Route Aggregation as a Service for Outage-Resilient Routing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Manual route aggregation in wide area networks is labor-intensive, error-prone, and prone to causing traffic shifts and congestion, failing to consider the dynamic state of the network and leading to potential outages and packet drops.

Innovation Solution

A route aggregation as a service (RaaS) system that aggregates routing tables using common prefixes, generates compact aggregated routing tables, and implements a long-lived stale time (LLST) to ensure resilience during server outages, using mirroring and redundancy to maintain network stability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If manual route aggregation is performed by humans, then routing table size is reduced, but the process becomes labor-intensive and error-prone

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverouting table sizeVSAvoidaggregation process complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automatic route aggregation where the network infrastructure itself performs the aggregation task. The route aggregator component automatically receives routing information from multiple sources, performs aggregation based on configured policies, and distributes aggregated routes back to routing devices without human intervention, making the system self-sufficient for the aggregation function.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of human operators analyzing and aggregating routes with an automated electronic system. The route aggregator uses software-based algorithms to automatically process routing information, apply aggregation policies, and generate aggregated routes, substituting human manual work with computational automation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Adaptability or versatility

If per-device dynamic route aggregation is implemented, then routing flexibility is improved, but consistency across the network deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverouting flexibilityVSAvoidnetwork consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The route aggregator serves multiple functions within a single centralized component: it receives routing information from various sources (BGP, OSPF, static routes), applies universal aggregation policies across all routes, maintains consistent aggregation logic throughout the network, and distributes routes to multiple routing devices. This multi-functionality ensures both flexibility and consistency simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where the route aggregator continuously monitors network routing information, receives updates from routing devices, and dynamically adjusts aggregation policies based on network conditions. This feedback loop ensures that aggregation decisions remain consistent across the network while adapting to changing conditions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Device complexity

If manual aggregation process is used, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but traffic skewing and congestion occur

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaggregation implementation complexityVSAvoidnetwork traffic stability

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The route aggregation system dynamically adjusts aggregation policies based on real-time network conditions. The aggregator monitors traffic patterns, route changes, and network state, automatically modifying aggregation decisions to prevent traffic skewing and congestion. This dynamic behavior maintains simple implementation while ensuring traffic stability through adaptive policy adjustment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

4Quantity of substance

If aggregated routing tables are used, then memory usage is reduced, but resilience during server outage deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvememory usageVSAvoidoutage resilience

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system prepares for potential server outages by implementing cushioning measures: maintaining backup aggregation policies, pre-calculating alternative routing paths, and designing the aggregator with fail-safe mechanisms. These preparatory measures ensure that even if the server fails, the network can maintain aggregated routing functionality using pre-prepared fallback options.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

Data Source

PatentEP4642001A1Route aggregation as a service (RAAS)

Publication Date: 2025.10.29 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

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AI summary

Example solutions for providing route aggregation as a service (RaaS) are disclosed. A RaaS server receives original routing tables from routers in a wide area network (WAN), aggregates the routes by identifying common prefixes, and returns more compact aggregated routing tables to the routers. The routers use the aggregated routing tables to efficiently route data traffic in the WAN. Multiple resiliency approaches are disclosed, in order to prevent the routers from flushing the aggregated routes in the event that the RaaS server experiences an outage and the border gateway protocol (BGP) session between each router and the RaaS server is lost. Example resiliency measures include the use of a long lived stale time (LLST), reaching a length of perhaps weeks, during which the routers continue to use the aggregated routing tables, and the use of mirroring the aggregated routing tables in other RaaS.