CN117061276A

CN117061276A - Multicast address generation method, device, equipment and medium

Info

Publication number: CN117061276A
Application number: CN202210487558.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王巍; 王爱俊; 张雪; 李鑫; 徐洪磊
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-05-06
Filing date: 2022-05-06
Publication date: 2023-11-14

Abstract

The application provides a method, a device, equipment and a medium for generating a multicast address, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user; and generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, so that the BFER sends the BIER message to the VPN user based on the VPN user information in the multicast address after receiving the BIER message carrying the multicast address. According to the embodiment of the application, the BIER message can be accurately sent to a specific VPN user.

Description

Multicast address generation method, device, equipment and medium

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, a device, and a medium for generating a multicast address.

Background

BIER (Bit Index Explicit Replication, explicit replication based on bit index), which is a new type of multicast technology. In BIER technology, forwarding of BIER messages is often implemented by adding a destination address to the BIER message.

At present, BIER messages often cannot be accurately sent to specific VPN (Virtual Private Network ) users.

It should be noted that the information applied in the above background section is only for enhancing understanding of the background of the present application and thus may include information that does not form the prior art that is already known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method, a device, equipment and a medium for generating a multicast address, which at least overcome the problem that BIER messages cannot be sent to specific VPN users due to related technologies to a certain extent.

Other features and advantages of the application will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned by the practice of the application.

According to one aspect of the present application, there is provided a method for generating a multicast address, including:

obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user;

and generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, so that the BFER sends the BIER message to the VPN user based on the VPN user information in the multicast address after receiving the BIER message carrying the multicast address.

In one embodiment, the VPN user information comprises the RD of the VPN user,

generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, comprising:

generating a multicast address carrying RD.

In one embodiment, the multicast address includes a network prefix field,

generating a multicast address carrying RD, comprising:

the network prefix field of the multicast address is configured to be the value of RD.

In one embodiment, the VPN user information includes an intra-group identification of the VPN user, the intra-group identification being used to identify the VPN user within a user group to which the VPN user belongs;

Obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user, including:

acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a VPN user;

based on the IP address, an intra-group identification of the VPN user is determined.

In one embodiment, determining the intra-group identity of the VPN user based on the IP address includes:

in the case that the IP address is an internet protocol version four IPv4 address, the IP address is determined as the intra-group identification.

in the case where the IP address is an internet protocol version six IPv6 address,

acquiring an IP address of a VPN user;

extracting the group identification of the VPN user from the IP address under the condition that the IP address comprises the group identification of the VPN user;

and under the condition that the IP address does not comprise the group identification of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address, and determining a hash value with a preset length as the group identification of the VPN user.

In one embodiment, where the IP address includes a group identification of the VPN user, extracting the group identification of the VPN user from the IP address includes:

in the case where the value of the P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address contains the group identification of the VPN user, the group identification of the VPN user is extracted from the group identification field of the IP address.

In one embodiment, in a case that the IP address does not include the group identifier of the VPN user, performing hash calculation on the IP address, and determining the hash value of the preset length as the intra-group identifier of the VPN user includes:

and under the condition that the value of the P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address does not contain the group identification of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address to obtain a hash value with a preset length.

In one embodiment, the multicast address includes a group identification field;

generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, comprising:

the group identification field of the multicast address is configured to the value of the identification within the group.

In one embodiment, the multicast address further comprises VPN multicast bits;

generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, further comprising:

and configuring a first preset value for VPN multicast bits of the multicast address, wherein the first preset value indicates that VPN user information is carried in the multicast address.

In one embodiment, the multicast address further includes P bits;

a second preset value is configured for the P bits of the multicast address, the second preset value being used to indicate that the multicast address is generated based on the value of the own network prefix field.

In one embodiment, the BIER message is an RH-BIER message.

According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided a multicast address generating apparatus, comprising:

the address acquisition module is used for acquiring VPN user information of the VPN user;

and the address generation module is used for generating a multicast address containing VPN user information so that the BFER sends the BIER message to the VPN user based on the VPN user information in the multicast address after receiving the BIER message carrying the multicast address.

According to still another aspect of the present application, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of generating a multicast address described above via execution of the executable instructions.

According to still another aspect of the present application, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the above-described multicast address generation method.

The method, the device, the equipment and the medium for generating the multicast address can generate the multicast address carrying the VPN user information, so that the BFER can send the BIER message to the corresponding VPN user according to the VPN user information in the multicast address of the BIER message after receiving the BIER message, thereby realizing the accurate sending of the BIER message to the specific VPN user.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the application as claimed.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the application and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the application. It is evident that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application and that other drawings may be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort for a person of ordinary skill in the art.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a BIER network according to one embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a multicast address format in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating another exemplary method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a multicast address generating device according to an embodiment of the present application; and

Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a multicast address generating computer device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Furthermore, the drawings are merely schematic illustrations of the present application and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts, and thus a repetitive description thereof will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the figures are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically separate entities. These functional entities may be implemented in software or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

It should be understood that the various steps recited in the method embodiments of the present application may be performed in a different order and/or performed in parallel. Furthermore, method embodiments may include additional steps and/or omit performing the illustrated steps. The scope of the application is not limited in this respect.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like herein are merely used for distinguishing between different devices, modules, or units and not for limiting the order or interdependence of the functions performed by such devices, modules, or units.

