Method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers within a single network element
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for routing and forwarding between virtual routers is described. A method in a single network element comprises peering a first virtual router to a second virtual router, wherein the first and second virtual routers have separate address spaces and separate routing tables, distributing a set of one or more routes from the first virtual router to the second virtual router, wherein a first of the set of routes identifies the first virtual as a next hop of the first route, said first route including a destination, and downloading to a set of one or more forwarding tables, the destination and the next hop.
1. A single network element comprising:
a control card, coupled to a plurality of line cards, having a set of instructions to cause the
control card to,
instantiate a first virtual router and a second virtual router in the single network element, wherein:
the first virtual router includes a first routing table to be stored on the control card and a first routing protocol process, the first routing protocol process is to insert into the first routing table a plurality of routes, each route to indicate a destination and a next hop wherein at least one route's next hop is an inter-virtual router interface coupled to the second virtual router and at least one route's next hop is one of a set of one or more egress ports that each corresponds to an outgoing interface,
the second virtual router includes a second routing table to be stored on the same control card as the first routing table and a second routing protocol process, the second routing protocol process is to insert into the second routing table a plurality of routes each route to indicate a destination and a next hop,
the first virtual router and second virtual router are coupled within the single network element through the inter-virtual router interface, wherein traffic from the first virtual router destined for the second virtual router is configured to travel through the inter-virtual router interface and not travel through the set of one or more egress ports, and
the first routing table is a separate routing table from the second routing table, and
download one or more routes from the routing tables to different forwarding tables on different ones of the plurality of line cards; and
the plurality of line cards configured to:
store the forwarding tables, wherein each forwarding table corresponds to a different virtual router, and
store different routes downloaded from the control card in the forwarding tables on the different line cards.
2. The network element of claim 1 further comprising a transmission medium to carry routes to said set of line cards.
3. The network element of claim 1 wherein the the inter-virtual router interface is bound to a virtual router handle.
4. The network element of claim 1 wherein the set of instructions further cause the control card to host a set of one or more routing protocol processes, each of the set of routing protocol processes corresponding to a different routing protocol, the set of routing protocol processes to process packets for a plurality of virtual routers supported by the network element.
5. The network element of claim 1 , wherein the the inter-virtual router interface is bound to an IP address.