Method for implementing gre tunnel, access device and aggregation gateway

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016127149-A1
Application number	US-201614992206-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Jul 12, 2013
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for implementing a GRE tunnel is provided. The access device obtains an address of an aggregation gateway group including at least one aggregation gateway. The access device sends a tunnel setup request in which an address of the access device is encapsulated by using the address of the aggregation gateway group as a destination address. The tunnel setup request is used to request for setting up a GRE tunnel. The access device receives a tunnel setup accept response sent back by an aggregation gateway and obtains an address of the aggregation gateway from the response. The aggregation gateway belongs to the aggregation gateway group. The access device configures the address of the aggregation gateway as a network side destination address of the GRE tunnel. A dynamic setup of a GRE tunnel on an access network that uses an aggregation technology is implemented.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for implementing a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, comprising:
obtaining, by an access device, an address of an aggregation gateway group, wherein the aggregation gateway group comprises one or more aggregation gateways; sending, by the access device and by using the address of the aggregation gateway group as a destination address, a GRE tunnel setup request for setting up a GRE tunnel, wherein an address of the access device is encapsulated in the GRE tunnel setup request; receiving, by the access device, a GRE tunnel setup accept response from an aggregation gateway, wherein an address of the aggregation gateway from the GRE tunnel setup accept response, and wherein the aggregation gateway belongs to the aggregation gateway group; and configuring, by the access device, a network side destination address of the GRE tunnel with the address of the aggregation gateway.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more aggregation gateways of the aggregation gateway group are prioritized via a priority and wherein the aggregation gateway is selected from the aggregation gateway group according to the priority.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the address of the aggregation gateway group comprises:
obtaining, by the access device, a domain name of the aggregation gateway based on a gateway configuration protocol; and obtaining an anycast address of the aggregation gateway via a domain name system (DNS) based on the domain name.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the address of an aggregation gateway group comprises:
sending, by the access device, a user authentication request to an authentication server; receiving a Radius access response from the authentication server; and obtaining an anycast address of the aggregation gateway from the Radius access response, wherein the anycast address of the aggregation gateway represents the address of the aggregation gateway group.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, by the access device, a GRE tunnel keepalive packet to the aggregation gateway within a preset period by using the GRE tunnel.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the access device, a GRE tunnel teardown packet sent by the aggregation gateway by using the GRE tunnel; and deleting, by the access device, the network side destination address of the GRE tunnel.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, by the access device, a GRE tunnel teardown packet to the aggregation gateway by using the GRE tunnel; and deleting, by the access device, the network side destination address of the GRE tunnel.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein status information of the GRE tunnel is indicated via a GRE tunnel notification packet.

9 . The method according to claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving, by the access device, the GRE tunnel notification packet from the aggregation gateway by using the GRE tunnel.

10 . The method according to claim 8 , further comprising
sending, by the access device, the GRE tunnel notification packet to the aggregation gateway by using the GRE tunnel.

11 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the GRE tunnel setup request and the GRE tunnel setup accept response are carried by separate GRE tunnel control messages, wherein a GRE tunnel control message comprises a type field, and a value of the type field is used to indicate that the GRE tunnel control message carries a GRE tunnel setup request or a GRE tunnel setup accept response.

12 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the GRE tunnel control message further comprises an attribute type field and an attribute parameter field, wherein a value of the attribute type field is used to indicate a type of an attribute, and the attribute parameter field is used to indicate content of the attribute.

13 . A method for implementing a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel, comprising:
receiving, by an aggregation gateway, a GRE tunnel setup request from an access device, the GRE tunnel setup request for setting up a GRE tunnel, wherein a source address of the GRE tunnel setup request includes an address of the access device, a destination address of the GRE tunnel setup request includes an address of an aggregation gateway group, and the aggregation gateway belongs to the aggregation gateway group; determining, by the aggregation gateway, to accept the GRE tunnel setup request, wherein the address of the access device is obtained from the GRE tunnel setup request, and wherein an access side destination address of the GRE tunnel is configured with the address of the access device; and sending, by the aggregation gateway and by using the address of the access device as a destination address, a GRE tunnel setup accept response, wherein an address of the aggregation gateway is encapsulated in the GRE tunnel setup accept response, wherein the GRE tunnel setup accept response includes an indication to the access device to configure a network side destination address of the GRE tunnel with the address of the aggregation gateway.

14 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the aggregation gateway group includes one or more aggregation gateways, wherein the aggregation gateways are prioritized via a priority, further comprising:
determining, by the aggregation gateway, the priority for the aggregation gateway in the aggregation gateway group.

15 . The method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
sending, by the aggregation gateway, a GRE tunnel keepalive packet to the access device within a preset period by using the GRE tunnel.

16 . An access device, comprising a transmitter, a receiver, a memory and a processor separately connected to the transmitter, the receiver, and the memory, wherein the memory stores program code, which when executed by the processor causes the access device to perform operations comprising:
obtaining an address of an aggregation gateway group, wherein the aggregation gateway group comprises at least one aggregation gateway; sending by using the address of the aggregation gateway group as a destination address, a GRE tunnel setup request for setting up a GRE tunnel, wherein an address of the access device is encapsulated in the GRE tunnel setup request; receiving a GRE tunnel setup accept response from an aggregation gateway, wherein an address of the aggregation gateway is obtained from the GRE tunnel setup accept response, and wherein the aggregation gateway belongs to the aggregation gateway group; and configuring a network side destination address of the GRE tunnel with the address of the aggregation gateway.

17 . The device according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
obtaining a domain name of the aggregation gateway based on a gateway configuration protocol; and obtaining an anycast address of the aggregation gateway via a domain name system (DNS) based on the domain name.

18 . The device according to claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
sending a user authentication request to an authentication server; receiving a Radius access response from the authentication server; and obtaining an anycast address of the aggregation gateway from the Radius access response, wherein the anycast address of the aggregation gateway represents the address of the aggregation gateway group.

19 . The device according to 16 , wherein the opera

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Xue Li
• Zhang Jinfeng
• Zhang Haibo
• Zhang Jianzheng

Classifications

• H04L12/4633 Primary

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

• H04L45/74

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title

• H04L12/66

  Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways · CPC title