US Patent 11381500 Efficient multicast traffic forwarding in EVPN-based multi-homed networks

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to assisting forwarding of multicast traffic over Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) from a multicast source to a host multi-homed to multiple provider edge (PE) devices. Embodiments are based on the inclusion of an Ethernet Segment Identification (ESI) to EVPN type-6 routes advertised by PE devices which received a multicast Join message. Other PE devices receiving such routes are able to determine whether they belong to the ES identified by the ESI and to determine whether they are designated forwarders (DFs) for the host. Furthermore, PE devices which are the DFs are configured to re-originate the EVPN type-6 routes, i.e. re-send the advertisements, indicating themselves as DFs. This ensures that a remote PE device associated with the multicast source will also send multicast traffic to such DF PE devices, which, in turn, would allow the multicast traffic to successfully reach the host.