It should be noted that references to "one", "a plurality" and "a plurality" in this disclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than limiting, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that "one or more" is intended to be construed as "one or more" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

BIER, a new type of multicast technology, can forward BIER messages to clients through BIER networks (i.e., BIER domains). Compared with the traditional multicast technology, the technology can encapsulate the set of BFRs (Bit-Forwarding Router, bit forwarding routers) of the multicast message in a Bit String (Bit String) manner to send the message Wen Toubu to the relevant BFR equipment, and the relevant BFR equipment does not sense the multicast group state and only copies the forwarding multicast message according to the Bit String of the message header.

In BIER networks, BIER messages may be delivered to the VPN network in a unicast manner or a multicast manner.

In a related art adopting a unicast manner, a unicast address of the BIER packet is an address of a next-hop BFR device. After the BIER message is forwarded to a certain BFR device, the BFR device may modify the unicast address of the BIER message to the address of the next hop device, so as to implement propagation of the BIER message.

However, in this manner, the forwarding workload of each BFR device on BIER packets is often large. Moreover, when the address of the VPN user changes, a new VPN user is added, a VPN network is added, or when the BFER (Bit-Forwarding Egress Router, bit forwarding egress router) corresponding to the VPN network changes, the unicast address generation policy of each BFR device in the BIER network needs to be changed, so that the whole process is complicated and the expandability of the BIER network is affected.

Therefore, how to use the multicast mode to transmit BIER message to VPN network becomes a urgent problem to be solved. For example, taking an RH-BIER (Routing Header-Bit Index Explicit Replication, explicit replication based on the bit index of the Routing Header) message, it adopts a BIER information encapsulation scheme of IPv6 only (Internet Protocol Version, internet protocol sixth edition), without considering how to encapsulate VPN user information, which would distinguish the missing message information of the user, so that it cannot distinguish to which VPN user the RH-BIER message is specifically sent.

Thus, there is a need for BIER multicast techniques that can accurately send BIER messages to specific VPN users.

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a method, a device, equipment and a medium for generating a multicast address, which can generate the multicast address carrying the VPN user information of the VPN user, so that after receiving the BIER message, BFER can send the BIER message to the corresponding VPN user according to the VPN user information in the multicast address of the BIER message, thereby realizing the purpose of sending the BIER message to the specific VPN user.

For ease of understanding, the following sections of the present application will first describe the technical terms involved.

(1) VPN, an enterprise private network established over a shared network. There may be multiple VPN users in one VPN network that use VPN network services. Each VPN user can access the VPN network through terminal equipment such as a mobile phone, a computer and the like. It should be noted that, the IP (Internet Protocol, IP) address of each VPN user may be set by the enterprise itself, and may also be referred to as a private network address.

(2) RD (Route Distinguisher, routing identifier) for distinguishing between different VPN users connected to the same BFER. For example, when VPN users need to be distinguished by a VPN network as a dimension, different RDs may be set for different VPN networks. For another example, when it is desired to differentiate users under the same VPN network, such as to isolate communications for people in different parts of the same enterprise, different RDs may be set for different departments of the same VPN network.

In some embodiments, VPN users corresponding to the same RD may be considered as one user group.

(3) BIER message, a message transmitted over a BIER network. Illustratively, when the BIER message enters the BIER network, the original message may be encapsulated according to an encapsulation format of the BIER message, so as to obtain an encapsulated BIER message. And when the BIER message leaves the BIER network, decapsulating the BIER message according to a decapsulation format of the BIER message to obtain a decapsulated BIER message. And sending the unpacked message to the corresponding VPN user by using a router and other devices.

(4) RH-BIER message, namely, a BIER message with RH (Routing Header) as an extension Header.

(5) VRF (Virtual Route Forwarding ) tables, which may be used to implement route isolation and information isolation. Illustratively, conflicts resulting from the same private network address segment for different enterprises may be resolved by placing the same private network address in different VRF tables.

