Granted Patent B2

US 12,542,690 · App. 18/022,378 · Granted Feb 3, 2026

Inventors: Xiaolong Zhu (Shenzhen, CN); Zheng Zhang (Shenzhen, CN); Jun Feng (Shenzhen, CN); Yong Chen (Shenzhen, CN); Rusheng Ma (Shenzhen, CN)

Assignee: ZTE CORPORATION

H04L12/1886H04L45/72H04L45/745H04L2212/00

Abstract

Claims (45)

1 . A method for processing a message header, comprising:

processing fields in an IPv6 message header according to fields in a Bit Indexed Explicit Replication (BIER) message header by using at least one of the following manners:

taking the BIER message header as a type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header, and processing a Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header according to a predefined manner;

taking the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header, and processing the Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header according to the predefined manner, and taking the BIER message header as a type of other extension headers of the IPv6 message header, wherein the type of the other extension headers include an option as a Hop-by-Hop extension header;

filling a Bit-Forwarding Router Prefix (BFR-Prefix) of the BIER message header in a Source Address (SA) field of the IPv6 message header; and

embedding a Bit Index Forwarding Table Index (BIFT-ID) field in the BIER message header into a target field of the IPv6 message header (S 202 );

wherein processing the Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header according to the predefined manner at least comprises one of:

setting the Segments Left field as a target value, in order to make all nodes ignore processing on the Segments Left field;

setting a Segments Left field value of a Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR) as 255, when an intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, performing a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that a loop occurs in a message forwarding process;

setting, by the BFIR, a Segments Left field value of an ingress node as a maximum hop count of reaching an edge device, when an intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, performing a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that a loop occurs in the message forwarding process;

setting the Segments Left field value of the BFIR as 255, when the intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, performing a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when an IPv6 message of which the Segments Left field value is 255 reaches a Bit Forwarding Egress Router (BFER), calculating the number of hops that the IPv6 message passes through according to a current Segments Left field value; and

setting the Segments Left field as a maximum border value of a border to be passed through by the IPv6 message, and when passing through the border, performing a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that the message reaches the maximum border and cannot continue to be forwarded to a next area any more;

wherein before filling a BFR-Prefix of the BIER message header in a SA field of the IPv6 message header, the method further comprises:

advertising and collecting, by a control plane, information of transfer capability of the SA field in the IPv6 message header of all the nodes in cases where a node incapable of guaranteeing the transfer capability of the SA field in the IPv6 message header exists in all the nodes.

2 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 1 , wherein after taking the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header, and processing the Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header according to the predefined manner, the method further comprises:

advertising, by a control plane, support of each node itself for taking the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header.

3 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises:

advertising support of each node itself for taking the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header by using one of the following manners: performing advertisement in a Type-Length-Value (TLV) manner, carrying the support in BIER information in an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) for advertisement, and carrying the support in BIER information in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for advertisement.

4 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 2 , wherein the method further comprises:

performing advertisement in a sub-Type-Length-Value (TLV) or sub-sub-TLV manner when the support of each node itself for taking the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header is set under notification of a BFR-Prefix or a Bit-Forwarding Router Identifier (BFR-ID).

5 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 1 , wherein after filling a BFR-Prefix of the BIER message header in the SA field of the IPv6 message header, the method further comprises:

setting N bits of other unused fields in the IPv6 message header to 1 when it is confirmed that guarantee capability of the SA field in the IPv6 message header is not supported, in order to indicate that the SA of the IPv6 message header needs to be subjected to guarantee processing, where the value of N is not less than 1.

6 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 1 , wherein before embedding the BIFT-ID field in the BIER message header into the target field of the IPv6 message header, the method further comprises:

modifying an address in the IPv6 message, in order to set a routable prefix of the IPv6 message in first target number of bits in the IPv6 message.

7 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 6 , wherein after modifying the address in the IPv6 message, the method further comprises:

embedding the BIFT-ID field into a Destination Address (DA) in the IPv6 message; or

embedding the BIFT-ID field into a Source Address (SA) in the IPv6 message; or

filling the BIFT-ID in a Flow Label field of the IPv6 message header, and not modifying the DA and the SA in the IPv6 message.

8 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:

moving forward a forwarding table entry positioning operation of the BIFT-ID in the BIER message header and performing same in the IPv6 message.

9 . The method for processing a message header according to claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:

representing a FUNCTION field of BIER table entry lookup by a specific bit in the IPv6 message address.

10 . An apparatus for processing a message header, comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory storing instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to:

process fields in an IPv6 message header according to fields in a Bit Indexed Explicit Replication (BIER) message header by using at least one of the following manners: the BIER message header is taken as a type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header, and a Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header is processed according to a predefined manner; take the BIER message header as the type of a Routing extension header of the IPv6 message header, and process the Segments Left field in the IPv6 message header according to the predefined manner, and take the BIER message header as a type of other extension headers of the IPv6 message header, wherein the type of the other extension headers include an option as a Hop-by-Hop extension header; a Bit-Forwarding Router Prefix (BFR-Prefix) of the BIER message header is filled in a Source Address (SA) field of the IPv6 message header; and a Bit Index Forwarding Table Index (BIFT-ID) field in the BIER message header is embedded into a target field of the IPv6 message header;

wherein the instructions further configure the processor to do at least one of the following:

Set the Segments Left field as a target value, in order to make all nodes ignore processing on the Segments Left field;

Set a Segments Left field value of a Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR) as 255, when an intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, perform a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that a loop occurs in a message forwarding process;

Set, by the BFIR, a Segments Left field value of an ingress node as a maximum hop count of reaching an edge device, when an intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, perform a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that a loop occurs in the message forwarding process;

Set the Segments Left field value of the BFIR as 255, when the intermediate node forwards a message hop by hop, perform a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when an IPv6 message of which the Segments Left field value is 255 reaches a Bit Forwarding Egress Router (BFER), calculate the number of hops that the IPv6 message passes through according to a current Segments Left field value; and

Set the Segments Left field as a maximum border value of a border to be passed through by the IPv6 message, and when passing through the border, perform a process of subtracting 1 on the field value, and when the field value is 0, it indicates that the message reaches the maximum border and cannot continue to be forwarded to a next area any more;

wherein before filling a BFR-Prefix of the BIER message header in a SA field of the IPv6 message header, the instructions further configure the processor to:

advertise and collect, by a control plane, information of transfer capability of the SA field in the IPv6 message header of all the nodes in cases where a node incapable of guaranteeing the transfer capability of the SA field in the IPv6 message header exists in all the nodes.

11 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method according to claim 1 are implemented.

12 . An electronic apparatus, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program which is stored on the memory and can be run on the processor, wherein when the processor executes the computer program, the steps of the method according to claim 1 are implemented.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (25)