DISTRIBUTED LOGICAL L3 ROUTING

• US 20130044636A1
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jesse E. Gross IV, Pankaj Thakkar
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Gross, Jesse E. IV, Zhang, Ronghua, Casado, Martin, Wendlandt, Daniel J., Mahajan, Mehak
• Granted Patent: US 9,369,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/12 Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• 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 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2592 using tunnelling or encapsulation

Abstract

A novel method for configuring first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing is described. The method generates a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 ingress processing and L3 routing processing. The method generates a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to performing logical L2 egress processing.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium for storing a program for configuring first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

generating a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 ingress processing and L3 routing processing; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to performing logical L2 egress processing.

2. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for generating a tunnel between the first and second managed forwarding elements.

3. The machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the set of instructions for generating the tunnel comprises a set of instructions for generating a set of flow entries for one of the first and second managed forwarding elements to establish the tunnel.

4. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first set of flow entries is further for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 ingress access control list (ACL) operations.

5. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first set of flow entries is further for configuring the second managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 egress access control list (ACL) operations.

6. A non-transitory machine readable medium for storing a program for configuring first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

generating a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to map packets from the physical domain to the logical domain, and to perform logical L2 ingress processing, logical L3 routing processing, and logical L2 egress processing; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to map packets received from the first managed forwarding element from the logical domain to the physical domain.

7. The machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the set of instructions for generating the tunnel comprises a set of instructions for generating a set of flow entries for one of the first and second managed forwarding elements to establish the tunnel.

8. The machine readable medium of claim 6, wherein the L2 ingress and egress processing comprises L2 ingress and egress access control list (ACL) operations.

9. A method for configuring first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing, the method comprising:

generating a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 ingress processing and L3 routing processing; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to performing logical L2 egress processing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises a set of instructions for generating a tunnel between the first and second managed forwarding elements.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the tunnel comprises generating a set of flow entries for one of the first and second managed forwarding elements to establish the tunnel.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first set of flow entries is further for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 ingress access control list (ACL) operations.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the first set of flow entries is further for configuring the second managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 egress access control list (ACL) operations.

14. A method for configuring first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing, the method comprising:

generating a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to map packets from the physical domain to the logical domain, and to perform logical L2 ingress processing, logical L3 routing processing, and logical L2 egress processing; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to map packets received from the first managed forwarding element from the logical domain to the physical domain.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the tunnel comprises generating a set of flow entries for one of the first and second managed forwarding elements to establish the tunnel.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the L2 ingress and egress processing comprises L2 ingress and egress access control list (ACL) operations.