In some embodiments of the application, each BFER may have a local VRF table. In some embodiments, one RD may correspond to one VRF table. In each VRF table, an IP address and a next hop route may be stored correspondingly. Such as if a BFER connected VPN user C1-C3. Wherein, VPN user C1 corresponds to RD1, IP address 1, route information R1 of its next hop; VPN user C2 corresponds to RD1, IP address 2, route information R2 of the next hop; VPN user C3 corresponds to RD2, IP address 2, route information R3 of the next hop. The BFER may have stored thereon VRF table 1 corresponding to RD1 and VRF table 2 corresponding to RD 2. The VRF table 1 records a correspondence between the IP address 1 and the route information R1, and a correspondence between the IP address 2 and the route information R2. The VRF table 2 records the correspondence between the IP address 2 and the route information R3.

Having introduced the technical terms involved in the present application, a specific description will be developed for the BIER network involved in the present application.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture diagram of a BIER network in an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 1, BIER network 10 may include a Bit forwarding ingress router (Bit-Forwarding Ingress Router, BFIR), BFR, and BFER. The solid line in fig. 1 is used to represent a device communication connection implementing two ends, and it should be noted that the communication connection may be a direct communication connection or an indirect communication connection implemented by forwarding through other devices, which is not limited specifically.

For BFIR, it may receive BIER messages for BIER network 10. Illustratively, the BFIR may also have a function of encapsulating BIER messages, which may encapsulate BIER headers of received BIER messages, resulting in encapsulated BIER messages.

For BFR, it may be other BFR devices in the BIER network than BFIR and BFER, which may have forwarding functions for BIER messages.

For BFER, it may establish communication relationships with multiple VPN users. The method can forward the BIER message out of the BIER network, and reach corresponding VPN users after routing. Illustratively, the BFER may further have a function of decapsulating the BIER message, which may strip off the header of the message forwarded by the BFR, obtain an original BIER message, and send the original BIER message to the edge router, so as to send the original BIER message to the VPN user through the edge router.

Wherein one BFER may connect multiple VPN users. For example, BFER13 may connect VPN user C1 and VPN user C2. As another example, BFER15 may connect VPN user C1 and VPN user C2. The VPN users connected to the same BFER may be users of the same VPN network or users of different VPN networks, which is not limited in particular.

And the same VPN user may connect under different BFERs. Illustratively, VPN user C1 may correspond to a different branch of the same enterprise, such as VPN user C1 of the beijing head office may be connected under BFER13 and VPN user C1 of the Tianjin branch may be connected under BFER15.

The following describes a transmission manner of the BIER message in conjunction with fig. 1.

After the BIER message enters the BIER network 10 through the BFIR11, the BFIR11 may add a BIER header to the BIER message, to obtain an encapsulated BIER message. Wherein the BIER header may include a bit string, wherein BFR12, BFR14, BFER13, and BFER15 each correspond to one bit on the bit string. When a message needs to be forwarded to a certain device, the bit value of the bit corresponding to the device is set to be 1.

If the bit values of the bits on the bit strings are 1, BFIR11 forwards the encapsulated BIER message to BFIR 12 and BFIR 14 according to the bit string, and BFIR 12, BFIR 14, BFIR 13 and BFIR 15 are both 1. After BFR12 and BFR14 receive the encapsulated BIER messages, the encapsulated BIER messages may be forwarded to BFER13 and BFER15 in accordance with the bit string. After the BFER13 and the BFER15 receive the encapsulated BIER message, the header of the received BIER message may be stripped to obtain the original BIER message. And then distributing the BIER message to the corresponding VPN user.

Having introduced the BIER network to which the embodiments of the present application relate, the multicast address of the embodiments of the present application will be described.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic format of a multicast address in an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 2, the multicast address may be in an IPv6 address format, and may be 128 bits in length. The multicast address format may include an upper octet field, a flag (ff 1) field, a field (crop) field, a ff2 field, an RIID (Rendezvous Point Interface Identity, interface identifier of the convergence point address) field, a plen field, a network prefix (network prefix) field, and a group ID field.

For the upper octet field, its length may be 8 bits. Illustratively, it is indicated as an IPv6 multicast address when its value is set to 1111111.

For the flag field, its length may be 4 bits. The flag field may include V (Virtual Private Network Multicast Bit, virtual private network multicast) bit, R bit, P (Prefix) bit, and T bit, among others.

In some embodiments, the embodiments of the present application may use V bits to indicate whether the multicast address carries VPN user information.

In one example, the VPN user information may include an RD of the VPN user. Correspondingly, if the multicast address carries RD, the V bit can be set to 1; if the multicast address does not carry RD, the V bit may be set to 0.

In another example, the VPN user information may include an RD of the VPN user and an intra-group identification of the VPN user. Then the V bit may be set to 1 when the multicast address carries RD information and an intra-group identifier; if the multicast address does not carry RD and/or intra-group identification, the V bit may be set to 0.

In some embodiments, embodiments of the present application may also use the P bit to indicate whether the multicast address is generated based on the value of the own network prefix field. In one example, if the P bit is set to 0, it indicates that the multicast address is not generated based on the value of the own network prefix field. Accordingly, if the P position is set to 1, it indicates that the multicast address is generated based on the value of the own network prefix field.

