EVPN signaling using Segment Routing

Abstract

A node in a Segment Routing network includes a plurality of ports and a switching fabric between the plurality of ports, wherein, for an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN)-Virtual Private Local Area Network Service (VPLS), a port is configured to transmit a packet with a plurality of Segment Identifiers (SID) including a destination SID that identifies a destination node of the packet, a service SID that identifies an EVPN Instance (EVI), and a source SID that identifies one of the node and an Ethernet Segment (ES) that includes the node. The port can be further configured to receive a second packet with a second plurality of SIDs, and learn a Media Access Control (MAC) address based on a second service SID and a second source SID, of the second packet.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE[0001]The present disclosure generally relates to networking. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) signaling using Segment Routing.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE[0002]EVPN technology is replacing the legacy Pseudowire (PW) technology for Layer 2 (L2)-Virtual Private LAN (Local Area Network) Service (VPLS) and Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS). EVPN is described, e.g., in RFC 7209, “Requirements for Ethernet VPN (EVPN),” May 2014, RFC 7432, “BGP MPLS-Based Ethernet VPN,” February 2015, and RFC 8365, “A Network Virtualization Overlay Solution Using Ethernet VPN (EVPN),” March 2018, the contents of each are incorporated by reference. EVPN uses Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) signaling to establish the EVPN instance (EVI) with BGP Peers to offer a multipoint-to-multipoint L2 Ethernet service for a given client. EVPN relies on learning the Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present patent relates to a system and method for Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) signaling using Segment Routing. The approach described herein simplifies the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) overhead of the EVPN control plane, especially for MAC address distribution, by using data plane MAC address learning. By utilizing Segment Identifiers (SID) for MAC learning via the data plane, the approach provides fast convergence and scale through conversational learning. Additionally, an anycast SID is utilized to maintain the benefits of Active / Active (A / A) multihoming and multipathing offered by EVPN. Furthermore, the approach maintains auto-discovery and single side provisioning of the service.

Problems solved by technology

While there are benefits to maintain control on what MAC addresses are advertised and processed by the EVPN instance members, the tradeoffs are a longer learning period, scalability concerns (EVI members learn all MAC addresses irrespective of their interest in holding only the MAC addresses their site is interested in communicating with), the reaction is slow related to MAC address movement and network failures, and the like.

That is, control plane MAC learning is much slower than the fast data plane MAC learning available on switching technology today and reacts a lot slower to MAC moves and network failures.

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