Designated forwarder (DF) election and re-election on provider edge (PE) failure in all-active redundancy topology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9923781-B2
Application number	US-201514945301-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 18, 2015
Priority date	Nov 18, 2015
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

A method is implemented by a network device functioning as a provider edge (PE) device to determine a designated forwarder (DF) for sending broadcast, unknown unicast or multicast (BUM) traffic to a customer edge (CE) device, which is connected to a plurality of PE devices in an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) instance on a given Ethernet segment. The method reduces a time for DF determination and loss of traffic for the CE device. The method determines whether a number of active links from the network device to the CE device is greater than an active link minimum. The method also determines that the network device is the DF in response to determining that the number of active links is greater than the active link minimum.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented by a network device functioning as a provider edge (PE) device to determine a designated forwarder (DF) for sending broadcast, unknown unicast or multicast (BUM) traffic to a customer edge (CE) device, which is connected to a plurality of PE devices in an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) instance on a given Ethernet segment, where the method reduces a time for DF determination and loss of traffic for the CE device, the method comprising:
determining whether a number of active links from the network device to the CE device is greater than an active link minimum; and
determining that the network device is the DF in response to determining that the number of active links is greater than the active link minimum, where the CE device prioritizes link activation such that only a single PE device in the plurality of PE devices has a number of active links that is greater than the active link minimum.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the network device is not the DF in response to determining that the number of active links is less than or equal to the active link minimum.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving notification of the active link minimum from the CE device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of PE devices form a link aggregation group (LAG) with the CE device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the active link minimum is communicated to the network device using link aggregation control protocol (LACP).

6. A method implemented by a network device functioning as a customer edge (CE) device to facilitate determination of a designated forwarder (DF) for sending broadcast, unknown unicast or multicast (BUM) traffic from a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices in an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) instance on a given Ethernet segment, where the method reduces a time for DF determination and loss of traffic for the CE device, the method comprising:
determining a set of priorities for links between the network device and the plurality of PE devices, where each PE device in the plurality of PE devices has one active link to the network device with a highest priority, and remaining links to the network device have decreasing priority without overlap between the PE devices in the plurality of PE devices;
determining an active link minimum based on a total number of links to be active in the Ethernet segment; and
reassigning active links between the network device and the PE devices according to the set of priorities for the links thereby identifying a new DF, in response to a change in connection of PE devices to the Ethernet segment.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
distributing the active link minimum to each PE device in the plurality of PE devices.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
activating links according to the set of priorities.

9. A network device functioning as a provider edge (PE) device to implement a method to determine a designated forwarder (DF) for sending broadcast, unknown unicast or multicast (BUM) traffic to a customer edge (CE) device, which is connected to a plurality of PE devices in an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) instance on a given Ethernet segment, where the method reduces a time for DF determination and loss of traffic for the CE device, the network device comprising:
a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored therein a DF election module; and
a processor coupled to the non-transitory machine-readable medium, the processor configured to execute the DF election module, the DF election module to determine whether a number of active links from the network device to the CE device is greater than an active link minimum, and determine that the network device is the DF in response to determining that the number of active links is greater than the active link minimum, where the CE device prioritizes link activation such that only a single PE device in the plurality of PE devices has a number of active links that is greater than the active link minimum.

10. The network device of claim 9 , wherein the DF election module is further configured to determine that the network device is not the DF in response to determining that the number of active links is less than or equal to the active link minimum.

11. The network device of claim 9 , wherein the DF election module is further configured to receive notification of the active link minimum from the CE device.

12. The network device of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of PE devices form a link aggregation group (LAG) with the CE device.

13. The network device of claim 12 , wherein the active link minimum is communicated to the network device using link aggregation control protocol (LACP).

14. A network device functioning as a customer edge (CE) device to implement a method to facilitate determination of a designated forwarder (DF) for sending broadcast, unknown unicast or multicast (BUM) traffic from a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices in an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) instance on a given Ethernet segment, where the method reduces a time for DF determination and loss of traffic for the CE device, the network device comprising:
a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored therein a DF election module; and
a processor coupled to the non-transitory machine-readable medium, the processor configured to execute the DF election module, the DF election module to determine a set of priorities for links between the network device and the plurality of PE devices, where each PE device in the plurality of PE devices has one active link to the network device with a highest priority, and remaining links to the network device have decreasing priority without overlap between the PE devices in the plurality of PE devices, to determine an active link minimum based on a total number of links to be active in the Ethernet segment, and to reassign active links between the network device and the PE devices according to the set of priorities for the links thereby identifying a new DF, in response to a change in connection of PE devices to the Ethernet segment.

15. The network device of claim 14 , wherein the DF election module is further configured to distribute the active link minimum to each PE device in the plurality of PE devices.

16. The network device of claim 14 , wherein the DF election module is further configured to activate links according to the set of priorities.

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M
• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• CHALAPATHY Prasanna
• Przygienda Antoni

Classifications

• H04L49/25

  Routing or path finding in a switch fabric · 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

• H04L45/50 Primary

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

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L41/08

  Configuration management of networks or network elements (address allocation H04L61/50) · CPC title