BGP VPN Route Refresh via RT-RD Map Lookup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current BGP VPN Route Refresh mechanisms are computationally intensive and inefficient, as they require scanning all VPN routes in local databases to find and send relevant routing information to peers, especially in scenarios with a large number of VPNs and routes, leading to increased CPU usage and network bandwidth consumption.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an RT-RD Map that maps route targets to route distinguishers, allowing BGP peers to access and utilize this mapping table to identify and send only the relevant VPN routes, reducing the need to scan all VPN databases and incorporating a quick lookup cache for faster VPN route refresh.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If BGP peers scan all VPN routes in local databases to find relevant routing information, then complete routing information can be sent to peers, but CPU usage and network bandwidth consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-establishing the RT-RD mapping table that correlates route targets with route distinguishers before the route refresh process. When a BGP peer needs routing information, the system performs a lookup in this pre-built mapping table to immediately identify which VPN routes are relevant, avoiding the need to scan all VPN routes in the database. This preliminary preparation significantly reduces CPU usage and network bandwidth consumption while ensuring complete routing information is sent.
2Loss of energy
If BGP peers track RT information amongst themselves to send only requested routing information, then network bandwidth is reduced, but computational intensity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the RT-RD mapping table - that mediates between BGP peers' routing information requests and the VPN route databases. Instead of BGP peers directly tracking and processing RT information among themselves (which requires high computational intensity), the mapping table serves as an intermediary lookup structure that quickly translates RT requests into specific RD identifiers. This intermediary approach reduces network bandwidth by sending only requested routes while keeping computational intensity low through efficient table lookups rather than complex tracking algorithms.
3Productivity
If BGP peers send only requested routing information for specified RTs, then network efficiency improves, but the mechanism requires complex tracking of RT information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-building the RT-RD mapping table that stores the relationships between route targets and route distinguishers before any route refresh operations occur. This pre-established mapping structure allows BGP peers to send only requested routing information for specified RTs with simple lookup operations, rather than implementing complex real-time tracking mechanisms. The mapping table is prepared in advance, transforming a potentially complex tracking problem into a simple database lookup task, thereby improving network efficiency while reducing mechanism complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is implemented by a network device to optimize the operation of a virtual private network (VPN) route refresh for border gateway protocol (BGP). The method reduces a span of VPN databases to be traversed to perform a route target constraint (RTC) update at the network device. The method includes receiving an RTC add or delete from a BGP peer, looking up each route target (RT) in a route target-route distinguisher (RT-RD) map to get a set of route distinguishers (RDs), and generating a VPN update for each VPN Address Family (AF) and each RD in the RD cache and sending the VPN update to a respective BGP peer.