Host-router virtual tunnelling and multiple tunnel management

摘要

A virtual tunnel method is described herein which implemented by a host and next hop routers to address a problem that is related to synchronizing active tunnel(s) and active link(s) between the host and next hop routers. Furthermore, a multiple tunnel management method is described herein which implemented by a host to address the problem that is related to synchronizing active tunnel(s) and active link(s) between the host and multiple next hop routers.

主权项

1. A host associated with a plurality of next hop routers, the host comprising:
an input interface; an output interface; a storage device; a tunnel management device arranged to:
send a first integrity check which has a hop limit set to “H” which is indicative of a number of hops so that only the next hop router which has an active host-router link would be able to successfully process the first integrity check, where the next hop router which has the active host-router link and is able to successfully process the first integrity check is an active router;receive a first successful integrity check indication from the active router if the active router has the active host-router link and was able to successfully process the first integrity check;maintain, in the storage device, a table which indicates a result of the first integrity check and in particular which one of the plurality of next hop routers if any is the active router;send a second integrity check which has a hop limit set to “H+1” which is indicative of a number of hops so that all of the next hop routers which have a host-router link would be able to successfully process the second integrity check;receive a second successful integrity check indication from each of the next hop routers which have the host-router link and were able to successfully process the second integrity check;maintain, in the storage device, the table which indicates the result of the first integrity check and in particular which one of the plurality of next hop routers if any is the active router, and a result of the second integrity check and in particular which of the plurality of next hop routers have the host-router link and were able to successfully process the second integrity check; and, wherein the input interface, the output interface, the storage device, and the tunnel management device are components of the host.