ADDRESSING METHOD, ADDRESSING APPARATUS, FABRIC MANAGER, SWITCH, AND DATA ROUTING METHOD

• US 20120243403A1
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Published: 09/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: XIA, Yong, LIU, Yongqiang, HU, Yan, HUANG, Quan
• Granted Patent: US 9,160,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 Routing tree calculation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/484 using multiple routing trees
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an addressing method, an addressing apparatus, a fabric manager, a switch, and a data routing method for data center networks. The addressing apparatus includes a tree creating unit for, sequentially with each of switches as a root, creating a tree containing all hosts by means of network topology discovery function, to obtain a plurality of trees; a tree selecting unit for selecting a tree having a minimum height among the created plurality of trees; and an address assigning unit for assigning addresses to each of switches and each of hosts in a network with respect to each selected tree having a minimum height. The present disclosure is adaptable to various topologies employed by the data center. The present disclosure can achieve aggregation of locator addresses so that a forwarding table can be shortened, and can achieve load balance of the network.

Claims

1. An addressing apparatus, comprising:

a tree creating unit for, sequentially with each of switches as a root, creating a tree containing all hosts by means of network topology discovery function, to obtain a plurality of trees;

a tree selecting unit for selecting a tree having a minimum height among the plurality of trees created by the tree creating unit; and

an address assigning unit for assigning addresses to each of switches and each of hosts in a network with respect to each tree having a minimum height selected by the tree selecting unit.

2. The addressing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when several trees containing all the hosts are able to be created with one switch as a root, the tree creating unit selects any one of trees having a minimum height among the several trees with the switch as the root to be the created tree.

3. The addressing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when several trees containing all the hosts are able to be created with one switch as a root, the tree creating unit records all of the several trees to be the created tree.

4. The addressing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when there are several trees having a minimum height among the plurality of trees, the tree selecting unit selects all of the several trees having a minimum height.

5. The addressing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

for each tree having a minimum height H selected by the tree selecting unit, the address assigning unit

assigns a root switch locator address to a root switch located at the root of the tree, which root switch is also called as the 0^th layer switch;

beginning with the 1^st layer switches directly connected to the root switch, for each i^th layer switch directly connected to the (i−

1)^th layer switch, finds all paths from the root switch to the i^th layer switch, and with respect to each path, assigns an i^th layer switch locator address to the i^th layer switch with a format of “

root switch locator address.1^st layer switch address . . . i^th layer switch address”

, wherein 1≦

i≦

H−

2; and

assigns a host locator address to each host with a format of “

edge switch locator address.host address”

, wherein the edge switch is the k^th layer switch directly connected to the host, 0≦

k≦

H−

2.

6. The addressing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the i^th layer switch address is a port number of a respective port connecting to each i^th layer switch of the (i−

1)^th layer switch.

7. The addressing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the host address is a port number of a respective port connecting to each host of the edge switch.

15. A fabric manager, comprising:

the addressing apparatus according to claim 1; and

a storage for storing a global locator address table which includes mappings between an Internet Protocol (IP) address of each host and all host locator addresses of the host.

16. The fabric manager according to claim 15, further comprising:

a scheduling unit for searching the global locator address table with an IP address of a destination host as an index upon an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request is received, and based on a scheduling algorithm, selecting one host locator address among the searched out one or more host locator addresses corresponding to the IP address of the destination host, and returning the selected one host locator address to a source host to complete ARP address resolution.

17. The fabric manager according to claim 16, wherein

if no host locator address corresponding to the IP address of the destination host is searched out from the global locator address table, the scheduling unit performs a network broadcast to obtain one or more host locator addresses of the destination host, and then, based on a scheduling algorithm, selects one host locator address among the obtained one or more host locator addresses corresponding to the IP address of the destination host, and returning the selected one host locator address to the source host to complete ARP address resolution.

18. The fabric manager according to claim 16, further comprising:

a failure processing unit for, upon a switch'"'"'s detecting its adjacent switch failure or link failure, invalidating a relevant host locator address in the global locator address,

wherein the scheduling unit will not select an invalidated host locator address upon selecting a host locator address corresponding to the IP address of the destination host.

19. A switch comprising the addressing apparatus according to claim 1.

8. An addressing method, comprising:

sequentially with each of switches as a root, creating a tree containing all hosts by means of network topology discovery function, to obtain a plurality of trees;

selecting a tree having a minimum height among the created plurality of trees; and

assigning addresses to each of switches and each of hosts in a network with respect to each selected tree having a minimum height.

9. The addressing method according to claim 8, wherein

when several trees containing all the hosts are able to be created with one switch as a root, any one of trees having a minimum height among the several trees with the switch as the root is selected to be the created tree.

10. The addressing method according to claim 8, wherein

when several trees containing all the hosts are able to be created with one switch as a root, all of the several trees are recorded to be the created tree.

11. The addressing method according to claim 8, wherein

when there are several trees having a minimum height among the plurality of trees, all of the several trees having a minimum height are selected.

12. The addressing method according to claim 8, wherein

for each selected tree having a minimum height H,

a root switch locator address is assigned to a root switch located at the root of the tree, which root switch is also called as the 0^th layer switch;

beginning with the 1^st layer switches directly connected to the root switch, for each i^th layer switch directly connected to the (i−

1)^th layer switch, all paths are found from the root switch to the i^th layer switch, and with respect to each path, an i^th layer switch locator address is assigned to the i^th layer switch with a format of “

root switch locator address.1^st layer switch address . . . i^th layer switch address”

, wherein 1≦

i≦

H−

2; and

a host locator address is assigned to each host with a format of “

edge switch locator address.host address”

, wherein the edge switch is the k^th layer switch directly connected to the host, 0≦

k≦

H−

2.

13. The addressing method according to claim 12, wherein

the i^th layer switch address is a port number of a respective port connecting to each i^th layer switch of the (i−

1)^th layer switch.

14. The addressing method according to claim 12, wherein

the host address is a port number of a respective port connecting to each host of the edge switch.

20. A data routing method in which switch addresses and host addresses addressed by the addressing method according to claim 14 are adopted, the data routing method comprising:

a root switch/a 0^th layer switch sends a data packet containing “

root switch locator address.1^st layer switch address/host address.*”

as a host locator address of a destination host to a port numbered as 1^st layer switch address/host address”

;

an i^th layer switch sends a data packet containing “

i^th layer switch locator address.(i+1)^th layer switch address/host address.*”

as a host locator address of a destination host to a port numbered as “

(i+1))^th layer switch address/host address”

, wherein 1≦

i≦

H−

2; and

an i^th layer switch sends a data packet containing “

root switch locator address.*”

as a host locator address of a destination host to a port connected to an (i−

1)^th layer switch whose root is a root switch having a root switch locator address of “

root switch locator address”

, wherein 1≦

i≦

H−

2.