Multicast multipathing in an IP overlay network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9654385-B2
Application number	US-201414508779-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2014
Priority date	Nov 5, 2013
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

The subject technology addresses the need in the art for improving utilization of network bandwidth in a multicast network environment. More specifically, the disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for extending multipathing to tenant multicast traffic in an IP overlay network, which enables the network to fully utilize available bandwidth for multicast traffic. In some examples, nodes in the overlay network may be connected by virtual or logical links, each of which corresponds to a path, perhaps through many physical links, in the underlying network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
at least one processor;
a network interface; and
memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
receive, over the network interface, a multicast packet for distributing to a set of receivers in an overlay network;
perform a hash operation on at least a portion of the multicast packet to determine a hash key;
select a forwarding tag (FTAG) value based at least on the hash key, wherein the FTAG value is associated with a multicast distribution tree in the overlay network, the multicast distribution tree being selected from a plurality of different multicast distribution trees in the overlay network;
concatenate an overlay multicast group value with the FTAG value to provide a destination address;
encapsulate the multicast packet with the concatenated overlay multicast group value and the FTAG value; and
forward the encapsulated multicast packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the overlay network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the multicast packet is received by a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel end point (VTEP) in the overlay network.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hash operation is performed on at least one of an internet protocol (IP) destination address or an IP source address in an IP header of the multicast packet, information in an layer 2 (L2) header, or information in the multicast packet indicating a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port number or a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the overlay multicast group value comprises an overlay multicast group address.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the FTAG value comprises a lower four bits of a header field including the concatenated overlay multicast group value.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein to encapsulate the multicast packet further causes the at least one processor to:
append a VXLAN header field to an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame including the multicast packet in an Ethernet payload portion of the Ethernet frame; and
update an outer IP destination address field in the VXLAN header with the concatenated overlay multicast group value and the FTAG value.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network element located at the next-hop in the overlay network comprises a spine switch.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the spine switch comprises a root node in a multicast distribution tree associated with the FTAG value.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, over a network interface, a multicast packet for distributing to a set of receivers in an overlay network;
performing a hash operation on at least a portion of the multicast packet to determine a hash key;
selecting a forwarding tag (FTAG) value based at least on the hash key, wherein the FTAG value is associated with a multicast distribution tree in the overlay network, the multicast distribution tree being selected from a plurality of different multicast distribution trees in the overlay network;
concatenating an overlay multicast group value with the FTAG value to provide a destination address;
encapsulating the multicast packet with the concatenated overlay multicast group value and the FTAG value; and
forwarding the encapsulated multicast packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the overlay network.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the multicast packet is received by a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN) tunnel end point (VTEP) in the overlay network.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the hash operation is performed on at least one of an internet protocol (IP) destination address or an IP source address in an IP header of the multicast packet, information included in a layer 2 (L2) header, or information in the multicast packet indicating a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port number or a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the overlay multicast group value comprises an overlay multicast group address.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the FTAG value comprises a lower four bits of a header field including the concatenated overlay multicast group value.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein encapsulating the multicast packet further comprises:
appending a VXLAN header field to an Ethernet frame, the Ethernet frame including the multicast packet in an Ethernet payload portion of the Ethernet frame; and
updating an outer IP destination address field in the VXLAN header with the concatenated overlay multicast group value and the FTAG value.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the network element located at the next-hop in the overlay network comprises a spine switch.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the spine switch comprises a root node in a multicast distribution tree associated with the FTAG value.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions stored therein that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to:
receive, over a network interface, a multicast packet for distributing to a set of receivers in an overlay network;
perform a hash operation on at least a portion of the multicast packet to determine a hash key;
select a forwarding tag (FTAG) value based at least on the hash key, wherein the FTAG value is associated with a multicast distribution tree in the overlay network, the multicast distribution tree being selected from a plurality of different multicast distribution trees in the overlay network;
concatenate an overlay multicast group value with the FTAG value to provide a destination address;
encapsulate the multicast packet with the concatenated overlay multicast group value and the FTAG value; and
forward the encapsulated multicast packet to a network element located at a next-hop in the overlay network.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the overlay multicast group value comprises an overlay multicast group address, and the FTAG value comprises a lower four bits of a header field including the concatenated overlay multicast group value.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc
• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Chu Kit Chiu
• Edsall Thomas J
• Yadav Navindra
• Matus Francisco M
• Doddapaneni Krishna
• Sinha Satyam
• Merchant Sameer

Classifications

• 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

• H04L45/245

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L45/7453

  using hashing · CPC title

• H04L43/0811

  by checking connectivity · CPC title