TRILL BASED ROUTER REDUNDANCY
One embodiment of the present invention provides a switching system. The switching system includes a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) header processor and an Internet Protocol (IP) header processor. The TRILL header processor is configured to identify a virtual routing bridge (RBridge) identifier in a packet, and the IP header processor is configured to identify a virtual IP address in the packet. The virtual IP address is assigned to a virtual IP router associated with the virtual RBridge identifier.
1 . A switching system, comprising:
a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) header processor unit configured to identify a virtual routing bridge (RBridge) identifier in a packet; and
an Internet Protocol (IP) header processor configured to identify a virtual IP address in the packet, wherein the virtual IP address is assigned to a virtual IP router associated with the virtual RBridge identifier.
2 . The switching system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual IP address is assigned to an interface of the virtual IP router.
3 . The switching system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual IP router is formed based on a plurality of physical RBridges with IP processing capabilities.
4 . The switching system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual RBridge is formed based on a plurality of physical RBridges.
5 . The switching system of claim 1 , further comprising an Ethernet header processor configured to identify a virtual Medium Access Control (MAC) address assigned to the virtual IP router.
6 . The switching system of claim 5 , further comprising an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) module configured to respond to an ARP request for the virtual IP address with the virtual MAC address.
7 . The switching system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual IP router is a default gateway router.
8 . The switching system of claim 1 , further comprising a priority configuration mechanism which allows a priority to be set, thereby facilitating election of one of a plurality of physical RBridges that form the virtual IP router.
9 . A system, comprising:
a virtual RBridge formed based on a number of RBridges functioning as a single logical RBridge;
a virtual MAC address associated with the virtual RBridge;
a virtual IP router formed based on the number of RBridges with IP processing capabilities functioning as a single logical IP router; and
a virtual IP address associated with the virtual IP router.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the virtual IP address is associated with an interface of the virtual IP router.
11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein each RBridge in the number of RBridges comprises an IP protocol stack.
12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein packets destined to the virtual IP router are distributed among the number of RBridges, thereby facilitating load balancing and redundancy for the virtual IP router.
13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the virtual MAC address is used as the source MAC address of outgoing Ethernet frames sent from the virtual IP router.
14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein one of the number of the RBridges is elected to respond to an ARP request for the virtual IP with the virtual MAC address.
15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the virtual IP router is a default gateway router and the virtual IP address is the corresponding default IP address.
16 . A method, comprising:
identifying a virtual RBridge identifier in a packet using TRILL header processing; and
identifying a virtual IP address in the packet using IP header processing, wherein the virtual IP address is assigned to a virtual IP router associated with the virtual RBridge identifier.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the virtual IP address is assigned to an interface of the virtual IP router.
18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising forming the virtual IP router based on a plurality of physical RBridges with IP processing capabilities.
19 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising forming the virtual RBridge based on a plurality of physical RBridges.
20 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising identifying a virtual MAC address assigned to the virtual IP router using Ethernet header processing.
21 . The method of claim 20 , further comprising responding to an ARP request for the virtual IP address with the virtual MAC address.
22 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the virtual IP router is a default gateway router.
23 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising setting a priority for facilitating election of one of a plurality of physical RBridges that form the virtual IP router.