Software-based fabric enablement

• US 10,419,284 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2017
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Inventors: Wittenschlaeger, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Myers, Eric
• Application Number:
  US15/824,279
• Publication Number:
  US 20180091368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 658 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/19 at layers above the network layer network arrangements for networked applications for scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/253 using establishment or release of connections between ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A first fabric abstraction layer couples to a data link layer and a physical layer of a network fabric device. The network fabric device is connected to other network elements within a network via at least one network connection, such as a fiber optic connection. A second fabric abstraction layer couples to the data link layer and an application of the network device. The second fabric abstraction layer provides an application programming interface (API) to the application. The API allows the application to generate configuration instructions for configuring the at least one network connection. Upon receiving the configuration instructions generated by the application, the second abstraction layer sends the configuration instructions to the first abstraction layer via the data link layer. The first abstraction layer then configures the at least one network connection to transmit data according to the configuration instructions.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a networking fabric comprising network elements, comprising:

providing a first fabric abstraction layer coupled with an aggregation layer and a physical layer of a network device connected to the network elements via at least one network connection, the first fabric abstraction layer configured to receive information about physical links from the physical layer of the network device;

providing a second fabric abstraction layer coupled with the aggregation layer and an application of the network device, the second fabric abstraction layer communicating the information about the physical links to the application;

providing, by the second fabric abstraction layer, an application programming interface (API) allowing the application to generate configuration instructions configuring the at least one network connection based on the information about the physical links;

receiving, by the second fabric abstraction layer, the configuration instructions generated by the application;

sending, by the second fabric abstraction layer, the configuration instructions to the first abstraction layer via the aggregation layer; and

configuring, by the first fabric abstraction layer, the at least one network connection to transmit data according to the configuration instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one network connection comprises multiple physical channels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the multiple physical channels comprise a wavelength dimension and a time dimension.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the multiple physical channels comprise at least 88 physical channels at each time slice, wherein each of the at least 88 channels has a distinct optical wavelength.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the at least 88 physical channels has a bandwidth of at least 100 Gb.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

dividing the at least one network connection into the multiple physical channels using

wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and time division multiple access (TDMA).

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retrieving, by the first fabric abstraction layer, channel status information of the at least one network connection; and

providing the application with access to the channel status information via the API.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the channel status information comprises availabilities of the multiple physical channels.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the configuration instructions for configuring the at least one network connection are based on the channel status information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the configuration instructions comprises assigning an available physical channel to a process managed by the application.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the configuration instructions comprises assigning an aggregation of more than one available physical channel to a process managed by the application.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the second fabric abstraction layer, a modification to the configuration instructions generated by the application; and

configuring, by the first fabric abstraction layer, the at least one network connection to transmit data according to the modification to the configuration instructions.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the modification to the configuration instructions comprises a re-assignment of a physical channel from a first process to a second process managed by the application.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the application comprises at least one of an operating system and an Ethernet driver.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration instructions are defined based on at least one of the following:

a security template, a database template, and a computational template.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregation layer operates at layers 2, 3,and 4.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregation layer comprises a data link layer, a network layer, and a transport layer.