Segment routing extension headers

• US 9,762,488 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Previdi, Stefano B., Filsfils, Clarence
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Asefa, Debebe
• Application Number:
  US14/212,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20150256456A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/308 Route determination based on user's profile, e.g. premium users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/166 IP fragmentation; TCP segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for using segment routing (SR) in native IP networks. The method involves receiving a packet. The packet is an IP packet and includes an IP header. The method also involves updating the packet. Updating the packet involves writing information, including a segment routing segment identifier, to the destination address of the packet.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a packet, wherein the packet comprises an internet protocol (IP) header, which comprises a destination IP address field;

adding a first extension header to the packet, wherein the first extension header comprises a list of elements, wherein each of the elements comprises a respective segment identifier (SID);

updating the packet, wherein the updating comprises writing information to the destination IP address field of the IP header, and the information comprises one of the SIDs of the list.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

the first extension header comprises a policy list.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a second extension header to the packet.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

updating the first extension header, wherein

the updating the first extension header comprises calculating an offset; and

updating the second extension header, wherein

the updating the second extension header comprises adding an element to the second extension header.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

calculating a length of a list element of the segment list.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

writing an IP destination address into a final list element of the list.

7. A system comprising:

a first node configured to

receive a packet, wherein the packet comprises an internet protocol (IP) header, which comprises a destination IP address field;

add a first extension header to the packet, wherein the first extension header comprises a list of elements, wherein each of the elements comprises a respective segment identifier (SID);

update the packet, wherein updating the packet comprises writing information to the destination IP address field of the IP header, and the information comprises one of the SIDs of the list.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein

the first extension header comprises a policy list.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first node is further configured to:

add a second extension header to the packet.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first node is further configured to:

update the first extension header, wherein

updating the first extension header comprises calculating an offset; and

update the second extension header, wherein

updating the second extension header comprises adding a segment list element to the second extension header.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the first node is further configured to:

calculate a length of a list element of the segment list.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions, wherein a method is implemented in response to executing the instructions, the method comprising:

receiving a packet, wherein the packet comprises an internet protocol (IP) header, which comprises a destination IP address field;

add a first extension header to the packet, wherein the first extension header comprises a list of elements, wherein each of the elements comprises a respective segment identifier (SID);

updating the packet, wherein the updating comprises writing information to the destination IP address field of the IP header, and the information comprises one of the SIDs of the list.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12

wherein

the first extension header comprises a policy list;

and the method further comprises adding a second extension header to the packet.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the method further comprises:

updating the first extension header, wherein

the updating the first extension header comprises calculating an offset; and

updating the second extension header, wherein

the updating the second extension header comprises adding an element to the second extension header.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the method further comprises:

calculating a length of an element of the segment list.