Support for multiple virtual networks over an underlay network topology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11082337-B2
Application number	US-201916395656-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2019
Priority date	Feb 15, 2019
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

Techniques are described for supporting multiple virtual networks over an underlay network. The techniques may provide support for network slicing and enhanced virtual private networks (VPNs) over the underlay network. In general, the techniques include allocating a subset of resources (e.g., nodes and/or links) of the underlay network to a particular virtual network, and advertising the subset of resources to provider edge (PE) routers that are participating in the virtual network. A network controller device may advertise the subset of resources for the virtual network to the respective PE routers using BGP-LS (Border Gateway Protocol-Link State). Based on the advertisements, each of the PE routers generates a restricted view of the full underlay network topology for the virtual network and, thus, only uses the subset of resources in the restricted view to generate routing and forwarding tables for the virtual network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a controller device comprising a network interface and a control unit comprising at least one processor configured to:
allocate a subset of resources within an underlay network to each of one or more virtual networks established over the underlay network, wherein the subset of resources allocated to a respective virtual network includes one or more nodes and one or more links within the underlay network to be used by the respective virtual network, and
send an advertisement of the subset of resources to each provider edge (PE) router of a plurality of PE routers that are participating in the respective virtual network; and

a PE router of the plurality of PE routers participating in the respective virtual network, the PE router comprising a plurality of network interfaces and a control unit comprising at least one processor configured to:
receive the advertisement indicating the subset of resources within the underlay network allocated to the respective virtual network in which the PE router is participating,
generate a restricted view of the underlay network based on the subset of resources for the virtual network, and
perform routing services for the virtual network based on the restricted view of the underlay network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein, to generate the restricted view of the underlay network, the control unit of the PE router is configured to annotate a link state database of the PE router based on the subset of resources in order to indicate which resources within the underlay network are available for the virtual network.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein, to perform routing services, the control unit of the PE router is configured to generate a routing table and a forwarding table for the virtual network using only the subset of resources available in the restricted view of the underlay network.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, to receive the advertisement indicating the subset of resources, the control unit of the PE router is configured to determine that the advertisement includes a route target (RT) that identifies the virtual network in which the PE router is participating.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein, to receive the advertisement indicating the subset of resources, the control unit of the PE router is configured to receive the advertisement from a route reflector that uses RT constraints.

6. A method of comprising:
allocating, by a controller device, a subset of resources within an underlay network to each of one or more virtual networks established over the underlay network, wherein the subset of resources allocated to a respective virtual network includes one or more nodes and one or more links within the underlay network to be used by the respective virtual network;
sending, by the controller device, an advertisement of the subset of resources to each provider edge (PE) router of a plurality of PE routers that are participating in the respective virtual network;
receiving, by a respective PE router of the plurality of PE routers participating in the respective virtual network, the advertisement indicating the subset of resources within the underlay network allocated to the respective virtual network;
generating, by the respective PE router, the restricted view of the underlay network based on the subset of resources for the respective virtual network; and
performing, by the respective PE router, routing services for the respective virtual network based on the restricted view of the underlay network.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein generating the restricted view of the underlay network comprises annotating, by the respective PE router, a link state database of the respective PE router based on the subset of resources in order to indicate which resources within the underlay network are available for the respective virtual network.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein performing routing services comprises generating, by the respective PE router, a routing table and a forwarding table for the respective virtual network using only the subset of resources available in the restricted view of the underlay network.

Assignees

• Juniper Networks Inc

Inventors

• Drake John E

Classifications

• H04L45/033

  by updating distance vector protocols · CPC title

• H04L45/03

  by updating link state protocols · CPC title

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L45/64 Primary

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L47/781 Primary

  Centralised allocation of resources · CPC title