Understanding Wildcards to Configure Selective Point-to-Multipoint LSPs for an MBGP MVPN

Selective LSPs are also referred to as selective provider tunnels. Selective provider tunnels carry traffic from some multicast groups in a VPN and extend only to the PE routers that have receivers for these groups. You can configure a selective provider tunnel for group prefixes and source prefixes, or you can use wildcards for the group and source, as described in the Internet draft draft-rekhter-mvpn-wildcard-spmsi-01.txt, Use of Wildcard in S-PMSI Auto-Discovery Routes.

The following sections describe the scenarios and special considerations when you use wildcards for selective provider tunnels.

About S-PMSI

The provider multicast service interface (PMSI) is a BGP tunnel attribute that contains the tunnel ID used by the PE router for transmitting traffic through the core of the provider network. A selective PMSI (S-PMSI) autodiscovery route advertises binding of a given MVPN customer multicast flow to a particular provider tunnel. The S-PMSI autodiscovery route advertised by the ingress PE router contains /32 IPv4 or /128 IPv6 addresses for the customer source and the customer group derived from the source-tree customer multicast route.

Figure 1 shows a simple MVPN topology. The ingress router, PE1, originates the S-PMSI autodiscovery route. The egress routers, PE2 and PE3, have join state as a result of receiving join messages from CE devices that are not shown in the topology. In response to the S-PMSI autodiscovery route advertisement sent by PE1, PE2, and PE3, elect whether or not to join the tunnel based on the join state. The selective provider tunnel configuration is configured in a VRF instance on PE1.

Note:

The MVPN mode configuration (RPT-SPT or SPT-only) is configured on all three PE routers for all VRFs that make up the VPN. If you omit the MVPN mode configuration, the default mode is SPT-only.

Figure 1: Simple MVPN Topology

Scenarios for Using Wildcard S-PMSI

A wildcard S-PMSI has the source or the group (or both the source and the group) field set to the wildcard value of 0.0.0.0/0 and advertises binding of multiple customer multicast flows to a single provider tunnel in a single S-PMSI autodiscovery route.

The scenarios under which you might configure a wildcard S-PMSI are as follows:

When the customer multicast flows are PIM-SM in ASM-mode flows. In this case, a PE router connected to an MVPN customer's site that contains the customer's RP (C-RP) could bind all the customer multicast flows traveling along a customer's RPT tree to a single provider tunnel.
When a PE router is connected to an MVPN customer’s site that contains multiple sources, all sending to the same group.
When the customer multicast flows are PIM-bidirectional flows. In this case, a PE router could bind to a single provider tunnel all the customer multicast flows for the same group that have been originated within the sites of a given MVPN connected to that PE, and advertise such binding in a single S-PMSI autodiscovery route.
When the customer multicast flows are PIM-SM in SSM-mode flows. In this case, a PE router could bind to a single provider tunnel all the customer multicast flows coming from a given source located in a site connected to that PE router.
When you want to carry in the provider tunnel all the customer multicast flows originated within the sites of a given MVPN connected to a given PE router.

Types of Wildcard S-PMSI

The following types of wildcard S-PMSI are supported:

A (*,G) S-PMSI matches all customer multicast routes that have the group address. The customer source address in the customer multicast route can be any address, including 0.0.0.0/0 for shared-tree customer multicast routes. A (*, C-G) S-PMSI autodiscovery route is advertised with the source field set to 0 and the source address length set to 0. The multicast group address for the S-PMSI autodiscovery route is derived from the customer multicast joins.
A (*,*) S-PMSI matches all customer multicast routes. Any customer source address and any customer group address in a customer multicast route can be bound to the (*,*) S-PMSI. The S-PMSI autodiscovery route is advertised with the source address and length set to 0 and the group address and length set 0. The remaining fields in the S-PMSI autodiscovery route follow the same rule as (C-S, C-G) S-PMSI, as described in section 12.1 of the BGP-MVPN draft (draft-ietf-l3vpn-2547bis-mcast-bgp-00.txt).

Differences Between Wildcard S-PMSI and (S,G) S-PMSI

For dynamic provider tunnels, each customer multicast stream is bound to a separate provider tunnel, and each tunnel is advertised by a separate S-PMSI autodiscovery route. For static LSPs, multiple customer multicast flows are bound to a single provider tunnel by having multiple S-PMSI autodiscovery routes advertise the same provider tunnel.

