Method for fast switching traffic in H-VPLS

1. A method for fast switching traffic in a hierarchical virtual private LAN service, for use in a User-facing Provider Edge (UPE) device, wherein said method comprises:

assigning to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire a logic port number to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire;

when learning a media access control (MAC) address, associating an MAC address associated with a pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire with the logic port number shared by the primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire;

filling, in a logic port table, entries containing the following information for each logic port: a logic port number, a primary pseudo wire inbound-label, a standby pseudo wire inbound-label, a primary pseudo wire outbound-label, a standby pseudo wire outbound-label and information of leaving a public network;

when the primary pseudo wire is active, setting the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table as: performing message forwarding by using the primary pseudo wire outbound-label and public network entries of the primary pseudo wire; and

when the primary pseudo wire becomes inactive, setting the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table as: performing message forwarding by using the standby pseudo wire outbound-label and public network entries of the standby pseudo wire.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein,

when a pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire are designated under a virtual switch instance (VSI), a logic port number is assigned to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire;

or, when a pseudo wire signaling generates a control plane table entry for the logic port table, a logic port number is assigned to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire;

or, when a data plane saves a forwarded table entry, a logic port number is assigned to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each entry in said logic port table further contains the information of a primary peer IP address and a standby peer IP address.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the assigned logic port number to be shared by the primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire is unique within a virtual switch instance (VSI).

5. A User-facing Provider Edge (UPE) device, wherein said UPE comprises: a logic port assigning module, an media access control (MAC) address associating module, a logic port table filling module and a primary and standby pseudo wire switching module; wherein,

the logic port assigning module is to assign to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire a logic port number to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire, and send the corresponding relationships between the primary pseudo wire, the standby pseudo wire and the logic port number to the MAC address associating module and the logic port table filling module;

the MAC address associating module is to associate an MAC address associated with a pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire with the logic port number shared by the primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire when learning an MAC address;

the logic port table filling module is to fill, in the logic port table, entries containing the following information for each logic port: a logic port number, a primary pseudo wire inbound-label, a standby pseudo wire inbound-label, a primary pseudo wire outbound-label, a standby pseudo wire outbound-label and information of leaving a public network; and

the primary and standby pseudo wire switching module is, when the primary pseudo wire is active, to set the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table as: performing message forwarding by using the primary pseudo wire outbound-label and public network entries of the primary pseudo wire; when the primary pseudo wire becomes inactive, to set the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table as: performing message forwarding by using the standby pseudo wire outbound-label and public network entries of the standby pseudo wire; and when the primary pseudo wire is restored and needs to be used, to set the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table as: performing message forwarding by using the primary pseudo wire outbound-label and the public network entries of the primary pseudo wire.

6. The UPE according to claim 5 , wherein when a user designates a pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire under a virtual switch instance (VSI) and assigns to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire a logic port number to be shared by said primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire, the logic port assigning module is to record the corresponding relationships between the primary pseudo wire, the standby pseudo wire and the logic port number.

7. The UPE according to claim 5 , wherein the logic port table filling module is further to fill in each entry of the logic port table the information of a primary peer IP address and a standby peer IP address.

8. The UPE according to claim 5 , wherein the assigned logic port number to be shared by the primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire is unique within a virtual switch instance (VSI).