In a specific example, if the multicast address in the embodiment of the present application carries VPN user information, the V bit and the P bit may be set to 1.

For the field, the application range for representing the multicast group may be 4 bits in length.

For the ff2 field, a field is reserved, which may be 4 bits in length.

For the RIID field, it represents an interface ID (Identity) of an RP (Rendezvous Point) address, and its length may be 4 bits.

For the plen field, it represents the effective length of the RP address prefix, which may be 8 bits in length.

For the network prefix field, its length may be 64 bits. In some embodiments of the present application, the RD of the VPN user may be carried in the network prefix field. I.e. put the RD of the VPN user into the network prefix field.

For the group identification field, its length may be 32 bits.

In some embodiments of the present application, the group identification field may carry an intra-group identification of the VPN user. Wherein the intra-group identification of the VPN user is used to uniquely identify the VPN user within the user group to which the VPN user belongs.

In one embodiment, if the IP address of the VPN user is an IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version, fourth version of internet protocol) address, the group identifier may be the IPv4 address of the VPN user. Since the length of the IPv4 address is 32 bits and the VPN user can be uniquely identified in the VPN network to which the VPN user belongs, the IPv4 address of the VPN user can be directly used as the intra-group identification.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the group identifier may be a character string having a length of 32 bits and having a correspondence with the IPv4 address, which is not limited specifically.

In another embodiment, if the IP address of the VPN user is an IPv6 address, the group identifier may be a predetermined length string corresponding to the IPv6 address. The predetermined length string may be a string with a length of 32 bits.

In one example, the group identification of the VPN user may be a group ID (group identification) of the VPN user. It should be noted that, because the group ID of the VPN user may be preset, the group ID is used as the group identifier, so that the calculation of the group identifier and the establishment of the correspondence between the IPv6 address and the group identifier are not required, thereby improving the efficiency of generating the multicast address.

In another example, the intra-group identification of the VPN user may be a string of 32 bits in length, hashed using the IPv6 address of the VPN user. It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the hash algorithm.

In yet another example, the intra-group identifier of the VPN user may be a string of 32 bits in length calculated for the IPv6 address of the VPN user using one or more of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and operation, or operation, non-operation, binary translation, and the like.

Note that the group identifier may be a character string having a length of 32 bits and having a correspondence with the IPv6 address, which is not particularly limited.

After describing the format of the multicast address, the method for generating the multicast address provided by the embodiment of the present application is described next.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method may be performed by any device having a function of generating a multicast address. For example, it may be performed by BFER, or BFIR.

As shown in fig. 3, the method for generating a multicast address according to the embodiment of the present application includes the following steps S310 and S320.

S310, VPN user information of the VPN user is obtained.

For VPN users, they may be VPN users that need to determine or change their multicast address. Illustratively, there may be one or more users that need to establish a multicast address. Still another example could be VPN users whose group of users they belong to changes, or whose IP addresses within the group change. The embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited thereto.

For VPN user information, it is used to distinguish between different VPN users.

In some embodiments, VPN user information may include information to distinguish between different user groups. The VPN user information may include RD, for example. The specific content of RD may be referred to the relevant descriptions of the above parts of the embodiments of the present application, and will not be repeated here.

In other embodiments, VPN user information may include information that distinguishes between different user groups, as well as between different VPN users within the same user group. The VPN user information may include, for example, an identification within the group of RD and VPN users. The specific content of the group identifier may be referred to the related description of the foregoing part of the embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

It should be noted that the VPN user information may also include other information for distinguishing different user groups, or information for distinguishing different VPN users within the same user group, which is not limited in particular.

For the embodiment of S310, the following is described.

In some embodiments, where the VPN user information includes an RD, S310 includes obtaining the RD of the VPN user.

This will be explained below with BFER and BFIR as execution subjects, respectively.

In one example, taking the implementation principal as BFER as an example, BFER may obtain the RD of the VPN user from a local VRF table.

Illustratively, if the BFER includes VRF table 1 corresponding to RD1, VFR table 2 corresponding to RD2. The VRF table 1 records information of VPN user C1 and VPN user C2. VRF table 2 records information of VPN user C3. BFER may obtain RD1 of VPN user C1 and RD1 of VPN user C2 via VRF table 1. And, BFER may obtain RD2 of VPN user C3 through VRF table 2.

In another example, taking the implementation body as BFIR as an example, the BFIR may determine a receiving interface of the BIER message, and determine an RD corresponding to the interface as an RD of the VPN user to be received.

Illustratively, the BFIR may receive multicast messages of different RDs over different interfaces. For example, if a multicast message needs to be transmitted to a VPN user corresponding to RD1, the multicast message needs to be received through interface 1. If the multicast message needs to be transmitted to the VPN user corresponding to the RD2, the multicast message needs to be received through the interface 2.

