Generating interconnect fabric requirements

• US 20030144822A1
• Filed: 01/31/2002
• Published: 07/31/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: OʼSullivan, Michael Justin, Ward, Julle Ann, Peh, Li-Shiuan, Wilkes, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,004 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/18 Network design, e.g. design based on topological or interconnect aspects of utility systems, piping, heating ventilation air conditioning [HVAC] or cabling circuit design at the physical level G06F30/39; network planning tools for wireless communication networks H04W16/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network

Abstract

A technique for generating interconnect fabric requirements. The technique programmatically generates an interconnect design problem based on criteria specified by a user. In one aspect, a computer implemented method is provided for generating an interconnect fabric design problem. The problem includes requirements for a plurality of flows among a set of network nodes. A source node and a terminal node are selected, from among the set of network nodes, for a flow to be added to the requirements. A maximum capacity available at the selected source node and the selected terminal node is determined. The flow is generated having a capacity less than or equal to the lower of the maximum capacity of the source node and the terminal node. Depending upon the input criteria, the invention may generate problems with greater flexibility than prior techniques.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for generating an interconnect fabric design problem, the problem including requirements for a plurality of flows among a set of network nodes, the method comprising selecting, from among the set of network nodes, a source node and a terminal node for a flow to be added to the requirements, determining a maximum capacity available at the selected source node and the selected terminal node, and generating the flow having a capacity less than or equal to the lower of the maximum capacity of the source node and the terminal node.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining a maximum capacity comprises determining capacity available at each port of the source node and selecting the highest available capacity for the source node ports and determining capacity available at each port of the terminal node and selecting the highest available capacity for the terminal node ports.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said determining a capacity at a port of the source or terminal node depends on a specified degree of port saturation and unused port capacity.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising repeating said selecting, said determining and said generating until a stop condition is reached.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the stop condition is reached when each node in the set has at least a specified number of flows.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said set of network nodes comprises a cluster of nodes and wherein the design problem includes a plurality of clusters.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the design problem includes at least one flow between a pair of the clusters.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the design problem further comprises at least one node not in the clusters having a flow to a node in the clusters.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating an additional flow and determining whether to add the flow to the design problem according to a specified probability.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising repeating said steps of generating an additional flow and determining whether to add the flow to the design problem a number of times determined from a difference between a current number of flows and a specified maximum number of flows.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flow is assigned to a single port at each of the source node and the terminal node.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flow is split among multiple ports at one or both of the source node and the terminal node.

13. A system for generating an interconnect fabric design problem for communication between a set of nodes, the system comprising:

a set of design information including user-specified parameters for the design problem; and

a fabric design problem generation tool that generates a design for the interconnect fabric including a set of flow requirements among the set of nodes in response to the design information.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein said fabric design problem generation tool selects, from among the set of network nodes, a source node and a terminal node for a flow to be added to the flow requirements, determines a maximum capacity available at the selected source node and the selected terminal node, and generates the flow having a capacity less than or equal to the lower of the maximum capacity of the source node and the terminal node.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said fabric design problem generation tool determines the maximum capacity at the source node by determining capacity available at each port of the source node and selecting the highest available capacity for the source node ports and wherein said fabric design tool determines the maximum capacity available at the terminal node by determining capacity available at each port of the terminal node and selecting the highest available capacity for the terminal node ports.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein said fabric design problem generation tool determines a capacity at a port of the source or terminal node based on a specified degree of port saturation and unused port capacity.

17. The system according to claim 14, wherein said fabric design problem generation tool adds flows to the set of flow requirements until a stop condition is reached.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein the stop condition is reached when each node in the set has at least a specified number of flows.

19. The system according to claim 16, wherein the stop condition is based on bandwidth levels of the flow requirements.

20. The system according to claim 13, wherein said set of network nodes comprises a cluster of nodes and wherein the design problem includes a plurality of clusters.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the design problem includes at least one flow between a pair of the clusters.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the design problem further comprises at least one node not in the clusters having a flow to a node in the clusters.

23. The system according to claim 17, wherein the fabric design problem generation tool generates an additional flow and determines whether to add the flow to the design problem according to a specified probability.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the fabric design problem generation tool repeatedly generates an additional flow and determines whether to add the flow to the design problem a number of times determined from a difference between a current number of flows and a specified maximum number of flows.