Selective route exporting using source type

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11212210-B2
Application number	US-201715712006-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2017
Priority date	Sep 21, 2017
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for selectively advertising routing information by a network appliance to a neighboring computing device are disclosed. In exemplary embodiments, customized export policies are created based on source type for each neighboring computing device to a network appliance. A source type for routing information is determined by the network appliance. The routing information is exported by the appliance to the neighboring computing device, such as a BGP router, based on the customized export policy associated with the source type.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for selectively advertising routing information by a first network appliance to a neighboring computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, at the first network appliance, one or more pieces of routing information from one or more sources, wherein a respective piece of routing information is from a source and indicates an IP subnet associated with the source;
determining a source type for the respective piece of routing information from the source without requiring additional information;
allocating a community identifier to the respective piece of routing information from the source based on the corresponding source type, wherein the community identifier uniquely identifies the corresponding source type at the first network appliance;
mapping, in a first data structure, a respective neighboring computing device of the first network appliance to one or more community identifiers, wherein the mapping indicates that the neighboring computing device is permitted to receive a subset of the one or more pieces of routing information associated with the one or more community identifiers; and
exporting by the first network appliance, the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information to the neighboring computing device based on the mapping.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sources of the one or more pieces of routing information include at least one of: a border router, an edge router, and another network appliance.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more sources of the one or more pieces of routing information is internal to the first network appliance.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein a first source of the one or more sources is in a different autonomous system than the first network appliance, and wherein the one or more pieces of routing information is received using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the community identifier includes a BGP community string.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the community identifier further comprises an autonomous system number.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first network appliance is a physical appliance or a virtual appliance.

8. A system for selectively advertising routing information by a first network appliance of a plurality of network appliances, to a neighboring computing device, the system comprising:
a communication interface to receive one or more pieces of routing information from one or more sources, wherein a respective piece of routing information is received from a source and indicates an IP subnet associated with the source;
an identifier generator to determine a source type for the respective piece of routing information from the source without requiring additional information;
a routing table manager to:
allocate a community identifier to the respective piece of routing information from the source based on the corresponding source type, wherein the community identifier uniquely identifies the corresponding source type at the first network appliance;
map, in a first data structure, a respective neighboring computing device of the first network appliance to one or more community identifiers, wherein the mapping indicates that the neighboring computing device is permitted to receive a subset of the one or more pieces of routing information associated with the one or more community identifiers; and
export the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information to the neighboring computing device based on the mapping.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more sources include at least one of: a border router, an edge router, and another network appliance.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the community identifier includes a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) community string.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein a first source of the one or more sources is in a different autonomous system than the first network appliance, and wherein the one or more pieces of routing information is received using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor for selectively advertising routing information by a first network appliance to a neighboring computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, at the first network appliance, one or more pieces of routing information from one or more sources, wherein tea respective piece of routing information is received from a source and indicates an IP subnet associated with the source;
determining a source type for the respective piece of routing information from the source without requiring additional information;
allocating a community identifier to the respective piece of routing information from the source based on the corresponding source type, wherein the community identifier uniquely identifies the corresponding source type at the first network appliance;
mapping, in a first data structure, a respective neighboring computing device of the first network appliance to one or more community identifiers, wherein the mapping indicates that the neighboring computing device is permitted to receive a subset of the one or more pieces of routing information associated with the one or more community identifiers; and
exporting, by the first network appliance, the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information to the neighboring computing device based on the mapping.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein a first source of the one or more sources include at least one of: a border router, an edge router, and another network appliance.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein exporting the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information further comprises exporting an autonomous system number and the community identifier with the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information.

15. A computer-implemented method for selectively advertising routing information by a first network appliance to a neighboring computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, at the first network appliance, one or more pieces of routing information from one or more sources, wherein a respective piece of routing information is received from a source and indicates an IP subnet associated with the source;
determining a source type for the respective piece of routing information from the source;
allocating a community identifier to the respective piece of routing information from the source based on the corresponding source type, wherein the community identifier uniquely identifies the corresponding source type at the first network appliance;
mapping, in a first data structure, a respective neighboring computing device of the first network appliance to one or more community identifiers, wherein the mapping indicates that the neighboring computing device is permitted to receive a subset of the one or more pieces of routing information associated with the one or more community; and
exporting, by the first network appliance, the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information to the neighboring computing device based on the mapping.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein exporting the subset of the one or more pieces of routing information further comprises exporting an autonomous system number and the community identifier with the subset of the one

Assignees

• Silver Peak Systems Inc

Inventors

• Hefel Timothy Robert
• Chheda Jigar
• Kulkarni Manoj
• Ennis Damon John
• Hughes David Anthony
• Muralt Rolf
• Singh Pawan Kumar

Classifications

• H04L45/02 Primary

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L45/033 Primary

  by updating distance vector protocols · CPC title

• H04L45/04

  Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing · CPC title