Multicast traffic in a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11502865-B2
Application number	US-202016953939-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2020
Priority date	Dec 31, 2017
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

Multicast traffic in a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN). In some embodiments, a method is provided. The method includes registering a network device as a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel endpoint (VTEP) of a VXLAN. The VXLAN includes an overlay network and the overlay network is implemented on an underlay network. The method also includes receiving multicast traffic from the multicast source. The method further includes transmitting the multicast traffic to one or more multicast receivers using the underlay network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of routing multicast traffic in a network, comprising:
translating an overlay IP address of a multicast source on an overlay network to an underlay IP address such that the multicast source is discoverable on an underlay network;
creating a virtual tunnel having a first and a second virtual tunnel endpoint (VTEP) where the first VTEP is connected to the multicast source on the overlay network and the second VTEP is connected to the underlay network; and
in response to receiving a multicast join request from a receiver, transmitting the multicast traffic from the multicast source on the overlay network, through the virtual tunnel and underlay network, to the receiver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast traffic is transmitted on the underlay network to the receiver without VXLAN encapsulation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the multicast traffic from the multicast source on the overlay network comprises:
encapsulating the multicast traffic with general routing encapsulation (GRE) when transmitting multicast traffic to the underlay network; and
decapsulating the encapsulated multicast traffic and forwarding an inner packet on the overlay network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein, translating the overlay IP address of a multicast source comprises using network address translation (NAT) to map the overlay IP address of a multicast source to the IP address of the second VTEP.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
associating the overlay IP address of the multicast source on the overlay network with an overlay multicast group IP address; and
associating the underlay IP address of the multicast source with an underlay multicast group IP address.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, in response to detecting a conflict between the overlay IP address of the multicast source and the underlay IP address of the multicast source:
translating the overlay IP address of the multicast source to a different underlay IP address that does not conflict with the underlay IP address of the multicast source; and
storing the translated IP address in a translation table.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
implementing virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) on the overlay network and the underlay network;
in response to implementing VRF on the overlay and underlay network, creating a first routing table to route multicast traffic on the overlay network and a second routing table to route multicast traffic on the underlay network; and
simultaneously executing the first routing table and the second routing table to route traffic on the overlay and the underlay network.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mapping the IP address of the multicast source on the overlay network to an IP address of a virtual tunnel end point (VTEP); and
adding a route in a routing table where the multicast source IP address is the IP address of the VTEP, and a destination IP address is an IP address of a multicast group.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising communicating multicast traffic between a multicast component of the multicast source on the overlay network and a multicast component of the receiver without encapsulating the multicast traffic in VXLAN packets.

10. A network device, comprising:
a memory configured to store data;
a central processing unit device operatively coupled to the memory, the central processing unit device configured to:
translate an overlay IP address of a multicast source on an overlay network to an underlay IP address such that the multicast source is discoverable on an underlay network;
create a virtual tunnel having a first and a second virtual tunnel endpoint (VTEP) where the first VTEP is connected to the multicast source on the overlay network and the second VTEP is connected to the underlay network,
wherein the second VTEP is a component of a separate network device; and
in response to receiving a multicast join request from a receiver, transmit multicast traffic from the multicast source on the overlay network, through the virtual tunnel and underlay network, to the receiver.

11. The network device of claim 10 , wherein the multicast traffic is transmitted on the underlay network to the receiver without VXLAN encapsulation.

12. The network device of claim 10 , wherein transmitting the multicast traffic from the multicast source on the overlay network comprises:
encapsulating the multicast traffic with general routing encapsulation (GRE) when transmitting multicast traffic to the underlay network; and
decapsulating the encapsulated multicast traffic and forwarding an inner packet on the overlay network.

13. The network device of claim 10 , wherein, translating the overlay IP address of a multicast source comprises using network address translation (NAT) to map the overlay IP address of a multicast source to the IP address of the second VTEP.

14. The network device of claim 10 , further comprising:
associating the overlay IP address of the multicast source on the overlay network with an overlay multicast group IP address; and associating the underlay IP address of the multicast source with an underlay multicast group IP address.

15. The network device of claim 14 , further comprising, in response to detecting a conflict between the overlay IP address of the multicast source and the underlay IP address of the multicast source:
translating the overlay IP address of the multicast source to a different underlay IP address that does not conflict with the underlay IP address of the multicast source; and
storing the translated IP address in a translation table.

16. The network device of claim 10 , further comprising:
implementing virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) on the overlay network and the underlay network;
in response to implementing VRF on the overlay and underlay network, creating a first routing table to route multicast traffic on the overlay network and a second routing table to route multicast traffic on the underlay network; and
simultaneously executing the first routing table and the second routing table to route traffic on the overlay and the underlay network.

17. The network device of claim 10 , further comprising:
mapping the IP address of the multicast source on the overlay network to an IP address of a virtual tunnel end point (VTEP); and
adding a route in a routing table where the multicast source IP address is the IP address of the VTEP, and a destination IP address is an IP address of a multicast group.

18. The network device of claim 10 , further comprising communicating multicast traffic between a multicast component of the multicast source on the overlay network and a multicast component of the receiver without encapsulating the multicast traffic in VXLAN packets.

Assignees

• Arista Networks Inc

Inventors

• Immidi Kiran
• Kumar Santosh
• Nidumolu Kalyan Chakravarthy
• Srinivas Prashant
• Yue Gaofeng

Classifications

• H04L45/48

  Routing tree calculation · CPC title

• H04L12/1886 Primary

  with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains · CPC title

• H04L12/4641

  Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] (LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272) · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L45/12

  Shortest path evaluation · CPC title