SWITCH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20120311125A1
• Filed: 08/15/2012
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Matthews, Abraham R., Berenberg, Anna
• Granted Patent: US 8,601,110 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 Validating the configuration within one network element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/10 Routing in connection-oriented networks, e.g. X.25 or ATM

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing a service provider switch are provided. According to one embodiment, a method is provided for provisioning a switch with a network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service. A network operating system (NOS) is provided on each processor element (PE) of the switch. The NOS includes an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects. The OM performs management plane communications among software objects by way of system calls. The OM performs data plane communications among software objects by way of object-to-object channels. The switch is provisioned with a network-based managed IP service for a particular customer by pushing discrete and customized software objects representing the network-based managed IP service onto an object-to-object channel established between two of the software objects.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a network operating system (NOS) on each processor element (PE) of a plurality of PEs of a switch in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider, the NOS including an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects;

establishing an object-to-object channel between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects;

performing, by the OM, management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls;

performing, by the OM, data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; and

provisioning the switch with a network-based managed IP service for a particular customer of the plurality of customers by pushing one or more discrete and customized software objects representing the network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the system calls comprise input/output control (IOCTL) system calls.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network-based managed IP service comprises a managed security service.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed firewall service.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed virtual private network (VPN).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first software object and the second software object have a common address space.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first software object and the second software object are located in different address spaces.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a service management system associated with the service provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a customer network management tool associated with the particular customer.

10. A switch comprising:

a plurality of processor elements upon which a network operating system (NOS), in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider, is executing;

wherein the NOS includes an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects;

wherein an object-to-object channel is established between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects;

wherein the OM performs management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls;

wherein the OM performs data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; and

wherein the switch is provisioned with a network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service for a particular customer of the plurality of customers by pushing one or more discrete and customized software objects representing the network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel.

11. The switch of claim 10, wherein the system calls comprise input/output control (IOCTL) system calls.

12. The switch of claim 10, wherein the network-based managed IP service comprises a managed security service.

13. The switch of claim 12, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed firewall service.

14. The switch of claim 12, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed virtual private network (VPN).

15. The switch of claim 10, wherein the first software object and the second software object have a common address space.

16. The switch of claim 10, wherein the first software object and the second software object are located in different address spaces.

17. The switch of claim 10, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a service management system associated with the service provider.

18. The switch of claim 10, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a customer network management tool associated with the particular customer.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of a switch tangibly embodying a set of instructions representing a network operating system (NOS) for a plurality of processor elements (PEs) of the switch in which software objects represent a basic unit of management and Internet Protocol (IP) services are represented as one or more discrete and customized software objects for each customer of a plurality of customers of a service provider and which when executed by the plurality of PEs cause the PEs to perform a method comprising:

instantiating an object manager (OM) responsible for managing global software object groups, managing software object configurations, managing local software objects and groups and routing control information between address spaces based on locations of software objects;

establishing an object-to-object channel between a first software object and a second software object of a plurality of software objects;

performing, by the OM, management plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of system calls;

performing, by the OM, data plane communications among the plurality of software objects by way of object-to-object channels; and

provisioning the switch with a network-based managed Internet Protocol (IP) service for a particular customer of the plurality of customers by pushing one or more discrete and customized software objects representing the network-based managed IP service onto the object-to-object channel.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the system calls comprise input/output control (IOCTL) system calls.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the network-based managed IP service comprises a managed security service.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed firewall service.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the managed security service comprises a managed virtual private network (VPN).

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the first software object and the second software object have a common address space.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the first software object and the second software object are located in different address spaces.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a service management system associated with the service provider.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the provisioning is responsive to one or more commands received from a customer network management tool associated with the particular customer.