Flow entry configuration method, apparatus, and system

• US 10,305,777 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2016
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wen, Bailin, Liu, Fangping, Shen, Weifeng, Liu, Hongkuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Phuc H
• Application Number:
  US15/394,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20170111259A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control

Abstract

A flow entry configuration method, apparatus, and system are disclosed. The method includes: reporting, by a switch, information about a data packet of a first service to a controller, receiving a flow entry delivered by the controller according to the information and a flow table structure, determining a first target service path matching the flow entry of the first service, determining a target hardware flow table according to a preconfigured correspondence between the service path and a hardware flow table of the switch, and configuring a flow entry of the target hardware flow table according to the flow entry of the first service. Therefore, no matter to which controller the switch is connected, the switch can successfully configure, in the hardware flow table, the flow entry used to implement the first service, so as to successfully process the first service, thereby reducing a probability of failure in service processing.

Claims

1. A method performed by a switch in a software defined networking (SDN) system, comprising:

reporting information about a first data packet of a first service to a controller coupled to the switch in the SDN system;

receiving a first flow entry of the first service that is delivered by the controller based on the information about the first data packet and a flow table structure, wherein the flow table structure comprises a plurality of match fields being supported by multiple flow tables and a plurality of actions being supported by the multiple flow tables, and wherein the plurality of match fields comprise a match field of the first service, and the plurality of actions comprise an action for processing data packets of the first service;

configuring the first flow entry into a software flow table of the switch;

acquiring, from the configured software flow table, a plurality of target flow entries associated with the first data packet;

determining, from a plurality of preconfigured service paths, a first target service path corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, wherein match fields of the first target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, and wherein an action of the first target service path for processing the data packets of the first service is indicated by actions of the plurality of target flow entries;

determining a target hardware flow table corresponding to the first target service path from a plurality of hardware flow tables of the switch, wherein the target hardware flow table supports a service associated with the first target service path; and

configuring a flow entry of the target hardware flow table according to the plurality of target flow entries.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the switch communicates with the controller by using an OpenFlow protocol, and the multiple flow tables are OpenFlow flow tables.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the match fields supported by the multiple flow tables are match fields supported by the OpenFlow protocol, and the actions supported by the multiple flow tables are actions supported by the OpenFlow protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the first target service path comprises:

aggregating the plurality of target flow entries to generate a combined flow entry, wherein match field values of the combined flow entry correspond to match field values associated with the ingress port match field and the packet header match field in the plurality of target flow entries, and wherein action values of the combined flow entry correspond to action values in the plurality of target flow entries; and

determining, from the plurality of preconfigured service paths, the first target service path comprising match fields corresponding to the match field values of the combined flow entry and actions corresponding to the action values of the combined flow entry.

5. The method of claim 1,

further comprising:

reporting information about a second data packet of a second service to the controller, wherein the second service is not supported by the hardware flow tables;

receiving a second flow entry of the second service that is delivered by the controller based on the information about the second data packet and the flow table structure, and

configuring the second flow entry of the second service into the software flow table.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

acquiring, from configured the software flow table, a second target flow entry associated with the second data packet;

determining, from the plurality of preconfigured service paths, a second target service path associated with the second target flow entry, wherein match fields of the second target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to match field values of the second target flow entry, and an action of the second target service path for processing data packets of the second service corresponds to an action indicated by the second target flow entry;

configuring, based on the second target flow entry, a service flow entry of a service flow table corresponding to the second target service path, wherein match fields of the service flow table comprise match fields of the second target service path, and wherein an action value in the service flow entry corresponds to the action value in the second target flow entry; and

processing the second data packet according to an action in the configured service flow entry of the service flow table corresponding to the second target service path.

7. The method according to claim 1, before the determining the target hardware flow table, further comprising:

configuring a physical flow table and a correspondence between the physical flow table and the target hardware flow table, wherein a match field of the physical flow table is comprised in match fields of the target hardware flow table, and wherein an action of the physical flow table is comprised in actions of the target hardware flow table; and

configuring a correspondence between the first target service path and the physical flow table, wherein a match field of the service path is comprised in match fields of the physical flow table, and an action of the first target service path is comprised in actions of the physical flow table; and

wherein the determining the target hardware flow table comprises;

determining the physical flow table based on the correspondence between the first target service path and the physical flow table; and

determining the target hardware flow table based on the correspondence between the physical flow table and the target hardware flow table.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting the flow table structure to the controller before the reporting the information about the first data packet.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first flow entry is generated by the controller based on one or more match fields of the flow table structure.

10. A switch, comprising:

a hardware forwarding chip configured to forward a data packet a communications apparatus

coupled to the hardware forwarding chip and configured to;

report information about a first data packet of a first service to a controller coupled to the switch;

receive a first flow entry of the first service that is delivered by the controller based on the information about the first data packet and a flow table structure, wherein the flow table structure comprises a plurality of match fields being supported by multiple flow tables and a plurality of actions being supported by the multiple flow tables, and wherein the plurality of match fields comprise a match field of the first service, and the plurality of actions comprise an action for processing data packets of the first service;

configure the first flow entry into a software flow table of the switch;

acquire, from the configured software flow table, a plurality of target flow entries associated with the first data packet;

determine, from a plurality of preconfigured service paths, a first target service path corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, wherein match fields of the first target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, and wherein an action of the first target service path for processing data packets of the first service is indicated by actions of the plurality of target flow entries;

determine a target hardware flow table corresponding to the first target service path from a plurality of hardware flow tables of the hardware forwarding chip, wherein the target hardware flow table supports a service associated with the first target service path; and

configure a flow entry of the target hardware flow table according to the plurality of target flow entries.

