BIER forwarding validation

1. A method comprising:

storing an assigned operations, administration and management (OAM) bitstring in a memory in a BIER (Bit Index Explicit Replication) enabled router, the OAM bitstring being assigned to a BIER domain comprising a plurality of bit-forwarding routers (BFRs), the semantic of the OAM bitstring being to replicate and forward the OAM bitstring to next hop BFRs;

generating an OAM probe packet comprising the OAM bitstring;

setting a BFR ID associated with a first BFR as a BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, wherein each of the plurality of BFRs in the BIER domain is represented by a single bit within the BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, and wherein the BFR ID in the BIER header bitstring includes at least one bit representing the first BFR;

setting a TTL (time to live) field in the OAM probe packet to be 2;

sending the OAM probe packet to a next hop BFR within the BIER domain;

determining whether the OAM probe packet has been received back from the first BFR identified in the BIER header bitstring of the OAM probe packet; and

upon determining that the OAM probe packet has not been received back from the first BFR, taking a corrective action.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the first BFR comprises the next hop BFR.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the first BFR comprises a next next hop BFR.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein if the OAM probe packet is received back from the first BFR, then a local timer for next hop BFR validation is reset.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the corrective action comprises triggering fast retransmit and recovery (FRR).

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the corrective action comprises logging an error message.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the corrective action comprises instructing a centralized logging system of the failure to receive back the OAM probe packet.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the BIER enabled router comprises a BIER-TE (BIER Traffic Engineering) enabled router.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the first BFR comprises a BIER-TE enabled router.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the OAM bitstring is assigned to an entire BIER domain.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein the OAM bitstring is replicated and forwarded to all next hop BFRs.

12. A system comprising:

a memory in a BIER (Bit Index Explicit Replication) enabled router that stores an assigned operations, administration and management (OAM) bitstring, the OAM bitstring being assigned to a BIER domain comprising a plurality of bit-forwarding routers (BFRs), the semantic of the OAM bitstring being to replicate and forward the OAM bitstring to next hop BFRs;

an OAM probe packet generator which generates OAM probe packet comprising the OAM bitstring;

a processor which sets a BFR ID associated with a first BFR as a BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, wherein each of the plurality of BFRs in the BIER domain is represented by a single bit within the BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, and wherein the BFR ID in the BIER header bitstring includes at least one bit representing the first BFR, and also sets a TTL (time to live) field in the OAM probe packet to be 2;

the BIER enabled router operative to send the OAM probe packet to a next hop BFR within the BIER domain;

the BIER enabled router operative to:

receive the OAM probe packet back from the first BFR identified in the BIER header bitstring of the OAM probe packet; and

upon determining that the OAM probe packet has not been received back from the first BFR, take a corrective action.

13. The system according to claim 12 wherein the first BFR comprises one of: the next hop BFR; and a next next hop BFR.

14. The system according to claim 12 wherein if the OAM probe packet is received back from the first BFR, then a local timer for next hop BFR validation is reset.

15. The system according to claim 12 wherein the corrective action comprises one of: triggering fast retransmit and recovery (FRR); logging an error message; and instructing a centralized logging system of the failure to receive back the OAM probe packet.

16. The system according to claim 12 wherein the BIER enabled router and the first BFR comprise a BIER-TE (BIER Traffic Engineering) enabled router.

17. The system according to claim 12 wherein one of:

the OAM bitstring is assigned to an entire BIER domain; and

the OAM bitstring is replicated and forwarded to all next hop BFRs.

18. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

store an assigned operations, administration and management (OAM) bitstring in a memory in a BIER (Bit Index Explicit Replication) enabled router, the OAM bitstring being assigned to a BIER domain comprising a plurality of bit-forwarding routers (BFRs), the semantic of the OAM bitstring being to replicate and forward the OAM bitstring to next hop BFRs;

generate an OAM probe packet comprising the OAM bitstring;

set a BFR ID associated with a first BFR as a BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, wherein each of the plurality of BFRs in the BIER domain is represented by a single bit within the BIER header bitstring in the OAM probe packet, and wherein the BFR ID in the BIER header bitstring includes at least one bit representing the first BFR;

set a TTL (time to live) field in the OAM probe packet to be 2;

send the OAM probe packet to a next hop BFR within the BIER domain;

determine whether the OAM probe packet has been received back from the first BFR identified in the BIER header bitstring of the OAM probe packet; and

upon determining that the OAM probe packet has not been received back from the first BFR, take a corrective action.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 18 wherein the corrective action comprises one of: triggering fast retransmit and recovery (FRR); logging an error message; and instructing a centralized logging system of the failure to receive back the OAM probe packet.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 18 wherein if the OAM probe packet is received back from the first BFR, then a local timer for next hop BFR validation is reset.