IP Library Granted Patent US 12,452,163
Granted Patent B2
US 12,452,163 · App. 18/002,645 · Granted Oct 21, 2025

Route notifying methods and electronic devices

Inventor: Jinrong Ye (Beijing, CN)
Assignee: NEW H3C TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
H04L45/16H04L45/02H04L45/04H04L45/745
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,452,163
App. No.
18/002,645
Granted
Oct 21, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure provides route notifying methods and electronic devices. In this embodiment, respective ASBRs connected with a second AS in a first AS notify network reachability information (carrying a BIER Path Attribute, where the BIER Path Attribute at least includes BFR IDs of respective BFRs in the first AS) corresponding to a same BFR group prefix to the second AS; when receiving the network reachability information notified by the ASBR in the first AS, the ASBR in the second AS continues to notify a BIER route of the same BFR group prefix in the first AS in the second AS (carrying the BFR IDs of respective BFRs in the first AS).

Claims (51)

1. A route notifying method, the method being performed by a first autonomous system border router (ASBR) in a first autonomous system (AS), wherein the first ASBR and at least one other ASBR in the first AS are connected with a second AS, the first ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are members of a first Bit Forwarding Router (BFR) group, the first ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are configured with a first BFR group prefix in a specified sub-domain (SD), and the first BFR group prefix represents the first BFR group; the method comprises:

collecting BFR identifiers (IDs) of respective BFRs in the first AS; and

notifying a route UPDATE message to the second AS, wherein the UPDATE message carries network layer reachability information (NLRI) and a Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) Path Attribute; the NLRI at least comprises the first BFR group prefix; the BIER Path Attribute at least comprises the collected BFR IDs and a first BFR prefix representing the first ASBR such that at least one ASBR receiving the UPDATE message in the second AS adds a corresponding Bit Index Forwarding Table (BIFT) forwarding entry in a BIFT and notifies a BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix in the second AS; the BIFT forwarding entry at least comprises: a BFR neighbor and a forwarding bit mask (F-BM), the BFR neighbor is indicated by the first BFR prefix, the F-BM at least represents BFR IDs corresponding to respective BFRs reachable via the BFR neighbor, and the BFR IDs represented by the F-BM at least comprise the BFR IDs collected by the first ASBR in the first AS.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the BFRs corresponding to the collected BFR IDs are located in the specified SD; and/or,

respective ASBRs receiving the UPDATE message in the second AS are also located in the specified SD.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein collecting the BFR IDs of respective BFRs in the first AS comprises:

collecting a BFR ID of a BFR deployed as a bit forwarding ingress router (BFIR) in the first AS; and,

collecting a BFR ID of a BFR deployed as a bit forwarding egress router (BFER) in the first AS.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute carries a first TLV; the first TLV at least comprises at least one field pair, and each field pair comprises a BFR ID field and a BFR ID range field which are in corresponding relationship;

the first TLV carries the BFR IDs collected by the first ASBR in the first AS through at least one field pair; wherein in each field pair, a parameter carried in the BFR ID Range field represents a BFR ID segment with continuous values, and the BFR ID field carries a start BFR ID of the BFR ID segment.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute carries a second TLV; the second TLV at least comprises a BFR-Prefix field;

the BFR-Prefix field carries the first BFR prefix.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute further carries a third TLV;

a type field in the third TLV is used to carry a BIER encapsulation type supported by the first ASBR;

the third TLV further comprises a BIER encapsulation information field which is used to carry BIER encapsulation information supported by the first ASBR; and the BIER encapsulation information is used to determine an entry identifier of the BIFT forwarding entry.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute further carries an SD configuration field;

the SD configuration field carries SD configuration information which at least comprises the specified SD and the BFR ID of the first ASBR.

8. A route notifying method, the method being performed by a second autonomous system border router (ASBR) in a second autonomous system (AS), wherein the second ASBR is connected with a first ASBR in a first AS, at least one other ASRB than the second ASBR in the second AS is also connected with the first AS, the second ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are members of a second Bit Forwarding Router (BFR) group, the second ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are configured with a second BFR group prefix in a specified sub-domain (SD), and the second BFR group prefix represents the second BFR group; the method comprises:

receiving a route UPDATE message notified by the first ASBR in the first AS, wherein the UPDATE message at least carries network layer reachability information (NLRI) and a newly-added Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) Path Attribute, the NLRI is a first BFR group prefix, members in a first BFR group corresponding to the first BFR group prefix comprise the first ASBR and at least one other ASBR connected with the second AS in the first AS;

adding a corresponding Bit Index Forwarding Table (BIFT) forwarding entry in a BIFT, wherein the BIFT forwarding entry at least comprises a BFR neighbor and a forwarding bit mask (F-BM), the BFR neighbor is indicated by the first BFR prefix, the F-BM represents BFR IDs corresponding to respective BFRs reachable via the BFR neighbor, and the BFR IDs represented by the F-BM at least comprise the BFR IDs collected by the first ASBR in the first AS and carried in the BIER Path Attribute; and

notifying a BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix in the second AS, such that the BFR in the second AS selects one of a plurality of BIER routes corresponding to the first BFR group prefix as an optimal route based on a route optimization method when receiving the plurality of BIER routes corresponding to the first BFR group prefix.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein notifying the BIER route corresponding to the NLRI carried in the UPDATE message in the second AS comprises:

modifying the first BFR prefix in the BIER Path Attribute into a second BFR prefix representing the second ASBR; and

re-providing the BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix through an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) in the second AS, or, notifying the BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix to a specified BFR in the second AS through an Interior Border Gateway Protocol (IBGP); wherein the BIER route carries the NLRI and the modified BIER Path Attribute.