11. The switch of claim 10, wherein the communications apparatus communicates with the controller by using an OpenFlow protocol;

the multiple flow tables are OpenFlow flow tables;

the match fields supported by the multiple flow tables are match fields supported by the OpenFlow protocol, and the actions supported by the multiple flow tables are actions supported by the OpenFlow protocol.

12. The switch of claim 10, wherein the communications apparatus is further configured to:

aggregate the plurality of target flow entries to generate a combined flow entry, wherein match field values of the combined flow entry corresponds to match field values associated with the ingress port match field and the packet header match field in the plurality of target flow entries, and wherein action values of the combined flow entry correspond to action values in the plurality of target flow entries; and

determine, from the plurality of preconfigured service paths, the first target service path comprising match fields corresponding to the match field values of the combined flow entry and actions corresponding to the action values of the combined flow entry.

13. The switch of claim 10, wherein

the communications apparatus is further configured to:

report information about a second data packet of a second service to the controller, wherein the second service is not supported by the hardware flow table of the hardware forwarding chip;

receive a second flow entry of the second service that is delivered by the controller based on the information about the second data packet and the flow table structure, and

configure the second flow entry of the second service into the software flow table.

14. The switch of claim 13, wherein the communications apparatus is further configured to:

acquire, from the configured software flow table, a second target flow entry associated with the second data packet;

determine, from the plurality of preconfigured service paths, a second target service path associated with the second target flow entry, wherein match fields of the second target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to match field values of the second target flow entry, and an action of the second target service path for processing data packets of the second service corresponds to an action indicated by the second target flow entry;

configure, based on the second target flow entry, a service flow entry of a service flow table corresponding to the second target service path, wherein match fields of the service flow table comprise match fields of the second target service path; and

wherein an action value in the service flow entry corresponds to the action value in the second target flow entry; and

process the second data packet according to an action in the configured service flow entry of the service flow table corresponding to the second target service path.

15. The switch of claim 10, wherein:

the communications apparatus is further configured to

configure a physical flow table and a correspondence between the physical flow table and the target hardware flow table, wherein a match field of the physical flow table is comprised in match fields of the target hardware flow table, and wherein an action of the physical flow table is comprised in actions of the target hardware flow table; and

configure a correspondence between the first target service path and the physical flow table, wherein a match field of the service path is comprised in match fields of the physical flow table, and an action of the first target service path is comprised in actions of the physical flow table; and

wherein

the communications apparatus determines the physical flow table based on the correspondence between the first target service path and the physical flow table, and determines the target hardware flow table based on the correspondence between the physical flow table and the target hardware flow table.

16. A communications system, comprising:

a controller; and

a switch coupled to the controller and configured to;

report information about a first data packet of a first service to the controller;

receive a first flow entry of the first service from the controller, wherein the first flow entry is generated by the controller based on the information about the first data packet and the flow table structure, wherein the flow table structure is used to generate, for different hardware flow tables corresponding to a plurality of switches, the first flow entry for processing data packets of the first service, wherein the flow table structure comprises a plurality of match fields and a plurality of actions, wherein the plurality of match fields comprise a match field of the first service, and wherein the plurality of actions comprise an action of the first service;

determine, from a plurality of preconfigured service paths, a first target service path associated with the first flow entry, wherein a match field of the first target service path comprises the match field of the first service, and an action of the first target service path comprises the action of the first service;

determine a target hardware flow table according to a preconfigured correspondence between the first target service path and the target hardware flow table of a hardware forwarding chip in the switch; and

configure a flow entry of the target hardware flow table according to the first flow entry of the first service.

17. The communications system of claim 16, wherein the first switch communicates with the controller by using an OpenFlow protocol, and the flow table structure are supported by multiple OpenFlow flow tables.

18. The communications system of claim 16, wherein in the step of determining the first target service path, the switch is configured to:

configure the first flow entry into a software flow table of the switch;

acquire, from the configured software flow table, a plurality of target flow entries matching the first data packet;

determine, from a plurality of preconfigured service paths, the first target service path corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, wherein match fields of the first target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to the plurality of target flow entries, and wherein an action of the first target service path for processing data packets of the first service is indicated by actions of the plurality of target flow entries.

19. The communications system of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive information about a second data packet of a second service from the switch, wherein the second service is not supported by the hardware flow table of the hardware forwarding chip in the switch;

send, to the switch, a second flow entry of the second service generated based on the information about the second data packet and the flow table structure;

wherein the switch is further configured to;

configure the second flow entry of the second service into the software flow table;

acquire, from configured the software flow table, a second target flow entry associated with the second data packet;

determine, from the plurality of preconfigured service paths, a second target service path associated with the second target flow entry, wherein match fields of the second target service path comprise an ingress port match field and a packet header match field corresponding to match field values of the second target flow entry, and an action of the second target service path for processing data packets of the second service corresponds to an action indicated by the second target flow entry;

configure, based on the second target flow entry, a service flow entry of a service flow table corresponding to the second target service path, wherein match fields of the service flow table comprise match fields of the second target service path, and wherein an action value in the service flow entry corresponds to the action value in the second target flow entry; and

process the second data packet according to an action in the configured service flow entry of the service flow table corresponding to the second target service path.

20. The communications system of claim 16, wherein the first flow entry is generated by the controller based on one or more match fields of the flow table structure.