Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises detecting, by a first provider edge router, a second provider edge router providing reachability to a prescribed destination address prefix via a protected next hop address; allocating, by the first provider edge router, a mirror forwarding table associated with the second provider edge router and identifying a destination used by the second provider edge router for reaching the prescribed destination address prefix; and the first provider edge router sending repair information to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)-free core network router in the core network, the repair information enabling the BGP-free core network router to add a context label and reroute a received data packet to the first provider edge router if the second provider edge router is unavailable, the context label enabling the first provider edge router to identify the destination in the rerouted data packet for delivery to the destination address prefix.

Abstract: An example method for topology aware provisioning in a software-defined network environment is provided and includes receiving, at a provider edge device (PE), access network topology information associated with a customer edge device in a network environment, synthesizing the access network topology information and a local router information associated with the PE into a topology message, and publishing the topology message to a central controller in the network environment. The synthesizing can include aggregating the access network topology information and the local router information, modeling the aggregated information in a representation-independent format and encoding the representation-independent formatted aggregated information in standardized machine-parsable format.

Abstract: An example method for topology aware provisioning in a software-defined network environment is provided and includes receiving, at a provider edge device (PE), access network topology information associated with a customer edge device in a network environment, synthesizing the access network topology information and a local router information associated with the PE into a topology message, and publishing the topology message to a central controller in the network environment. The synthesizing can include aggregating the access network topology information and the local router information, modeling the aggregated information in a representation-independent format and encoding the representation-independent formatted aggregated information in standardized machine-parsable format.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method comprises detecting, by a first provider edge router, a second provider edge router providing reachability to a prescribed destination address prefix via a protected next hop address; allocating, by the first provider edge router, a minor forwarding table associated with the second provider edge router and identifying a destination used by the second provider edge router for reaching the prescribed destination address prefix; and the first provider edge router sending repair information to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)-free core network router in the core network, the repair information enabling the BGP-free core network router to add a context label and reroute a received data packet to the first provider edge router if the second provider edge router is unavailable, the context label enabling the first provider edge router to identify the destination in the rerouted data packet for delivery to the destination address prefix.