Reducing transient packet duplication and improving split-horizon filtering

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9794180-B2
Application number	US-201414335622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2014
Priority date	Jul 18, 2014
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining, at a first provider edge (PE) included a plurality of PEs multi-homed to a first customer edge (CE), traffic intended for the first CE, wherein the traffic includes a first indication, the first indication being configured to identify the traffic as flood traffic. A forwarding PE included in the plurality of PEs suitable to use to forward the traffic to the first CE is identified based on identifying traffic as the flood traffic. The method also includes determining whether the first PE is the forwarding PE, and providing the traffic to the first CE using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is the forwarding PE. When it is determined that the first PE is not the forwarding PE, the traffic is filtered using the first PE.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, at a first provider edge (PE) included in a plurality of PEs multi-homed to a first customer edge (CE), traffic intended for the first CE, wherein the traffic includes a first indication, the first indication being configured to identify the traffic as flood traffic and wherein the first indication is a first unicast Internet Protocol (IP) address that is a flag in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header; and
processing, based on the first indication, the traffic as the flood traffic, wherein processing the traffic as the flood traffic includes identifying a forwarding PE included in the plurality of PEs suitable to use to forward the traffic to the first CE, determining whether the first PE is the forwarding PE, providing the traffic to the first CE using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is the forwarding PE, and filtering the traffic using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is not the forwarding PE.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the traffic is broadcast, unicast unknown, or multicast (BUM) traffic, the first unicast IP address being distinct from a second unicast IP address, the second unicast IP address being associated with known unicast traffic.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first unicast IP address is arranged to indicate that a packet in which the first unicast IP address is contained is included in the traffic and is flood traffic.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the packet includes a packet header, the packet header including a first IP address, wherein the first unicast IP address is included in the packet header following the first IP address.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the traffic intended for the first CE includes obtaining the traffic from a second CE through a second PE.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the traffic includes a first copy of a packet, the first copy of the packet including the first indication, and wherein a second copy of the packet is obtained by a third PE of the plurality of PEs.

7. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code, the computer program code, when executed, configured to:
obtain, at a first provider edge (PE) included in a plurality of PEs multi-homed to a first customer edge (CE), traffic intended for the first CE, wherein the traffic includes a first indication, the first indication being configured to identify the traffic as flood traffic, and wherein the first indication is a first unicast Internet Protocol (IP) address and is a flag in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header; and
process, based on the first indication, the traffic as the flood traffic, wherein the computer program code configured to process the traffic as the flood traffic is configured to determine whether the first PE is a forwarding PE, to provide the traffic to the first CE using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is the forwarding PE, and to filter the traffic using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is not the forwarding PE.

8. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code of claim 7 wherein the traffic is broadcast, unicast unknown, or multicast (BUM) traffic, the first unicast IP address being distinct from a second unicast IP address, the second unicast IP address being associated with known unicast traffic.

9. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code of claim 8 wherein the traffic includes a packet having a packet header, the packet header including a first IP address, wherein the first unicast IP address is included in the packet header following the first IP address and is arranged to indicate that the packet is included in the traffic and that the traffic is flood traffic.

10. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code of claim 7 wherein the computer program code configured to obtain the traffic intended for the first CE is configured to obtain the traffic from a second CE through a second PE.

11. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code of claim 10 wherein the traffic includes a first copy of a packet, the first copy of the packet including the first indication, and wherein a second copy of the packet is obtained by a third PE of the plurality of PEs.

12. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code, the computer program code, when executed, configured to:
obtain, at a first provider edge (PE) included in a plurality of PEs multi-homed to a first customer edge (CE), traffic intended for the first CE, wherein the traffic includes a first indication, the first indication being configured to identify the traffic as flood traffic, and wherein the first indication is a first unicast Internet Protocol (IP) address and is a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) label for Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) with MPLS encapsulation; and
process, based on the first indication, the traffic as the flood traffic, wherein the computer program code configured to process the traffic as the flood traffic is configured to determine whether the first PE is a forwarding PE, to provide the traffic to the first CE using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is the forwarding PE, and to filter the traffic using the first PE when it is determined that the first PE is not the forwarding PE.

13. An apparatus comprising:
a processor;
a communications interface, the communications interface configured to obtain traffic intended for a first customer edge (CE), the traffic being obtained through a network; and
a logic module, the logic module including logic configured to be executed by the processor, the logic module including traffic identification logic and filtering logic, wherein the traffic identification logic is configured to identify when the traffic includes a first indication arranged to identify the traffic as flood traffic, the first indication being a first unicast Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the first PE, wherein the first indication is a flag in a Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) header, the filtering logic being arranged to identify a first provider edge (PE) of a plurality of PEs to forward the traffic to the first CE, the plurality of PEs being multi-homed to the first CE, and wherein the filtering logic is further arranged to determine when the apparatus is the first PE and to cause the traffic to be forwarded to the first CE when it is determined that the apparatus is the first PE.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the filtering logic is arranged to filter out the traffic when it is determined that the apparatus is not the first PE, wherein the filtering logic is arranged to filter out the traffic by preventing the traffic from being forwarded to the first CE.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the traffic is broadcast, unicast unknown, or multicast (BUM) traffic, the first unicast IP address being distinct from a second unicast IP address associated with the first PE, the second unicast IP address being used with known unicast traffic.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the communications interface is configured to obtain the traffic through the network from a second CE through a second PE.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the traffic includes a first copy of a packet, the first copy of the packet including the first indication, and wherein a second co

Assignees

• Thoria Samir D
• Patel Keyur
• Sajassi Ali
• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Thoria Samir D
• Patel Keyur
• Sajassi Ali

Classifications

• H04L47/2483 Primary

  involving identification of individual flows · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

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

• H04L45/50

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

• H04L45/32

  Flooding (denial of service attacks H04L63/1458) · CPC title