Patent ID: 8705530
Filing Date: 2014-04-22
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method to aggregate multipoint communication paths, the method comprising: sending, using a processor, an upstream label assignment request to an upstream router in response to receiving a first downstream message for building a first inner multipoint communication path between a root node identified in the first downstream message and a leaf node originating the first downstream message, the first downstream message including an opaque value type set to a first value that is to trigger the sending of the upstream label assignment request; and receiving, using the processor, an upstream-assigned label from the upstream router in response to the upstream label assignment request, the upstream-assigned label to identify the first inner multipoint communication path among a plurality of inner multipoint communication paths conveyed via an outer multipoint communication path aggregating the plurality of inner multipoint communication paths, wherein the first downstream message comprises a downstream-assigned label to identify the first inner multipoint communication path, and the method further comprises: determining whether a label stack included with a packet conveyed via the outer multipoint communication path contains the upstream-assigned label; and when the label stack contains the upstream-assigned label, swapping the upstream-assigned label with the downstream-assigned label to forward the packet to the leaf node.