Granted Patent B2

US 12,401,540 · App. 17/518,338 · Granted Aug 26, 2025

Inventor: Ruobin Zheng (Shenzhen, CN)

Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

H04L12/1854H04L12/18H04L61/5007H04L41/12H04L69/324H04L2101/622

Abstract

Claims (78)

1. A method, carried out by an access controller, for indicating a multicast forwarding entry to multicast nodes having corresponding egress ports, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first node, a multicast control message and an access loop identifier associated with a multicast path;

obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a first egress port on a second node on the multicast path;

generating a first forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the first egress port;

sending the first forwarding entry to the second node, wherein the first forwarding entry is used by the second node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a second egress port, on a third node on the multicast path;

generating a second forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the second egress port; and

sending the second forwarding entry to the third node, wherein the second forwarding entry is used by the third node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the access loop identifier is an identifier of the first port.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining an identifier of a first egress port on a second node, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, comprises:

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier and a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node, the identifier of the first port; or

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier, a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node and a multicast path corresponding to the access loop identifier determined by a pre-stored network topology relationship, the identifier of the first port; or

sending the access loop identifier to a server, wherein a network topology relationship and a mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node are pre-stored in the server; and receiving the identifier of the first port fed back by the server.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the access loop identifier comprises the identifier of the first port and the identifier of the second egress port, and wherein the obtaining an identifier of a second egress port according to the access loop identifier comprises:

obtaining the identifier of the second egress port from the access loop identifier.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address comprises:

obtaining, according to the multicast IP address in the multicast control message and a stored mapping relationship between the multicast IP address and the multicast MAC address, the multicast MAC address.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the multicast control message is an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet or a Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol packet.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:

sending the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet to a node other than the first node.

8. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:

generating a multicast routing protocol packet according to the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet and sending the multicast routing protocol packet to a node other than the first node.

9. A device for indicating a multicast forwarding entry, the device comprising a processor and a memory having processor-executable instructions stored thereon, wherein execution of the processor-executable instructions by the processor cause the device to carry out a method comprising:

receiving, from a first node, a multicast control message and an access loop identifier associated with a multicast path;

obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a first egress port on a second node on the multicast path;

generating a first forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the first egress port;

sending the first forwarding entry to the second node, wherein the first forwarding entry is used by the second node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a second egress port, on a third node on the multicast path;

generating a second forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the second egress port; and

sending the second forwarding entry to the third node, wherein the second forwarding entry is used by the third node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address.

10. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the access loop identifier is an access loop identifier of the first port.

11. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the obtaining an identifier of a first egress port on a second node, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, comprises:

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier and a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node, the identifier of the first port; or

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier, a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node and a multicast path corresponding to the access loop identifier determined by a pre-stored network topology relationship, the identifier of the first port; or

sending the access loop identifier to a server, wherein a network topology relationship and a mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node are pre-stored in the server; and receive the identifier of the first port fed back by the server.

12. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the access loop identifier comprises the identifier of the first port and the identifier of the second egress port, and wherein the obtaining an identifier of a second egress port according to the access loop identifier comprises:

obtaining the identifier of the second egress port from the access loop identifier.

13. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address comprises:

obtaining, according to the multicast IP address in the multicast control message and a stored mapping relationship between the multicast IP address and the multicast MAC address, the multicast MAC address.

14. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the multicast control message is an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet or a Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol packet.

15. The device according to claim 14 , wherein execution of the instructions further cause the device to perform the following:

sending the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet to a node other than the first node.

16. The device according to claim 14 , further, wherein execution of the instructions further cause the device to perform the following:

generating a multicast routing protocol packet according to the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet and sending the multicast routing protocol packet to a node other than the first node.

17. A communication system, comprising a first node, a second node, a third node, and an access controller,

wherein the first node is configured to send to the access controller a multicast control message and an access loop identifier associated with a multicast path; and

wherein the access controller is configured to carry out a method comprising:

receiving the multicast control message and the access loop identifier associated with a multicast path;

obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a first egress port on the second node on the multicast path;

generating a first forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the first egress port;

sending the first forwarding entry to the second node, wherein the first forwarding entry is used by the second node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address;

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, an identifier of a second egress port, on the third node on the multicast path;

generating a second forwarding entry comprising:

the multicast MAC address, and

the identifier of the second egress port; and

sending the second forwarding entry to the third node, wherein the second forwarding entry is used by the third node to configure, without receiving and parsing a multicast forwarding configuration message from the first node, multicast forwarding of packets including the multicast MAC address.

18. The communicating system according to claim 17 , wherein the access loop identifier is an access loop identifier of the first port.

19. The communicating system according to claim 17 , wherein the obtaining an identifier of a first egress port on a second node, according to the access loop identifier associated with the multicast path, comprises:

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier and a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node, the identifier of the first port; or

obtaining, according to the access loop identifier, a pre-stored mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node and a multicast path corresponding to the access loop identifier determined by a pre-stored network topology relationship, the identifier of the first port; or

sending the access loop identifier to a server, wherein a network topology relationship and a mapping relationship between the access loop identifier and port information of each network node are pre-stored in the server; and receive the identifier of the first port fed back by the server.

20. The communicating system according to claim 17 , wherein the multicast control message is an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet or a Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol packet, and

wherein the method further comprises:

sending the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet to a node other than the first node; or

generating a multicast routing protocol packet according to the IGMP packet or the MLD protocol packet and sending the multicast routing protocol packet to a node other than the first node.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (22)