Network system having an instructional sequence for performing packet processing and optimizing the packet processing

• US 20030198189A1
• Filed: 04/19/2002
• Published: 10/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Roberts, Dave, Shekokar, Praveen Ghanashyam, Hansell, Jeffrey Stuart
• Granted Patent: US 7,804,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system in which a network system has one or more individual networks. The topology of the first individual network includes two or more service modules. At least one of the service modules is modeled to represent a network element that performs one or more functions to process a packet in a network system. The two or more service modules may be arranged in the first individual network in an arbitrary topology. The packet processing by the two or more service modules is governed by the topology of the first individual network.

Claims

1. A network system, comprising:

a virtual graph that includes a plurality of service modules, a first service module modeled to represent a network element, the first service module to initiate one or more primitive operations to be performed on a packet in order to process the packet;

a first packet processing path limited in its decision making capacity by the amount of primitive operations in an instruction set;

a second packet-processing path that processes packets that are an exception to the primitive operations in the instruction set; and

a stateful decision logic to determine if the packet to be processed is eligible be processed by the first packet processing path or required to processed by another packet processing path.

2. The network system of claim 1, further comprising:

an optimization component to optimize an amount of primitive operations performed on the packet by removing redundant primitive operations and other primitive operations that are made obsolete by performing a subsequent primitive operation.

3. The network system of claim 1, wherein each service module that the packet progresses through in the virtual graph initiates one or more primitive operations to be performed on the packet.

4. The network system of claim 2, wherein the optimization component to optimize a total set of the primitive operations contributed by all of the service modules that the packet progresses through.

5. The network system of claim 2, wherein the optimization component resides in operating system software

6. The network system of claim 2, wherein the optimization component implements in firmware.

7. The network system of claim 2, wherein the optimization component is a hardware block of logic.

8. The network system of claim 2, wherein the optimization component applies a set of rules to the total set of the primitive operations in order to optimize that set of the primitive operations.

9. The network system of claim 1, wherein the stateful decision logic to determine if the packet to be processed is eligible be processed by the first packet processing path by determining if the packet belong a particular flow of packets previously identified by the stateful decision logic.

10. The network system of claim 1, wherein the first packet-processing path further comprises dedicated logic to perform packet-processing operations with the limited instruction set.

11. The network of claim 1, wherein the same first packet-processing path to execute a total set of primitive operations on the packet, the total set of primitive operations coming from all of the service modules in an individual network.

12. The network system of claim 1, wherein the second packet processing path further comprises a general purpose processor cooperating with software.

13. The network system of claim 1, further comprising:

a component to execute a common set of primitive operations to every packet prior to the first packet processing path or second packet processing path processing the packet.

29. The network system of claim 1, further comprising:

a component to execute a common set of primitive operations to every packet after the first packet processing path or second packet processing path processes the packet.

14. A network system, comprising:

a first individual network; and

two or more service modules included in a topology of the first individual network, a first service module modeled to represent a network element that performs one or more functions to process a packet in a network system, the two or more service modules arrangeable in the first individual network in an arbitrary topology, packet processing by the two or more service modules is governed by the topology of the first individual network.

15. The network system of claim 14, wherein each service module that a packet progresses through initiates one or more primitive operations to be performed on the packet.

16. The network system of claim 14, wherein a total set of the primitive operations contributed by all of the service modules that the packet progresses through may be optimized to remove redundant primitive operations and other primitive operations that are made obsolete by performing a subsequent primitive operation.

17. The network system of claim 14, wherein the all of the service modules that the packet progresses through forms a chain of network elements and a second network element later in sequential order in the chain of network elements can make a determination to send a packet to be processed by a packet processing component prior to a first network element earlier in sequential order in the chain of network elements makes the determination to send the packet to a particular processing component.

18. The network system of claim 14, wherein a second network element makes a determination to send a packet to be processed by a packet processing component at a different point in time than a first network element.

19. The network system of claim 14, further comprising:

a storage unit to store a total set of the primitive operations contributed by all of the service modules, wherein the total set of the primitive operations is optimized each time a particular network element adds its set of primitive operations for the packet to be processed by a packet processing component to the total set of the primitive operations contributed by all of the service modules.

20. The network system of claim 14, wherein first individual network has dedicated hardware resources including processing power and memory.

30. The network system of claim 14, further comprising:

a first packet processing component based in hardware;

a second packet processing component based in software, wherein the first packet processing component performs one or more primitive operations upon the packet until the first service module initiates a primitive operation and then the second packet processing component performs one or more primitive operations upon the packet.

31. The network system of claim 15, further comprising:

an optimization component to optimize the one or more primitive operations initiated by each service module by removing redundant primitive operations and other primitive operations that are made obsolete by performing a subsequent primitive operation.

32. The network system of claim 31, wherein the optimization component to optimize a set of primitive operations to be performed on the packet without causing the packet processing of that packet to be reset.

21. A computer readable medium containing an instructional sequence to perform processing of a packet, comprising:

a first set of primitive operations to be applied to the packet to process the packet through a network system, the first set of primitive operations initiated by a first service module modeled to represent a first network element that performs one or more functions to process a packet in a network system;

a second set of primitive operations to be applied to the packet to process the packet through the network system, the second set of primitive operations initiated by a second service module modeled to represent a second network element different in type of network element than the first network element modeled by the first service module, the first set of primitive operations and the second set of primitive operations to be combined into a single set of primitive operations to be processed by a network system employing fast packet processing path architecture.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the single set of primitive operations is optimized by removing redundant primitive operations and other primitive operations that are made obsolete by performing a subsequent primitive operation.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the single set of primitive operations is to be processed by either a first packet processing path limited in its decision making capacity by the amount of primitive operations in an instruction set or a second packet-processing path that processes packets that are an exception to the primitive operations in the instruction set.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the single set of primitive operations contains a conditional primitive operation to force the packet in a flow to from the second packet-processing path to another packet-processing path.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the single set of primitive operations contains a conditional primitive operation to force the packet in a flow from the first packet-processing path to another packet-processing path.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the single set of primitive operations contains a primitive operation to duplicate a packet to create a first packet and a second packet.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 26, wherein the first packet to route to a first destination address and the second packet to route to a second destination address.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 26, wherein the first packet to route to a first packet processing component and the second packet to route to a second packet processing component.