Inter-AS Composite Tunnel Attributes for Scalable Anonymous Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inter-autonomous system (AS) routing protocols face challenges in scaling while maintaining anonymity and resource efficiency, particularly in scenarios involving hundreds or thousands of autonomous systems with diverse label allocations.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network device that generates and modifies routes with composite tunnel attributes, including device identifiers and allocated labels, to facilitate routing across multiple ASs, ensuring anonymity and improved scalability by avoiding per-service-label forwarding states.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If per-service-label forwarding states are used for routing across ASs, then routing functionality is achieved, but device complexity and resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the composite tunnel attribute from the routing information and places it in a separate BGP attribute field. This separation allows the routing decision to be made based on simpler parameters while the complex tunnel information is carried separately, reducing the complexity of forwarding state requirements at each node.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite tunnel attribute serves multiple functions simultaneously: it identifies the tunnel endpoint, carries the service label, and provides routing information. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate per-service-label forwarding states, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining routing efficiency.
2Measurement precision
If detailed routing information is exchanged between ASs, then routing accuracy is improved, but loss of information and exposure of internal network topology increases
Solution Approach 1:
The composite tunnel attribute acts as an intermediary that carries routing information in an encoded format. It mediates between the need for accurate routing and the need to protect internal topology by presenting a simplified interface to external ASs while maintaining full routing capability internally.
Solution Approach 2:
Different levels of routing information are provided at different locations in the routing path. Internal ASBRs receive and process detailed routing information locally, while external ASRs receive simplified information through the composite tunnel attribute. This local quality differentiation maintains routing accuracy where needed while protecting information where required.
3Adaptability or versatility
If traditional inter-AS routing protocols are used, then routing functionality is provided, but scalability to hundreds or thousands of ASs is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The routing protocol is segmented into distinct functional components: the composite tunnel attribute handles tunnel identification and label carrying, while the BGP routing attributes handle path selection. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, improving scalability without increasing overall protocol complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter structure of BGP routing attributes by introducing the composite tunnel attribute as a new field. This parameter change enables the protocol to scale to thousands of ASs by providing a more efficient data structure that reduces the information exchange burden while maintaining full routing functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
In some implementations, a network device may receive, from a first other network device, a route that includes a label, a prefix, and a next-hop identifier. The network device may generate, based on receiving the route, a composite tunnel attribute that includes an identifier of the network device and a label allocated by the network device. The network device may modify, based on generating the composite tunnel attribute, the route to cause the composite tunnel attribute to be included in the route. The network device may send, based on modifying the route, the route to a second other network device.