Supporting multicast communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12040965-B2
Application number	US-202016781376-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 4, 2020
Priority date	Feb 4, 2020
Publication date	Jul 16, 2024
Grant date	Jul 16, 2024

Abstract

Various example embodiments for supporting multicast communications in a communication system are presented. Various embodiments for supporting multicast communications may be configured to support multicast communications of multiple virtual private networks over a single multicast distribution tree. Various embodiments for supporting multicast communications of multiple virtual private networks over a single multicast distribution tree may support communication of a packet of a virtual private network within a network, wherein the packet includes a set of tuples associated with a set of egress devices to which the packet is to be delivered via a multicast distribution tree supported within the network, wherein, for each of the egress devices, the respective tuple associated with the respective egress device includes a respective device identifier of the egress device that uniquely identifies the respective egress device within the network and a respective label assigned by the respective egress device for the virtual private network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
support communication of a packet of a virtual private network within a network, wherein the packet is intended for delivery to a set of egress devices via a multicast distribution tree supported within the network, wherein the packet includes an indexed label stack, wherein the indexed label stack includes at least one label encoding a set of indices uniquely identifying the respective egress devices within the network, wherein the indexed label stack includes a set of labels assigned by the respective egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network, wherein the at least one label encoding the set of indices uniquely identifying the respective egress devices within the network includes an index bit string having a set of bit positions corresponding to a respective set of devices of the network, wherein ones of the bit positions corresponding to the respective egress devices are set to provide the set of indices uniquely identifying the respective egress devices within the network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, for at least one of the egress devices, the respective index uniquely identifying the respective egress device within the network is based on a device identifier of the egress device that is determined by the egress device based on communication with at least one other egress device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, for at least one of the egress devices, the respective index uniquely identifying the respective egress device within the network is based on a device identifier of the egress device that is determined by the egress device based on communication with a network controller.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the indices uniquely identifying the respective egress devices within the network are assigned from a unique index space of the network.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the unique index space of the network is based on a sorting of a respective set of addresses of a respective set of devices of the network.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the indexed label stack includes an indexed label stack identifier configured to indicate a presence of the indexed label stack within the packet.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the labels assigned by the egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network are positioned within the indexed label stack based on respective positions of the indices of the egress devices within the index bit string.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the indexed label stack includes, for each of the egress devices, a respective label pair including a respective first label encoding the respective index uniquely identifying the respective egress device within the network and a respective second label encoding the respective label assigned by the respective egress device to identify the virtual private network within the network.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to support communication of the packet within the network, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
receive the packet at an ingress device of the network via an access link of the ingress device;
determine, based on the access link, that the packet is associated with the virtual private network; and
forward the packet from the ingress device of the network toward a second device of the network based on a next-hop label configured to identify the second device in the multicast distribution tree.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein, to forward the packet, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
generate a multicast packet including the packet and including the next-hop label configured to identify the second device in the multicast distribution tree; and
forward the multicast packet from the ingress device of the network toward the second device of the network.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, to support communication of the packet within the network, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
receive, at a transit device of the network, a multicast packet including the packet and including a next-hop label identifying the transit device; and
forward the packet from the transit device toward a second device of the network.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, to forward the packet, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
determine, based on a lookup based on the next-hop label, a next-hop label identifying the second device;
create, based on the lookup based on the next-hop label, a copy of the multicast packet;
swap the next-hop label identifying the transit device with the next-hop label identifying the second device in the copy of the multicast packet to form thereby a new multicast packet; and
forward the new multicast packet from the transit device toward the second device based on the next-hop label identifying the second device.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to support communication of the packet within the network, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
receive the packet at one of the egress devices;
identify, based on the respective index uniquely identifying the one of the egress devices within the network, the respective label assigned by the one of the egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network; and
forward the packet from the one of the egress devices based on the respective label assigned by the one of the egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, to forward the packet, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
determine, based on a lookup based on the respective label assigned by the one of the egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network, that the packet is associated with the virtual private network; and
forward the packet network from the one of the egress devices based on a forwarding table of the virtual private network.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multicast distribution tree is selected from a set of available multicast distribution trees of the network based on a determination that a set of leaf devices of the multicast distribution tree includes the set of egress devices to which the packet is to be delivered.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
support communication of a second packet associated with a second virtual private network using the multicast distribution tree.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
support communication of a second packet intended for delivery to one of the egress devices, wherein the second packet is a unicast packet of the virtual private network, wherein the second packet includes the respective label assigned by the one of the egress devices to identify the virtual private network within the network.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of an apparatus, cause the apparatus to:
support communication of a packet of a vir

Assignees

• Nokia Solutions & Networks Oy

Inventors

• Dutta Pranjal Kumar

Classifications

• H04L45/48

  Routing tree calculation · CPC title

• H04L63/0272

  Virtual private networks · CPC title

• H04L45/50

  using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS] · 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

• H04L12/08

  Allotting numbers to messages; Counting characters, words or messages · CPC title