10. An electronic device, comprising a processor and a machine readable storage medium; wherein

the machine readable storage medium stores machine executable instructions executable by the processor;

the processor is configured to execute the machine executable instructions to implement a route notifying method, the method being performed by a first autonomous system border router (ASBR) in a first autonomous system (AS), wherein the first ASBR and at least one other ASBR in the first AS are connected with a second AS, the first ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are members of a first Bit Forwarding Router (BFR) group, the first ASBR and the at least one other ASBR are configured with a first BFR group prefix in a specified sub-domain (SD), and the first BFR group prefix represents the first BFR group; the method comprises:

collecting BFR identifiers (IDs) of respective BFRs in the first AS; and

notifying a route UPDATE message to the second AS, wherein the UPDATE message carries network layer reachability information (NLRI) and a Bit Index Explicit Replication (BIER) Path Attribute; the NLRI at least comprises the first BFR group prefix; the BIER Path Attribute at least comprises the collected BFR IDs and a first BFR prefix representing the first ASBR such that at least one ASBR receiving the UPDATE message in the second AS adds a corresponding Bit Index Forwarding Table (BIFT) forwarding entry in a BIFT and notifies a BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix in the second AS; the BIFT forwarding entry at least comprises: a BFR neighbor and a forwarding bit mask (F-BM), the BFR neighbor is indicated by the first BFR prefix, the F-BM at least represents BFR IDs corresponding to respective BFRs reachable via the BFR neighbor, and the BFR IDs represented by the F-BM at least comprise the BFR IDs collected by the first ASBR in the first AS.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the BFRs corresponding to the collected BFR IDs are located in the specified SD; and/or,

respective ASBRs receiving the UPDATE message in the second AS are also located in the specified SD.

12. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein when collecting the BFR IDs of respective BFRs in the first AS, the processor is configured to execute the machine executable instructions to:

collect a BFR ID of a BFR deployed as a bit forwarding ingress router (BFIR) in the first AS; and,

collect a BFR ID of a BFR deployed as a bit forwarding egress router (BFER) in the first AS.

13. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute carries a first TLV; the first TLV at least comprises at least one field pair, and each field pair comprises a BFR ID field and a BFR ID range field which are in corresponding relationship;

the first TLV carries the BFR IDs collected by the first ASBR in the first AS through at least one field pair; wherein in each field pair, a parameter carried in the BFR ID Range field represents a BFR ID segment with continuous values, and the BFR ID field carries a start BFR ID of the BFR ID segment.

14. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute carries a second TLV; the second TLV at least comprises a BFR-Prefix field;

the BFR-Prefix field carries the first BFR prefix.

15. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute further carries a third TLV;

a type field in the third TLV is used to carry a BIER encapsulation type supported by the first ASBR;

the third TLV further comprises a BIER encapsulation information field which is used to carry BIER encapsulation information supported by the first ASBR; and the BIER encapsulation information is used to determine an entry identifier of the BIFT forwarding entry.

16. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the BIER Path Attribute further carries an SD configuration field;

the SD configuration field carries SD configuration information which at least comprises the specified SD and the BFR ID of the first ASBR.

17. An electronic device, comprising a processor and a machine readable storage medium; wherein

the machine readable storage medium stores machine executable instructions executable by the processor;

the processor is configured to execute the machine executable instructions to implement the method according to claim 8 .

18. The electronic device according to claim 17 , wherein when notifying the BIER route corresponding to the NLRI carried in the UPDATE message in the second AS, the processor is configured to execute the machine executable instructions to:

modify the first BFR prefix in the BIER Path Attribute into a second BFR prefix representing the second ASBR; and

re-provide the BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix through an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) in the second AS, or, notifying the BIER route corresponding to the first BFR group prefix to a specified BFR in the second AS through an Interior Border Gateway Protocol (IBGP); wherein the BIER route carries the NLRI and the modified BIER Path Attribute.

19. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing several computer instructions, where the computer instructions are executed by a processor to implement the method according to claim 1 .

20. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing several computer instructions, where the computer instructions are executed by a processor to implement the method according to claim 8 .

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 20, 2022
From: YE, JINRONG
To: NEW H3C TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
Reel/Frame 062164/0977 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20240121175A1 · Apr 11, 2024
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