IP Library Granted Patent US 11,804,988
Granted Patent B2
US 11,804,988 · App. 17/361,292 · Granted Oct 31, 2023

Method and system of overlay flow control

Inventors: Ajit Ramachandra Mayya (Saratoga, CA); Parag Pritam Thakore (Los Gatos, CA); Stephen Craig Connors (San Jose, CA); Steven Michael Woo (Los Altos, CA); Sunil Mukundan (Chennai, IN); Thomas Harold Speeter (San Martin, CA); Vipin Kumar (Santa Clara, CA)
Assignee: NICIRA, INC.
H04L12/66H04L41/5041H04L41/5096H04L43/0894H04L45/02H04L45/04H04L47/24H04L69/325H04L45/50H04L2012/4629
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,804,988
App. No.
17/361,292
Granted
Oct 31, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

In one aspect, A computerized method of a gateway distributing routes learned through routing protocols (RP) into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) includes the step of providing a first gateway that receives a route over a routing protocol. The method includes the step of with the first gateway, redistributing the route to one or more peer routers as a BGP route based on one or more specified criteria. The method includes the step of setting a gateway precedence based on the redistribution of the route to the one or more peer routers as the BGP route. The method includes the step of, based on the gateway precedence, setting a second gateway to automatically redistribute the route with different priorities to influence steering of traffic to a preferred gateway.

Claims (23)

1. A computerized method of distributing routes learned through a first routing protocol (RP) into a second routing protocol that is a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the method comprising:

at a first router:

receiving a route over the first routing protocol; and

using BGP to distribute the route to a second router as a BGP route by distributing the route with a router precedence that assigns the route, from an ordered list of community values, with a first community value that is more preferred than a second community value that is chosen for the route when the second router redistributes the route,

wherein based on the router precedence, the second router automatically redistributes the route with the second community value to influence steering of traffic to the first router as a preferred router for the distributed route.

2. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the first router distributes the route with a first Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) identifier, and wherein the second router redistributes the route with a second MED identifier.

3. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the second router is a less preferred router, and wherein the second router sends the route with an automatic autonomous system (AS)-path-prepend to set the first router as the preferred router.

4. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein a user specifies a set of BGP communities in a priority-order.

5. The computerized method of claim 4 , wherein the user specifies the set of BGP communities in the priority-order based on a mapping of the set of BGP communities to a Local-Preference on a provider-edge (PE) router side.

6. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the first router comprises a node on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network.

7. The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the second router comprises an adjacent layer three (L3) router.

8. A computer system for distributing routes learned through a first routing protocol (RP) into a second routing protocol that is a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) at a first router, the first router comprising:

at least one processor configured to execute instructions; and

a memory containing instructions which when executed on the processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations that:

receives a route over the first routing protocol; and

uses BGP to distribute the route to a second router as a BGP route by distributing the route with a router precedence that assigns the route, from an ordered list of community values, with a first community value that is more preferred than a second community value that is chosen for the route when the second router redistributes the route,

wherein based on the router precedence, the second router automatically redistributes the route with the second community value to influence steering of traffic to the first router as a preferred router for the distributed route.

9. The computerized system of claim 8 , wherein the first router distributes the route with a first Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) identifier, and wherein the second router redistributes the route with a second MED identifier.

10. The computerized system of claim 8 , wherein the second router comprises a less preferred router, and wherein the second router sends the route with an automatic autonomous system (AS)-path-prepend to set the first router as the preferred router.

11. The computerized system of claim 8 , wherein a user specifies a set of BGP communities in a priority-order.

12. The computerized system of claim 11 , wherein the user specifies the set of BGP communities in the priority-order based on a mapping of the set of BGP communities to a Local-Preference on a provider-edge (PE) router side.

13. The computerized system of claim 8 , wherein the first router comprises a node on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network.

14. The computerized system of claim 8 , wherein the second router comprises an adjacent layer three (L3) router.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 5, 2025
From: VMWARE, LLC
To: VELOCLOUD NETWORKS, LLC
Reel/Frame 072326/0693 →
MERGER Recorded Jan 27, 2025
From: NICIRA, INC.
To: VMWARE LLC
Reel/Frame 070187/0487 →
Continuity (6)
Continuation 16656555 · Oct 17, 2019
Continuation 15624532 · Jun 15, 2017
Continuation In Part 14321818 · Jul 2, 2014
Provisional Application 62457816 · Feb 11, 2017
Provisional Application 61844822 · Jul 10, 2013
Related Publication 20210328835A1 · Oct 21, 2021