LOOP AVOIDANCE DURING NETWORK CONVERGENCE IN SWITCHED NETWORKS

摘要

Various techniques can be used to avoid loops during network convergence after a topology change such as a failure. For example, a method can involve detecting a failure that disrupts an existing forwarding path between a node and a destination node; calculating at least one updated forwarding path from the node to the destination node; identifying a maximum time for at least a portion of the network to reach a post-convergence state with respect to the failure; until the maximum time has elapsed at the node, explicitly specifying at least a portion of the updated forwarding path in packet headers of any packets being sent from the node to the destination node; and after the maximum time has elapsed at the node, non-explicitly specifying the portion of the updated forwarding path in packet headers of any additional packets being sent from the node to the destination node.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
detecting a topology change within a network, wherein the topology change disrupts an existing forwarding path between the first network node and a destination network node, and wherein the network implements segment routing (SR) protocol to send packets between nodes; calculating new forwarding table information in response to the topology change, wherein the new forwarding table information comprises at least one updated forwarding path from the first network node to the destination network node, and wherein the new forwarding table information is generated according to the SR protocol; identifying a maximum time for at least a portion of the network to reach a post-convergence state with respect to the topology change; until the maximum time has elapsed at the first network node, explicitly specifying at least a portion of the updated forwarding path in packet headers of any packets being sent from the first network node to the destination network node; and after the maximum time has elapsed at the network node, non-explicitly specifying the at least the portion of the updated forwarding path in packet headers of any additional packets being sent from the first network node to the destination network node, wherein the detecting, the calculating, the identifying, and explicitly specifying, and the non-explicitly specifying are performed by the first network node.