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Specifying and utilizing paths through a network

  • US 10,659,252 B2
  • Filed: 01/26/2018
  • Issued: 05/19/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2018
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of specifying a path for a data message flow through a network comprising a plurality of forwarding elements, the method comprising:

  • at a host computer executing a source machine sending the data message flow,using a set of attributes associated with the data message flow to identify one path-defining rule from a plurality of path-defining rules each of which (i) is stored on the host computer and (ii) specifies a different candidate path from a plurality of candidate paths for the data message flow through the network to a destination of the data message flow, the path specified by the identified path-defining rule traversing through a set of forwarding elements in a particular sequence;

    with an outer tunnel header that is placed outside of layers 2 and 3 headers of each data message of the flow, encapsulating each data message in the flow, each outer tunnel header comprising (i) an outer portion that stores a destination network address that is a network address of a forwarding element that is the first forwarding element in the particular sequence, and (ii) an inner portion that stores a set of forwarding element identifiers identifying the set of forwarding elements on the path specified by the identified path-defining rule and a next forwarding-element identifier that identifies a next hop forwarding element along the path and is adjusted by each subsequent forwarding element in the specified path to identify the next hop forwarding element without removing the identifier of the subsequent forwarding element from the set of identifiers stored in the inner portion; and

    forwarding the data messages encapsulated with their tunnel headers along the path specified by the identified path-defining rule.

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