Network control method and apparatus

• US 10,587,494 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2016
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• 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: Zhou, Wei, Tang, Pengcheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Crutchfield, Christopher M
• Application Number:
  US15/364,523
• Publication Number:
  US 20170085462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/036 Updating the topology between route computation elements, e.g. between OpenFlow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network control method and apparatus. The network control method includes: receiving, by a first network controller, a request message of a forwarding plane device, where the request message includes information that is used to indicate a network event and information that is used to instruct to request a processing policy of the network event, and the first network controller is a primary network controller of the forwarding plane device; and if the first network controller determines, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, sending, by the first network controller, the request message to a second network controller, receiving the processing policy sent by the second network controller, and sending the received processing policy to the forwarding plane device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a first network controller, a request message of a forwarding plane device, wherein the request message comprises information that indicates a network event and information that instructs to request a processing policy of the network event, wherein the first network controller is a primary network controller of the forwarding plane device;

sending, by the first network controller, the request message to a primary network controller of the first network controller;

receiving, by the first network controller, a reject message sent by the primary network controller of the first network controller to reject sending the processing policy to the first network controller, based on the primary network controller of the first network controller having determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy;

when the first network controller determines, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, sending, by the first network controller, according to the reject message, the request message to a second network controller, to request the second network controller to provide the processing policy to the first network controller, wherein the second network controller is a secondary network controller of the first network controller, and the secondary network controller of the first network controller is at a same level with the primary network controller of the first network controller; and

receiving, by the first network controller, the processing policy sent by the second network controller, and sending the received processing policy to the forwarding plane device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein receiving, by the first network controller, the reject message sent by the primary network controller of the first network controller comprises:

when the primary network controller of the first network controller determines, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, sending, by the first network controller, the request message to a third network controller using the primary network controller of the first network controller, wherein the third network controller is an upper-level network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller or a sub network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein before receiving, by the first network controller, the request message of the forwarding plane device, the method further comprises:

establishing, by the first network controller, a communication connection with the forwarding plane device; and

obtaining, by the first network controller, first attribute information of the forwarding plane device, and sending the first attribute information of the forwarding plane device to the second network controller, so that according to the first attribute information of the forwarding plane device, the second network controller constructs a forwarding plane device topology and stores the forwarding plane device topology.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first attribute information of the forwarding plane device comprises at least one of an identifier, a port number, a port Media Access Control (MAC) address, a port Internet Protocol (IP) address, a virtual local area network (VLAN), bandwidth, a computing capability, or a link feature of the forwarding plane device;

and

wherein the link feature comprises at least one of a device identification number, a port number, a MAC address, or an IP address of a peer device connected to the forwarding plane device.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a second network controller, a request message sent by a first network controller, wherein;

the request message comprises a network event, and requests a processing policy of the network event;

the request message is sent to the second network controller by the first network controller after the first network controller has received the request message from a forwarding plane device or from a lower-level network controller of the first network controller, and after the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy;

the request message has been sent by the first network controller to a primary network controller of the first network controller after the first network controller has received the request message, and has been sent to the second network controller by the first network controller after the primary network controller of the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, and after the primary network controller has sent a reject message to the first network controller; and

the second network controller is a secondary network controller of the first network controller, and the secondary network controller of the first network controller is at a same level with the primary network controller of the first network controller; and

sending, by the second network controller, the processing policy to the first network controller, causing the first network controller to send the processing policy to the forwarding plane device or to the lower-level network controller of the first network controller.

6. An apparatus, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a request message of a forwarding plane device, wherein the request message comprises information that indicates a network event and information that instructs to request a processing policy of the network event; and

a transmitter, configured to send the request message to a primary network controller of a first network controller;

wherein the receiver is further configured to receive a reject message sent by the primary network controller of the first network controller to reject sending the processing policy to the first network controller, based on the primary network controller of the first network controller having determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy;

wherein the transmitter is further configured to send, when the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, according to the reject message, the request message to a second network controller, to request the second network controller to provide the processing policy to the first network controller, wherein the first network controller is a primary network controller of the forwarding plane device, wherein the second network controller is a secondary network controller of the first network controller, and wherein the secondary network controller of the first network controller is at a same level with the primary network controller of the first network controller;

wherein the receiver is further configured to receive the processing policy sent by the second network controller; and

wherein the transmitter is further configured to send the received processing policy to the forwarding plane device.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the receiver is further configured to:

receive the reject message sent by the primary network controller of the first network controller based on the primary network controller of the first network controller having determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, and based on the primary network controller of the first network controller having sent the request message to a third network controller, wherein the third network controller is an upper-level network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller or a sub network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a request message sent by a first network controller, wherein the request message comprises a network event, and requests a processing policy of the network event, wherein the request message is sent to a second network controller by the first network controller after the first network controller has received the request message from a forwarding plane device or from a lower-level network controller of the first network controller, and after the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, wherein the request message has been sent by the first network controller to a primary network controller of the first network controller after the first network controller has received the request message, and has been sent to the second network controller by the first network controller after the primary network controller of the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, and after the primary network controller has sent a reject message to the first network controller, and the second network controller is a secondary network controller of the first network controller, and the secondary network controller of the first network controller is at a same level with the primary network controller of the first network controller; and

a transmitter, configured to send the processing policy to the first network controller, causing the first network controller to send the processing policy to the forwarding plane device or to the lower-level network controller of the first network controller.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein:

the request message being sent to the second network controller by the first network controller after the first network controller has received the request message from the forwarding plane device or from the lower-level network controller of the first network controller, and after the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy comprises;

the request message having been sent to a third network controller by the first network controller having used the primary network controller of the first network controller when the primary network controller of the first network controller has determined, according to the request message, that the primary network controller of the first network controller cannot provide the processing policy, wherein the second network controller is an upper-level network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller or a sub network controller of the primary network controller of the first network controller; and

wherein the receiver is configured to receive the request message sent by the first network controller using the primary network controller of the first network controller.