Patent · US Active

Maintaining IGP transparency of VPN routes when BGP is used as a PE-CE protocol

US7865615B2 · kind B2 · utility

13Cited by
7References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 8, 2006
Grant dateJan 4, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 17, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L63/0272
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A technique maintains Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) transparency of Virtual Private Network (VPN) routes when Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is used as a Provider Edge Device (PE) to Customer Edge Device (CE) protocol in a computer network. According to the novel technique, a first CE generates a BGP advertisement to advertise one or more VPN routes of its customer network, the BGP advertisement having one or more transitive IGP attributes for the advertised routes. The first CE sends the BGP advertisement to a first PE, which then propagates the BGP advertisement among devices of a provider network maintaining the transitive IGP attributes. A second PE sends the BGP advertisement to a second CE, along with the transitive IGP attributes. Upon receiving the BGP advertisement, the second CE converts the BGP advertisement and transitive IGP attributes into corresponding IGP advertisements. The second CE may then propagate the IGP advertisements into its customer network as either internal VPN routes or as external routes accordingly.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.