When you configure a wildcard (*,G) or (*,*) S-PMSI, one or more matching customer multicast routes share a single S-PMSI. All customer multicast routes that have a matching source and group address are bound to the same (*,G) or (*,*) S-PMSI and share the same tunnel. The (*,G) or (*,*) S-PMSI is established when the first matching remote customer multicast join message is received in the ingress PE router, and deleted when the last remote customer multicast join is withdrawn from the ingress PE router. Sharing a single S-PMSI autodiscovery route improves control plane scalability.

Wildcard (,) S-PMSI and PIM Dense Mode

For (S,G) and (*,G) S-PMSI autodiscovery routes in PIM dense mode (PIM-DM), all downstream PE routers receive PIM-DM traffic. If a downstream PE router does not have receivers that are interested in the group address, the PE router instantiates prune state and stops receiving traffic from the tunnel.

Now consider what happens for (*,*) S-PMSI autodiscovery routes. If the PIM-DM traffic is not bound by a longer matching (S,G) or (*,G) S-PMSI, it is bound to the (*,*) S-PMSI. As is always true for dense mode, PIM-DM traffic is flooded to downstream PE routers over the provider tunnel regardless of the customer multicast join state. Because there is no group information in the (*,*) S-PMSI autodiscovery route, egress PE routers join a (*,*) S-PMSI tunnel if there is any configuration on the egress PE router indicating interest in PIM-DM traffic.

Interest in PIM-DM traffic is indicated if the egress PE router has one of the following configurations in the VRF instance that corresponds to the instance that imports the S-PMSI autodiscovery route:

At least one interface is configured in dense mode at the [edit routing-instances instance-name protocols pim interface] hierarchy level.
At least one group is configured as a dense-mode group at the [edit routing-instances instance-name protocols pim dense-groups group-address] hierarchy level.

Wildcard (,) S-PMSI and PIM-BSR

For (S,G) and (*,G) S-PMSI autodiscovery routes in PIM bootstrap router (PIM-BSR) mode, an ingress PE router floods the PIM bootstrap message (BSM) packets over the provider tunnel to all egress PE routers. An egress PE router does not join the tunnel unless the message has the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS group. If the message has this group, the egress PE router joins the tunnel, regardless of the join state. The group field in the message determines the presence or absence of the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS address.

Now consider what would happen for (*,*) S-PMSI autodiscovery routes used with PIM-BSR mode. If the PIM BSM packets are not bound by a longer matching (S,G) or (*,G) S-PMSI, they are bound to the (*,*) S-PMSI. As is always true for PIM-BSR, BSM packets are flooded to downstream PE routers over the provider tunnel to the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS destination group. Because there is no group information in the (*,*) S-PMSI autodiscovery route, egress PE routers always join a (*,*) S-PMSI tunnel. Unlike PIM-DM, the egress PE routers might have no configuration suggesting use of PIM-BSR as the RP discovery mechanism in the VRF instance. To prevent all egress PE routers from always joining the (*,*) S-PMSI tunnel, the (*,*) wildcard group configuration must be ignored.

This means that if you configure PIM-BSR, a wildcard-group S-PMSI can be configured for all other group addresses. The (*,*) S-PMSI is not used for PIM-BSR traffic. Either a matching (*,G) or (S,G) S-PMSI (where the group address is the ALL-PIM-ROUTERS group) or an inclusive provider tunnel is needed to transmit data over the provider core. For PIM-BSR, the longest-match lookup is (S,G), (*,G), and the inclusive provider tunnel, in that order. If you do not configure an inclusive tunnel for the routing instance, you must configure a (*,G) or (S,G) selective tunnel. Otherwise, the data is dropped. This is because PIM-BSR functions like PIM-DM, in that traffic is flooded to downstream PE routers over the provider tunnel regardless of the customer multicast join state. However, unlike PIM-DM, the egress PE routers might have no configuration to indicate interest or noninterest in PIM-BSR traffic.

Wildcard Source and the 0.0.0.0/0 Source Prefix

You can configure a 0.0.0.0/0 source prefix and a wildcard source under the same group prefix in a selective provider tunnel. For example, the configuration might look as follows:

The functions of the source 0.0.0.0/0 and wildcard-source configuration statements are different. The 0.0.0.0/0 source prefix only matches (C-S, C-G) customer multicast join messages and triggers (C-S, C-G) S-PMSI autodiscovery routes derived from the customer multicast address. Because all (C-S, C-G) join messages are matched by the 0.0.0.0/0 source prefix in the matching group, the wildcard source S-PMSI is used only for (*,C-G) customer multicast join messages. In the absence of a configured 0.0.0.0/0 source prefix, the wildcard source matches (C-S, C-G) and (*,C-G) customer multicast join messages. In the example, a join message for (10.0.1.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24) is bound to sptnl3. A join message for (*, 203.0.113.0/24) is bound to sptnl2.

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