Route Reflector BGP Validation State Distribution
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current BGP mechanisms do not allow route reflectors to announce validation state to all IBGP peers, leading to inefficient prefix origin and path validation processes that require edge routers to maintain security-related state information.
Innovation Solution
Edge routers send a modified update message with a modified origin validation state extended community to route reflectors, which perform prefix origin and path validation and announce the validation state back to all IBGP edge routers, allowing route reflectors to act as central validation authorities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If BGP prefix origin and path validation is performed on edge routers, then validation can be executed at the source, but edge routers must maintain significant security-related state information increasing device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the BGP prefix origin and path validation functionality from edge routers and relocates it to route reflectors. Edge routers send BGP update messages to route reflectors, which then perform the validation computations and return validation results. This extraction removes the burden of maintaining security-related state information from edge routers while preserving validation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The route reflector acts as an intermediary between edge routers and the validation process. Instead of edge routers performing validation directly or each router maintaining independent validation state, the route reflector serves as a centralized mediator that receives BGP updates, performs validation, and distributes validation results to relevant edge routers.
2Device complexity
If BGP prefix origin and path validation is performed on route reflectors, then validation can be centralized, but current BGP mechanisms do not allow route reflectors to announce validation state to all IBGP peers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the functionality of route reflectors to not only perform validation but also to distribute validation states to all IBGP peers. The route reflector is enhanced to encode validation results in BGP path attributes and propagate them throughout the IBGP network, making the validation mechanism universally applicable across all connected edge routers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where route reflectors send validation state information back to edge routers that requested validation. The validation results are communicated through BGP update messages with appropriate path attributes, allowing edge routers to adjust their routing decisions based on the centralized validation outcomes.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, an edge router receives an update message from a neighboring EBGP edge router, creates a modified origin validation state extended community, prepares a modified update message by attaching the modified origin validation state extended community to the update message, and sends the modified update message to a route reflector. The route reflector receives the modified update message, performs a prefix origin validation and a path validation based on the information contained in the modified update message, prepares a validation message based on the prefix origin validation and path validation, and sends the validation message to the edge router and to all other neighboring IBGP edge routers. The edge routers receive the validation message from the route reflector, parse the validation message, and inherit a validation state parsed from the validation message.