G-SID: SRv6 Header Compression Solution
Weiqiang Cheng, Yisong Liu, Wenying Jiang, Geng Zhang, Feng Yang, Tingting Han · 2020
As the key technology of the new generation IP network, Segment Routing IPv6 (SRv6) has gradually become the direction of network evolution of the 5G and cloud networks. While it brings powerful network programming capabilities, due to IPv6's long 128 bits address native SRv6 also introduces some new problems, excessive overhead, low bearing efficiency than IPv4, and hard to migrate without replacing hardware. In order to fix those problems, we proposed a Generalized Segment Identifier (G-SID) header compression solution based on common prefix stitching. In forwarding plane, we created some new ideas, G-SID container, COC flavor, and Segment Identifier (SID) index, and with these new things we further created the solution which support mixed deployment of compressed and uncompressed SRv6 networks elements. And the end, we have also verified function and the interoperability in multi-vendor scenario. All in all, by creating G-SID, we achieve the same overhead as SR-MPLS and retain all the advantages of existing SRv6. By conducting multi-vendor interoperability tests, we lay down solid foundation for the implementation of SRv6 the existing network.