Branch Route Grouping for Scalable SD-WAN BGP Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing SDWAN architectures face challenges with standard BGP mechanisms, particularly in large networks with processing and memory limitations, leading to difficulties in managing and maintaining accurate routing data and scalability, and current methods fail to efficiently group devices with similar connectivity and routing properties.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network that includes a centralized system for managing and maintaining routing data, using a centralized network controller to group branch devices based on device information and connectivity, reducing electronic communications and computational overhead.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If standard BGP mechanisms are used for routing in large-scale SDWANs, then routing decisions can be made, but processing and memory limitations make it difficult to maintain accurate routing table data and design network changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing computation process by grouping branch devices into categories based on their connectivity characteristics (e.g., hub-and-spoke, peer-to-peer). This segmentation allows the system to compute routes differently for each group, reducing the processing burden on individual devices while maintaining accurate routing table data across the entire network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a centralized controller as an intermediary between branch devices and the routing computation process. This controller collects connectivity information from all branch devices, performs comprehensive route computation, and distributes routing decisions back to the devices. This intermediary approach eliminates the processing and memory limitations of distributed BGP mechanisms while maintaining routing accuracy.
2Ease of operation
If distributed BGP protocols are used, then routing decisions can be made autonomously, but administrative overhead increases and hardware upgrades are continuously required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by automatically grouping branch devices based on their connectivity characteristics without requiring manual configuration. The system autonomously collects connectivity information, determines appropriate groupings, and computes routes accordingly, eliminating the need for continuous hardware upgrades and reducing administrative overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of routing computation from distributed autonomous decision-making to centralized comprehensive computation. This parameter change allows the system to scale effectively without requiring continuous hardware upgrades, as the centralized controller can handle increasing network sizes with appropriate software resources rather than hardware capacity.
3Productivity
If centralized route computation is implemented, then computational efficiency improves and administrative overhead reduces, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex route computation function from individual branch devices and concentrates it in a centralized controller. This extraction improves computational efficiency by performing comprehensive route computation once at the controller level rather than repeatedly at each device, while the controller's specialized processing capability manages the increased system architecture complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a universal centralized controller that handles multiple functions: collecting connectivity information from all branch devices, determining device groupings based on characteristics, computing routes for all groups, and distributing routing decisions. This multi-functionality improves computational efficiency across the entire network while consolidating complexity into a single manageable system component.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are provided for automatically grouping branch devices based on device information (e.g., IPSec tunnel connectivity, etc.). The devices with similar branch gateways which would customarily receive similar route information and/or properties (e.g., AS-PATH, cost, MED, Metric1, Metric2, community/extended community) and/or devices with similar connectivity graphs can be grouped together. This can reduce the number of electronic communications transmitted throughout the network and increase computational efficiency for the controller and devices.