Efficient multicast transport across service provider cores is a key requirement for IPTV and VPN multicast services, and Bit Indexed Explicit Replication (BIER) eliminates the need for per-flow state in transit nodes. We validated BIER for basic multicast forwarding and for Inclusive Provider Multicast Service Interface (IPMSI) tunnel establishment. At first, we created a BIER domain and verified the DUTs for the Bit Forwarding Ingress Router (BFIR), Bit Forwarding Egress Router (BFER), and transit roles. We did the test in three rounds.
In round one, Nodes from HPE, Nokia acted as BFIR, BFER, and Transit Roles, and Keysight acted as Multicast Source and Receiver. The BIER tunnel is created from the HPE node to Nokia and vice versa. The Keysight behind Nokia simulated a multicast receiver interested in an (S, G) of (230.1.1.1, 30.67.100.67), which is a multicast source behind an HPE node simulated at Keysight. Multicast data is triggered from the source hit at the HPE node, which acts as BFIR and performs the encapsulation of the multicast packet with a BIER header and sends it to the interested receivers. On receiving the BIER packet on the Nokia node, it performs the decapsulation functionality as it is the BFER node and sends the native multicast packet towards Keysight. The Keysight behind HPE simulated a multicast receiver interested in an (S,G) of (230.2.1.1, 35.68.100.1), which is the multicast source behind the Nokia node simulated at Keysight. Multicast data is triggered from the source hit at the Nokia node, which acts as BFIR and performs the encapsulation of the multicast packet with a BIER header and sends it to the interested receivers. On receiving the BIER packet on the HPE node, it performs the decapsulation functionality as it is the BFER node and sends the native multicast packet towards Keysight. In round 1, one node each from HPE and Nokia performed transit functionality for the BIER multicast streams.
In round two, nodes from HPE and Nokia acted as Transit nodes, and Nodes from Keysight acted as BFIR, BFER, and Multicast Source and Receiver. The multicast packet is encapsulated at the Keysight node, which acts as a BFIR and sends it to both HPE and Nokia, and the BIER packet is delivered to Keysight, which performs decapsulation as it is a BFER.
In round three, nodes from HPE and Nokia served as both Transit and BFIR. The BFER role is taken from Keysight. The multicast packet is encapsulated at Nokia and HPE nodes, and decapsulation happens at Keysight.