Patent · US Active

Multicast VPN support for IP-VPN lite

US8537816B2 · kind B2 · utility

16Cited by
6References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 29, 2010
Grant dateSep 17, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 16, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L45/04
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for providing multicast Virtual Private Network (VPN) support for IP VPN networks, including IP VPN-lite networks. Such techniques provide multicast VPN capability over an IP unicast core network by creating a multicast service VLAN and IP interface, which is used for multicast control traffic exchange between VPN instances. Multicast VPN data traffic is then carried over unicast IP-in-IP tunnels. A given ingress Provide Edge (PE) replicates the multicast traffic for all receiving egress PEs, and adds control information so that the multicast traffic appears as unicast traffic to the Core network. With such a technique, a given Core network only needs to run an IP unicast that is free of VPN unicast or multicast route or tree information.

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