BGP Prefix-Independent Convergence (PIC) Edge for RSVP

BGP PIC Edge for RSVP enables you to implement a solution where a protection path is calculated in advance to provide an alternative forwarding path in case of path failure. With BGP PIC Edge in an MPLS VPN network, IGP failure triggers a repair of the failing entries and causes the Packet Forwarding Engine to use the pre-populated protection path until global convergence has re-resolved the VPN routes. This feature helps to reduce the convergence time taken to repair the remote provider edge (PE) link failure, when compared to the traditional approach of re-resolving each prefix. The convergence time is no longer dependent on the number of prefixes. Earlier, this feature used LDP as the transport protocol, which is now extended to support BGP PIC Edge with RSVP as the transport protocol. When RSVP receives a tunnel down notification at the ingress PE router, it sends a notification to the Packet Forwarding Engine to start making use of the tunnel to the alternate egress PE router. The tunnel route to the alternate egress PE router is calculated and installed in advance.