device and the remote routing device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the routing protocol includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises:

encoding the state of the link in a BGP update message; and

advertising the BGP update message.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the advertising of the state of the link comprises advertising Network Layer Reachability Information of the routing device based on the state of the link being in an active state.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the synchronization with the remote routing device by way of the inter-chassis control plane channel session comprises:

identifying information associated with the link from the routing device to the multi-homed routing device;

transmitting the information associated with the link to the remote routing device within the inter-chassis control plane channel session;

receiving additional information from the remote routing device within the inter-chassis control plane channel session; and

identifying the state of the link based on the information and the additional information.