Acknowledgement-based rerouting of multicast traffic

摘要

Various techniques for exchanging control messages in order to gracefully reroute multicast traffic are disclosed. For example, one method involves sending a join message for a multicast group towards a root of a new multicast tree and forwarding multicast traffic, addressed to the multicast group, on a current multicast tree until an acknowledgment corresponding to the join message is received. The new multicast tree can be identified in response to detection of a topology change within the network. Until the acknowledgment is received, multicast traffic that is received via the new multicast tree can be dropped.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving a join message specifying a multicast group, wherein the join message is sent by a first network device, and the join message requests acknowledgment; in response to the receiving the join message, determining whether a multicast tree corresponding to the multicast group already exists; and sending an acknowledgment message to the first network device, in response to a determination that the multicast tree already exists, wherein the acknowledgment message is configured to trigger an update of multicast forwarding information associated with the multicast group maintained by the first network device, and the first network device is configured to inhibit updating the multicast forwarding information until receipt of the acknowledgement message.