In other embodiments, where the VPN user information includes an intra-group identification of VPN users, S310 may include steps A1 and A2 described below.

And step A1, obtaining the IP address of the VPN user.

In one example, where the executing body is a BFER, the BFER may determine the IP address of the VPN user from its own stored VRF table.

In another example, in the case where the execution body is BFIR, the BFIR may obtain the IP address of the VPN user in a field where the destination address of the received BIER message that needs to be sent to the VPN user is located.

And step A2, determining the intra-group identification of the VPN user based on the IP address.

In one example, if the IP address is an IPv4 address, the IPv4 address may be determined as the intra-group identification.

In another example, if the IP address is an IPv6 address, step A2 may include steps a21 and a22 described below.

Step A21, determining a character string with a preset length corresponding to the IP address. Illustratively, the length of the preset length string may be the same as the length of the field in which the group identifier is located. For example, if the length of the predetermined length string may be 32 bits.

Illustratively, the preset length string may be a group ID of the VPN user.

Accordingly, step a21 may include steps a211 and a212 described below.

Step A211, the IP address of the VPN user is obtained.

Step a212, extracting the group identifier of the VPN user from the IP address in case the IP address includes the group identifier of the VPN user.

In a specific example, step a212 may include: in the case that the bit value of the P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address contains the group identification of the VPN user, the group identification of the VPN user is extracted from the group identification field of the IP address.

For example, when the value of the P bit is 1, it indicates that the IP address includes the group identification of the VPN user.

For example, the value of the group identification field of the IP address may be used as the value of the group identification of the VPN user.

Still another example, the predetermined length string may be a predetermined length string calculated using an IPv6 address hash of the VPN user. For example, a character string of 32 bits in length.

Accordingly, step a21 may include step a213 and step a214 described below.

Step A213, the IP address of the VPN user is obtained.

Step A214, in the case that the IP address does not include the group identifier of the VPN user, performing hash calculation on the IP address to obtain a hash value with a preset length, and determining the hash value with the preset length as the group identifier of the VPN user.

In a specific example, step a214 may include: under the condition that the bit value of the prefix P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address does not contain the group identification of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address to obtain a hash value with a preset length. It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application is not limited to a specific hash algorithm.

For example, when the value of the P bit is 0, it indicates that the IP address does not include the group identification of the VPN user.

Still further exemplary, the predetermined length string may be a string of 32 bits in length calculated for the IPv6 address using one or more of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and operation, or operation, non-operation, binary conversion, and the like.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, specific content of the preset length string may be referred to the related description of the foregoing parts of the embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated herein.

And step A22, determining the character string with the preset length as the intra-group identifier.

And S320, generating a multicast address containing VPN user information, so that after BFER receives the BIER message carrying the multicast address, the BIER message is sent to the VPN user based on the VNP user information in the multicast address.

For BIER messages, in some embodiments, the BIER message is an RH-BIER message. It should be noted that the BIER message may also be other BIER messages.

In some embodiments, BIER messages transmitted in the BIER domain may include a BIER header and an original BIER message. Wherein the BIER header may be referred to as an outer header.

Illustratively, the BIER header may include a multicast address, a source address, a bit string. Wherein the multicast address may also be referred to as destination address.

After the BIER message is introduced, an embodiment of step S320 will be described next.

In some embodiments, step S320 includes step B1 in the case that the VPN user information includes an RD of the VPN user.

And B1, generating a multicast address carrying the RD. So that the BFER may determine a VRF table corresponding to the RD based on the RD in the multicast address, and then determine a next hop route of the BIER packet according to the destination address in the BIER packet in the VRF table corresponding to the RD, for example, a router address of the next hop or an interface address of the next hop, so as to send the BFER packet to the corresponding VPN user.

Since the IP addresses of VPN users in each VPN network are often self-customized by the enterprise, there is a possibility that different VPN networks have the same IP address. The existing BIER multicast technology cannot accurately send BIER messages to corresponding VPN users. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the application, RD is taken as VPN user information, and different VPN networks are configured with different RD, so that specific VPN users can be accurately identified by utilizing the RD information.

In one example, step B1 may include: the network prefix field of the multicast address is configured to be the value of RD. That is, the RD of the VPN user is written into the network prefix field in the multicast address. It should be noted that, the relevant content of the network prefix field may be referred to the relevant description of the above portion of the embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated.

In other embodiments, step S320 includes step B2 in the case that the VPN user information includes an RD of the VPN user and an intra-group identification of the VPN user.

And step B2, generating a multicast address containing the RD of the VPN user and the identification in the group.

In one example, step B2 includes: the group identification field of the multicast address is configured to the value of the identification within the group. I.e. the group identification field where the group identification of the VPN user is written to the multicast address.

