Supporting BGP based IP-VPN in a routed network

摘要

A new type of Provider Edge (PE) device is used to support BGP-based IP-VPNs. Each VRF instance in a PE device is associated with a dedicated IP address (Service IP address). Each service IP address is dedicated to a VRF in a PE device. The service IP address is distributed by BGP for VPN route association. Customer/VRF IP packets can be sent to a VRF instance in the egress PE device using service IP header encapsulation (with IP Destination Address=Service IP address of egress PE's VRF & IP Source Address=Service IP address of ingress PE's VRF). This obviates the need for explicit tunnels in the core.

主权项

1. Apparatus for providing virtual private network service in a routed network, comprising:
a first edge router comprising:
a plurality of virtual route forwarders including at least one source virtual route forwarder, each virtual route forwarder having a service IP address comprising an IP address which uniquely identifies that virtual route forwarder in the routed network;a protocol engine configured to exchange routes and service IP addresses with a second edge router which has a plurality of virtual route forwarders including at least one destination virtual route forwarder, each virtual route forwarder having a service IP address comprising an IP address which uniquely identifies that virtual route forwarder in the routed network, the exchanged service IP addresses including the service IP addresses associated with the source virtual route forwarder and the destination virtual route forwarder; anda forwarding plane configured to encapsulate a received protocol data unit with a service header, the service header including the service IP address associated with the source virtual route forwarder and the service IP address associated with the destination virtual route forwarder, and to transmit the encapsulated protocol data unit to the destination virtual route forwarder of the second edge router, the routed network routing the encapsulated protocol data unit using the service IP addresses, and without using L2TP, MPLS or a GRE-IP tunnel.