Fast convergence for failures of large scale virtual ethernet segments in evpn and pbb-evpn

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016378606-A1
Application number	US-201514750311-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 25, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for fast convergence for virtual ethernet segments in EVPN and PBB-EVPN networks are disclosed. A first provider edge (PE) device can receive one or more advertising messages corresponding to one or more virtual ethernet segments, wherein each of the one or more advertising messages can include a port identifier. The first PE device maintains a table including the one or more virtual ethernet segments and the corresponding port identifier. The first PE device can receive a failure message from a second PE device that identifies a first port on the second PE device, and identifies, based on the table, at least one affected virtual ethernet segment that is associated with the first port. The first PE device can remove any routes that are associated with the at least one affected virtual ethernet segment and trigger mass designated-forwarding election for impacted virtual ethernet segments.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, at a first provider edge (PE) device, one or more advertising messages corresponding to one or more virtual ethernet segments, wherein each of the one or more advertising messages include a port identifier; maintaining, at the first PE device, a table including the one or more virtual ethernet segments and the corresponding port identifier; receiving, at the first PE device, a message from a second PE device that identifies a first port on the second PE device that has a failed status; identifying, based on the table, at least one affected virtual ethernet segment that is associated with the first port; and removing, at the first PE device, any routes associated with the at least one affected virtual ethernet segment.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the port identifier includes a media access control (MAC) address of an interface acting as network to network interface (NNI).

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the table includes a plurality of virtual ethernet segments associated with the MAC address.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the first PE device, that the at least one affected virtual ethernet segment is associated with a port on the first PE device.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining that the port associated with the at least one affected virtual ethernet segment is a non-designated forwarder; and in response, configuring the port to be a designated forwarder.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a plurality of affected virtual ethernet segments that are associated with the first port; and initiating a designated forwarder election process for each of the plurality of affected virtual ethernet segments.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one affected virtual ethernet segment is associated with at least one of a multi-homed customer edge (CE) device or a multi-homed network.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the failure message from the second PE device comprises a mass withdrawal message that includes a MAC address of the first port.

9 . A Provider Edge (PE) device comprising:
a processor; and a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
configuring a virtual ethernet segment on a first port of the PE device;
advertising a route for the virtual ethernet segment to a second PE device, wherein the route identifies a port on the PE device associated with the virtual ethernet segment;
detecting a failure of the port on the PE device; and
sending a message to the second PE device that identifies the port failure on the PE device.

10 . The device of claim 9 , wherein the message includes a media access control (MAC) address of an network to network interface (NNI) on the PE device.

11 . The device of claim 9 , wherein the virtual ethernet segment is associated with a customer edge (CE) device that is multi-homed with the PE device and the second PE device.

12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the message causes the second PE device to become a designated forwarder for the virtual ethernet segment.

13 . The device of claim 9 , the computer-readable storage medium having stored additional instructions which cause the processor to:
detect, subsequent to the failure, that the port on the PE device is functional; and advertise the route for the virtual ethernet segment to the second PE device.

14 . The device of claim 9 , the computer-readable storage medium having stored additional instructions which cause the processor to:
receive, from the second PE device, a plurality of messages advertising routes for a plurality of virtual ethernet segments, wherein each of the plurality of messages identifies a physical port for each of the plurality of virtual ethernet segments; and maintain a list of the virtual ethernet segments that is arranged according to the physical port.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a first provider edge (PE) device, one or more messages that advertise a route for a plurality of virtual ethernet segments on a second PE device, wherein each of the one or more messages include a port identifier; maintaining, at the first PE device, a list of the plurality of virtual ethernet segments that is arranged according to the port identifier; receiving, at the first PE device, a mass withdrawal message from the second PE device that identifies a first port on the second PE device that has a failed status; identifying, based on the port identifier for the first port, at least one virtual ethernet segment in the list of the plurality of virtual ethernet segments; and initiating a designated forwarder election process for the at least one virtual ethernet segment.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the port identifier is a media access control (MAC) address.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, result in operations comprising:
determine, by the first PE device, that the at least one virtual ethernet segment is associated with a port on the first PE device; and configure the port to be in designated forwarder mode.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the at least one virtual ethernet segment is associated with a multi-homed network.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, result in an operations comprising:
detect a failure of an network to network interface (NNI) on the first PE device; and send a message to the second PE device that identifies a MAC address of the ENNI.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the mass withdrawal message is a border gateway protocol (BGP) extended community message.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Sajassi Ali
• Liste Jose A
• Brissette Patrice
• Zhang Mei
• Vu Vi

Classifications

• H04L45/28

  using route fault recovery · CPC title

• H04L45/745 Primary

  Address table lookup; Address filtering · CPC title

• G06F11/1423 Primary

  by reconfiguration of paths · CPC title

• H04L45/22

  Alternate routing · CPC title