System and Method for Router Virtual Networking

• US 20090185506A1
• Filed: 09/15/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Foundry Networks LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Watson, Thomas Lee, Visser, Lance Arnold
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,360 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• 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 45/586 of virtual routers

Abstract

A host router is logically partitioned into virtual router domains that manage independent processes and routing application copies but share a common operating system. Each v-net manages an independent set of sockets and host router interfaces, each associated with only one v-net at one time, but interchangeably repartitionable Traffic is removed from an interface during repartitioning. Duplicate arrays of global variables copied to each v-net are accessed by macro references. A v-net facility can separate route tables used internally from the externally visible route tables and can avoid conflicts between internal and external IP addresses that share the same identifier. For example a common FreeBSD operating system supports a dynamic routing protocol (DRP) application. Each v-net runs an independent copy of the DRP software and is logically independent. A failure in one DRP copy does not adversely affect other copies.

Claims

1. A system of virtual router domains comprising:

a host router running a common operating system;

a plurality of virtual domains and processes logically partitioned within said host router, each said virtual router domain having a unique domain ID address and an independent replica array of all virtualized variables across said common operating system, each said process running in a said virtual router domain independently of all other said virtual router domains on top of said common operating system; and

said global variables being accessed by macro references in each said virtual router domain.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said common operating system runs on a master control processor within said host router.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said common operating system is a version of FreeBSD.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said common operating system manages the reporting of hardware failures across all virtual router domains of said host router.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of processes comprise routing software applications.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said plurality of processes comprise independent plural identical copies of at least one said process.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein said plurality of processes comprise a copy of a dynamic routing protocol (DRP) software application.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of processes comprise a copy of a SNMP application.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said macros generate an array of said global variables when said virtual router domain is configured in.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said macros generate scalar global variables when said virtual router domain is deconfigured.

11-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A method of logically partitioning a host router into virtual router domains, comprising

configuring the kernel of a single common operating system running in said host router;

configuring in a plurality of virtual router domains within said host router;

identifying each said virtual router domain by a unique domain index number;

generating an independent identical set of replica arrays of global variables for each virtual router domain; and

associating a process with each said virtual router domain of said host router, such that said processes run in said virtual router domains independently of one another on top of said single common operating system of said host router.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said global variables are generated by macros.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein said macros generate arrays of global variables when said virtual router domain is configured in within said host router.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein said macros generate scalar global variables when said virtual router domain is deconfigured.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein said single common operating system runs on a master control processor within said host router.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein said common operating system is a version of FreeBSD.

33. The method of claim 27 wherein said processes comprise routing software applications.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising independently running plural identical copies of at least one said process.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein said processes compirse a copy of a dynamic routing protocol (DRP) software application.

36. The method of claim 27 wherein each said process manages an instantiation of a common networking code.

37-54. -54. (canceled)