Patent ID: 9438473
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: exchanging enhanced interior gateway routing protocol (IGP) messages to discover a plurality of routers that are designated as members of a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) ring associated with a ring network in which the routers are interconnected in a ring topology, wherein each of the enhanced IGP messages output by the routers specifies an identifier of the MPLS ring to indicate that the respective router is a member of the MPLS ring and further specifies an index that indicates a position around the MPLS ring for the respective router; responsive to the discovery, establishing, with the plurality of routers, a plurality of ring label switched paths (LSPs) for the MPLS ring, each of the ring LSPs configured to transport MPLS packets around the ring network to a different one of the routers operating as an egress router for the respective ring LSP, wherein each of the ring LSPs comprises a multipoint-to-point (MP2P) LSP for which any of the routers within the ring network can operate as an ingress to source packet traffic into the ring LSP for transport to the respective egress router for the ring LSP; and forwarding network traffic as MPLS packets around the ring network in accordance with the ring LSPs.