It should be noted that, since the RDs of different user groups are different and the intra-group identities of VPN users in the same user group, when the multicast address includes the RD of the VPN user and the intra-group identity of the VPN user, the multicast address may uniquely represent the VPN user.

In addition, the multicast address is kept unchanged in the transmission process of the BIER domain, so that the VPN user can be globally and uniquely identified.

In some embodiments, the multicast address further includes a V bit, where the V bit is used to indicate whether the multicast address carries an RD.

Accordingly, S320 may further include step B3.

And B3, configuring a first preset value for the V bit of the multicast address. The first preset value indicates that the multicast address carries VPN user information. Illustratively, the first preset value may be 1.

It should be noted that, the relevant content of the V-bit segment may be referred to the relevant description of the above portion of the embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated.

By setting the V bit, when the BFER receives the BIER message carrying the multicast address, a proper message processing mode can be selected according to the V bit in the multicast address. For example, when the V bit is set to a first preset value, for example, 1, the BIER message may be unpackaged into a multicast address and a unpackaged BIER message, so as to continue processing according to the RD in the multicast address. When the V bit is set to a third preset value, for example, 0, the BIER message header of the BIER message can be directly stripped, and the subsequent forwarding processing is performed on the BIER message according to the inner layer message header information. The third preset value indicates that the multicast address does not carry VPN user information.

In other embodiments, the multicast address further includes a P bit for indicating whether the multicast address is generated based on the value of the own network prefix field.

Accordingly, S320 may further include step B4.

And step B4, configuring a second preset value for the P bit of the multicast address. The second preset value is used for indicating that the multicast address is generated based on the value of the network prefix field. Illustratively, the second preset value may be 1.

It should be noted that, the related content of the P bit may be referred to the related description of the above portion of the embodiment of the present application, which is not repeated.

By setting the P bit, BFER can check whether the BIER message is wrong according to the V bit and the P bit when receiving the BIER message carrying the multicast address. For example, if the value of the V bit is the first preset value and the value of the P bit is the fourth preset value, for example, the value of the V bit is 1 and the value of the P bit is 0, it is determined that the BIER message is in error, and the BIER message may be discarded by the BFER. Wherein the fourth preset value indicates that the multicast address is not generated based on the value of the own network prefix field.

And, still another exemplary embodiment, if the value of the V bit of the BIER packet is a first preset value and the value of the P bit is a second preset value, for example, the value of the V bit is 1 and the value of the P bit is 1, the BFER may decapsulate the BIER packet to obtain a BIER header containing the multicast address and the decapsulated BIER packet, and forward the BIER packet to the VPN user corresponding to the RD according to the RD of the multicast address in the BIER header.

The method for generating the multicast address provided by the embodiment of the application can generate the multicast address carrying the VPN user information, so that the BFER can send the BIER message to the corresponding VPN user according to the VPN user information in the multicast address of the BIER message after receiving the BIER message, thereby realizing the accurate sending of the BIER message to the specific VPN user.

In some embodiments, if the execution body is BFER, the method for generating a multicast address further includes: and sending the multicast address to the BFIR for the BFIR to establish the corresponding relation between the user data and the multicast address. For example, the correspondence may be a correspondence table.

In one example, the correspondence table between the user data of the VPN user and the multicast address may be as shown in table 1 below. The VPN user information may include an RD of the VPN user and a destination address of the VPN user, for example, may be an IP address of the VPN user. Illustratively, the RD of the VPN user and the destination address of the VPN user may be a tuple (RD, destination address).

TABLE 1

Multicast address	(RD, destination Address)
		END.MVPN1	(RD 1, address A)
END.MVPN2	(RD 2, address B)
		……	……

In one example, after receiving a BIER message sent by a multicast source, the BFIR may determine an RD and a destination address corresponding to the BIER message, and then determine, according to the RD and the destination address, a corresponding multicast address using the correspondence table. Illustratively, the RD corresponding to the receiving interface of the BIER message may be determined as the RD of the VPN user. The receiving interface may also be referred to as a source interface of the multicast message.

According to the embodiment, the BFIR correspondingly stores the multicast address and VPN user information sent by the BFIR, so that the multicast address which can be identified by the BFIR can be directly searched through the corresponding relation table when the message is generated, and the reliability of multicast communication is ensured.

After the method for generating the multicast address provided by the embodiment of the present application is initially described, a method for generating the multicast address provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described by way of 2 examples.

Fig. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application. The method may be performed by BFER. Embodiments of the present application may be combined with each of the alternatives in one or more of the embodiments described above.

As shown in fig. 4, the method for generating a multicast address according to the embodiment of the present application includes the following steps S410 to S450.

S410, obtaining RD and IPv4 addresses of VPN users from the VRF table.

Wherein, S410 is similar to S310, and reference may be made to the specific content of S310, which is not described herein.

S420, writing RD of VPN user into network prefix field of multicast address.

