ASBR Merging Forwarding Labels for Route Advertisement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous system border routers (ASBRs) inefficiently manage forwarding labels for advertised routes, leading to excessive label usage and increased processing overhead, as they typically allocate new labels for each route, rather than recognizing and utilizing shared labels within a merging context.
Innovation Solution
An ASBR determines and advertises a merged forwarding label for received routes within a merging context, allowing peer ASBRs to use the same label for packet forwarding, thereby reducing the need for independent label allocation and processing overhead.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an ASBR allocates a new forwarding label for each advertised route, then each route can be uniquely identified and forwarded, but the number of forwarding labels increases excessively and processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple routes that share the same forwarding label requirements into a single aggregated route advertisement. Instead of advertising each route separately with its own label, the ASBR combines them into one advertisement that carries a set of forwarding labels, reducing the total number of labels distributed across the network while maintaining the ability to uniquely identify and forward each route.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes a single forwarding label advertisement serve multiple routes simultaneously. By advertising a set of forwarding labels in one advertisement message, the system achieves multi-functionality where one advertisement performs the work of multiple separate advertisements, reducing processing overhead and label quantity while preserving route-specific forwarding capabilities.
2Adaptability or versatility
If an ASBR allocates a new forwarding label for each advertised route, then each route can be independently managed, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple route management operations into a single processing event. By aggregating routes that share forwarding label characteristics and advertising them together in one message, the ASBR reduces the number of processing cycles required while maintaining the ability to independently manage each route through the included forwarding label set.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary grouping of routes by their forwarding label characteristics before advertisement. This pre-processing step organizes routes into aggregates that can be advertised together, reducing subsequent processing overhead while preserving the flexibility to manage individual routes within each aggregate through the included forwarding label information.
3Quantity of substance
If multiple routes share the same forwarding label, then label quantity is reduced, but route uniqueness must be maintained through additional mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a forwarding label set as an intermediary structure that mediates between the shared forwarding label and the need for route uniqueness. Instead of relying solely on individual forwarding labels or complex route attributes, the system uses a structured set of forwarding labels that collectively provide route identification while maintaining label sharing benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the forwarding label space into multiple labels within a set, where each label in the set corresponds to a specific route. This segmentation allows multiple routes to share the same forwarding label advertisement while maintaining unique identification through their position or identity within the label set, reducing overall label quantity while preserving route uniqueness.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, an autonomous system border router (ASBR) advertises a same forwarding label for received advertised routes of a merging context that were advertised with a same forwarding label for the ASBR to use when sending corresponding packets. An ASBR receives via a routing protocol from a particular router in the same autonomous system, a plurality of same-labeled received routes advertised with a same first forwarding label within a merging context. In response to each of the plurality of same-labeled received routes having the same first forwarding label to use to forward packets to the particular router and being in the same merging context, the ASBR determines a merged forwarding label and advertises to a peer ASBR in another autonomous system (AS) each of the plurality of same-labeled received routes with the merged forwarding label for the peer ASBR to use to forward packets to the ASBR.