Router Redundancy via Synchronized Information Bases
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing routing devices face challenges in implementing redundancy without significant modifications to routing protocols, leading to potential service disruptions during switchover due to imperfect data synchronization.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an active and standby component system within routing devices, where both components maintain synchronized input and output information bases, allowing seamless switchover with minimal disruption by generating a new output information base based on the standby's up-to-date data and comparing it with the active's to send updates only as necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If direct data synchronization between active and redundant processes is implemented, then redundancy reliability is improved, but device complexity and protocol implementation modifications increase
Solution Approach 1:
A synchronization data structure acts as an intermediary between the active and redundant BGP processes. This mediator captures routing data from the active process and makes it available to the redundant process without requiring direct communication or complex protocol modifications. The synchronization data structure includes fields for route information, timestamps, and sequence numbers to ensure proper synchronization.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a copy of the routing data from the active BGP process into a synchronization data structure that the redundant process can access. This copying mechanism allows the redundant process to obtain up-to-date routing information without directly interacting with the active process, thereby maintaining protocol implementation simplicity while ensuring data consistency for failover.
2Reliability
If data synchronization between active and redundant processes is improved, then service disruption during switchover is reduced, but implementation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The redundant BGP process continuously monitors and synchronizes with the active process before any failover event occurs. By maintaining up-to-date routing data in advance through the synchronization data structure, the system ensures that when switchover is needed, the redundant process can immediately take over with minimal service disruption, as all necessary data is already prepared and synchronized.
3Device complexity
If redundant process stands by with minimal resources, then device simplicity is maintained, but data synchronization quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The synchronization data structure serves as a lightweight intermediary that the redundant process can passively monitor and update. This approach allows the redundant process to maintain current routing data without requiring active participation in BGP sessions or complex synchronization protocols, thereby preserving system simplicity while ensuring data synchronization quality through the structured intermediary mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing redundancy between an active component and a standby component in a network router comprises maintaining a first route input information base associated with the active component, synchronizing with the first route information base a second route input information base associated with the standby component, generating a route output information base using the second route input information base, and comparing the generated route output information base, in the event of switchover of the standby component to an active mode, to a synchronized route output information base associated with the standby component which synchronized route output information base reflects routes known to have been shared with one or more peers by the active component prior to the switchover, and sharing and/or withdrawing routes as necessary to reflect any differences between the generated route output information base and the synchronized route output information base.