Wherein, S420 is similar to S320, and the specific content of S320 will be referred to herein and will not be described in detail.

And S430, writing the IPv4 address into a group identification field of the multicast address.

Wherein, S430 is similar to S320, and reference may be made to the specific content of S320, which is not described herein.

S440, setting the V bit and the P bit of the multicast address as 1 to obtain the multicast address end.MVPN of the VPN user.

Wherein, S440 is similar to S320, and the specific content of S420 will be referred to herein and will not be described in detail.

And S450, transmitting the multicast address end.MVPN to BFIR.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart illustrating another exemplary method for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application. The method may be performed by BFER. Embodiments of the present application may be combined with each of the alternatives in one or more of the embodiments described above.

As shown in fig. 5, the method for generating a multicast address according to the embodiment of the present application includes the following steps S510 to S560.

S510, BFER acquires RD and IPv6 addresses of VPN users from the VRF table.

Wherein, S510 is similar to S310, and reference may be made to the specific content of S310, which is not described herein.

S520, writing RD of VPN user into network prefix field of multicast address.

Wherein, S520 is similar to S320, reference may be made to the specific content of S320, and the description thereof will not be repeated here.

S530, generating the intra-group identification according to the IPv6 address.

Wherein, S530 is similar to S320, and the specific content of S320 will be referred to herein and will not be described in detail.

S540, writing the group identification into the group identification field of the multicast address.

S550, setting the V bit and the P bit of the multicast address as 1 to obtain the multicast address end.MVPN of the VPN user.

Wherein, S550 is similar to S320, and the specific content of S320 will be referred to herein and will not be described again.

S560, the multicast address end.mvpn is sent to BFIR.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the application also provides a device for generating the multicast address, as follows.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a device for generating a multicast address according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 6, the device 600 for generating a multicast address includes:

an information obtaining module 610, configured to obtain VPN user information of a VPN user;

the address generating module 620 is configured to generate a multicast address containing VPN user information, so that, after receiving a BIER-making message carrying the multicast address, the BFER sends the BIER message to the VPN user based on VPN user information in the multicast address.

In some embodiments, the VPN user information comprises an RD of the VPN user,

the address generation module 620 is configured to: generating a multicast address carrying RD.

In some embodiments, the multicast address includes a network prefix field,

the address generation module 620 is configured to: the network prefix field of the multicast address is configured to be the value of RD.

In some embodiments, the VPN user information includes an intra-group identification of the VPN user, the intra-group identification being used to identify the VPN user within a user group to which the VPN user belongs;

the information acquisition module 610 includes an address acquisition unit and an identification determination unit.

An address obtaining unit, configured to obtain an internet protocol IP address of a VPN user;

and the identification determining unit is used for determining the intra-group identification of the VPN user based on the IP address.

In some embodiments, the identity determination unit comprises a first identity determination subunit.

And the first identification determining subunit is used for determining the IP address as the intra-group identification in the case that the IP address is the IPv4 address.

In some embodiments, the identity determination unit comprises a first processing subunit and a second identity determination subunit.

A first processing subunit, configured to, in a case where the IP address is an IPv6 address,

acquiring an IP address of a VPN user;

In one embodiment, the first processing subunit is specifically configured to:

Under the condition that the IP address does not comprise the group identification of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address to obtain a hash value with a preset length, wherein the hash value comprises the following steps:

and under the condition that the value of the P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address does not contain the group identification of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address to obtain a hash value with a preset length. In some embodiments, the multicast address includes a group identification field;

the address generation module 620 is further configured to: the group identification field of the multicast address is configured to the value of the identification within the group.

In some embodiments, the multicast address further includes a V bit;

the address generation module 620 is further configured to: and configuring a first preset value for the V bit of the multicast address, wherein the first preset value represents that the multicast address carries VPN user information.

In some embodiments, the multicast address further includes P bits;

the address generation module 620 is further configured to: a second preset value is configured for the P bits of the multicast address, the second preset value being used to indicate that the multicast address is generated based on the value of the own network prefix field.

In some embodiments, the BIER message is an RH-BIER message.

The device for generating the multicast address provided by the embodiment of the application can generate the multicast address carrying the VPN user information, so that the BFER can send the BIER message to the corresponding VPN user according to the VPN user information in the multicast address of the BIER message after receiving the BIER message, thereby realizing the accurate sending of the BIER message to the specific VPN user.

It should be noted that, the data transmission apparatus 600 shown in fig. 6 may perform the steps in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 5, and implement the processes and effects in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 5, which are not described herein.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various aspects of the application may be implemented as a system, method, or program product. Accordingly, aspects of the application may be embodied in the following forms, namely: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects may be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

An electronic device 700 according to this embodiment of the application is described below with reference to fig. 7. The electronic device 700 shown in fig. 7 is merely an example, and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of embodiments of the present application.

