Bootstrapping fault detection sessions over a P2MP tunnel
View Patent ↗A method for detecting faults associated with a tunnel delivering multicast traffic from a source provider edge router (PE) to each of a plurality of destination PEs, the method using a routing protocol such as BGP to communicate route information to destination PEs, and a fault detection protocol such as BFD to detect tunnel faults.
1. A method for detecting faults associated with a tunnel delivering multicast traffic from a source provider edge (PE) to each of a plurality of destination PEs, the method comprising:
transmitting, from the source PE toward each destination PE via a routing protocol, information identifying the source PE and the tunnel delivering multicast traffic to the destination PEs;
establishing a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) session between the source PE and the destination PEs;
using the transmitted information as a BFD session discriminator at one of the destination PEs to associate the BFD session with the tunnel at the one of the destination PEs; and
defining data plane faults detected by the BFD session as faults of the tunnel.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tunnel comprises a Multicast Virtual Private Network (MVPN).
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the transmitted information comprises an intra-AutoDiscovery Provider Multicast Service Interface (intra-AD PMSI) route transmitted according to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the transmitted information comprises an intra-AutoDiscovery Inclusive Provider Multicast Service Interface (intra-AD I-PMSI) route transmitted according to Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the MVPN uses MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) as a transport layer.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the BFD session discriminator comprises a P2MP tunnel identifier of an MVPN intra-AD route.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a BFD control packet including information adapted to derive therefrom BFD session parameters.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein each destination PE that is a tail of the BFD session derives BFD session parameters associated with the BFD control packet.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein each destination PE rejects the BFD control packet based on a determination that the derived BFD session parameters to not match the BFD session discriminator.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used to exchange route information between PE routers.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tunnel delivers multicast traffic from a customer edge router (CE) associated with the source PE to at least one CE associated with at least one of the plurality of destination PEs.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a Multicast Distribution Tree (MDT) is used to connect source and destination CEs.
13. A method for detecting faults associated with a tunnel delivering multicast traffic from a source provider edge (PE) to each of a plurality of destination PEs, the method comprising:
receiving, at one of the destination PEs via a routing protocol, a set of parameters identifying the source PE and the tunnel; and
using, at the one of the destination PEs, the set of parameters as a session discriminator for a fault detection session between the source PE and the one of the destination PEs.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the fault detection session comprises a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) session.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the routing protocol comprises Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the set of parameters is received as part of an intra-AutoDiscovery Provider Multicast Service Interface (intra-AD PMSI) route.
17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving a BFD control packet at the one of the destination PEs;
deriving a set of BFD session parameters based on the BFD control packet; and
comparing the derived set of BFD session parameters with the session discriminator for determining whether to accept or reject the BFD control packet.
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the set of parameters is received as part of an intra-AutoDiscovery Provider Multicast Service Interface (intra-AD PMSI) route.
19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including software instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for detecting faults associated with a tunnel delivering multicast traffic from a source provider edge (PE) to each of a plurality of destination PEs, the method comprising:
transmitting, from the source PE toward each destination PE via a routing protocol, information identifying the source PE and the tunnel delivering multicast traffic to the destination PEs;
establishing a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) session between the source PE and the destination PEs;
using the transmitted information as a BFD session discriminator at one of the destination PEs to associate the BFD session with the tunnel at the one of the destination PEs; and
defining data plane faults detected by the BFD session as faults of the tunnel.
20. A computer program product, wherein a computer is operative to process software instructions which adapt the operation of the computer such that the computer performs a method for detecting faults associated with a tunnel delivering multicast traffic from a source provider edge (PE) to each of a plurality of destination PEs, the method comprising:
transmitting, from the source PE toward each destination PE via a routing protocol, information identifying the source PE and the tunnel delivering multicast traffic to the destination PEs;
establishing a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) session between the source PE and the destination PEs;
using the transmitted information as a BFD session discriminator at one of the destination PEs to associate the BFD session with the tunnel at the one of the destination PEs; and
defining data plane faults detected by the BFD session as faults of the tunnel.