As shown in fig. 7, the electronic device 700 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 700 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 710, the at least one memory unit 720, and a bus 730 connecting the different system components, including the memory unit 720 and the processing unit 710.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 710 such that the processing unit 710 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present application described in the above-described "exemplary methods" section of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 710 may perform the following steps of the method embodiment described above:

obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user;

The memory unit 720 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 7201 and/or cache memory 7202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 7203.

The storage unit 720 may also include a program/utility 7204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 7205, such program modules 7205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 730 may be a bus representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 700 may also communicate with one or more external devices 740 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 700, and/or any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 700 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 750.

Also, electronic device 700 may communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN) and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 760.

As shown in fig. 7, network adapter 760 communicates with other modules of electronic device 700 over bus 730.

It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with electronic device 700, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present application may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present application.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present application, a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium, is also provided. On which a program product is stored which enables the above-mentioned method of the application to be carried out.

In some possible embodiments, the aspects of the application may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the application as described in the "exemplary method" section of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium in the present application may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In the present application, a computer readable storage medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, with readable program code embodied therein.

Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

In some examples, program code embodied on a computer readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In particular implementations, the program code for carrying out operations of the present application may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages.

The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server.

In the case of remote computing devices, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., connected via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of a device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory.

Indeed, the features and functions of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit in accordance with embodiments of the application. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into a plurality of modules or units to be embodied.

Furthermore, although the steps of the methods of the present application are depicted in the accompanying drawings in a particular order, this is not required to either imply that the steps must be performed in that particular order, or that all of the illustrated steps be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step to perform, and/or one step decomposed into multiple steps to perform, etc.

From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware.

Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present application may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present application.

Other embodiments of the application will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the application disclosed herein.

This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the application following, in general, the principles of the application and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the application pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the application being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for generating a multicast address, comprising:

obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user of a virtual private network;

generating a multicast address containing the VPN user information, so that a bit forwarding egress router BFER sends a BIER message to the VPN user based on the VPN user information in the multicast address after receiving an explicit copy BIER message based on a bit index carrying the multicast address.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the VPN user information comprises a routing identifier RD of the VPN user,

the generating a multicast address containing the VPN user information includes:

generating a multicast address carrying the RD.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the multicast address comprises a network prefix field,

The generating the multicast address carrying the RD includes:

and configuring a network prefix field of the multicast address to be the value of the RD.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the VPN user information comprises an intra-group identification of the VPN user, the intra-group identification being used to identify the VPN user within a user group to which the VPN user belongs;

the obtaining VPN user information of a VPN user includes:

acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the VPN user;

and determining the intra-group identification of the VPN user based on the IP address.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining an intra-group identity of the VPN user based on the IP address comprises:

and determining the IP address as the intra-group identifier in the case that the IP address is the internet protocol version IV IPv4 address.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining an intra-group identity of the VPN user based on the IP address comprises:

acquiring an IP address of a VPN user under the condition that the IP address is an IPv6 address of a sixth version of an Internet protocol;

And under the condition that the IP address does not comprise the group identifier of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address, and determining a hash value with a preset length as the intra-group identifier of the VPN user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein extracting the group identification of the VPN user from the IP address if the IP address includes the group identification of the VPN user comprises:

in the case where the value of the prefix P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address contains the group identity of the VPN user, the group identity of the VPN user is extracted from the group identity field of the IP address.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein, in the case that the IP address does not include the group identifier of the VPN user, performing hash calculation on the IP address, and determining a hash value of a preset length as the intra-group identifier of the VPN user includes:

and under the condition that the value of the P bit of the IP address indicates that the IP address does not contain the group identifier of the VPN user, carrying out hash calculation on the IP address, and determining the hash value with the preset length as the intra-group identifier of the VPN user.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the multicast address comprises a group identification field;

10. The method according to claim 1 or 8, wherein the multicast address further comprises VPN multicast bits;

the generating a multicast address containing the VPN user information further includes:

and configuring a first preset value for the VPN multicast bit of the multicast address, wherein the first preset value indicates that the VPN user information is carried in the multicast address.

11. The method according to claim 3 or 10, wherein the multicast address further comprises a prefix P bit;

and configuring a second preset value for the P bit of the multicast address, wherein the second preset value is used for representing that the multicast address is generated based on the value of the network prefix field.

12. The method according to claims 1-11, wherein the BIER message is a routing header-bit index based explicit replication RH-BIER message.

13. A multicast address generating apparatus, comprising:

And the address generation module is used for generating a multicast address containing the VPN user information so that BFER sends the BIER message to the VPN user based on the VPN user information in the multicast address after receiving the BIER message carrying the multicast address.

14. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of generating a multicast address according to any of claims 1-12 via execution of the executable instructions.

15. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, which when executed by a processor implements the method of generating a multicast address according to any of claims 1-12.