GENERATING FLOWS FOR MANAGED INTERCONNECTION SWITCHES

• US 20130044764A1
• 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: Pankaj Thakkar
• Inventors: Casado, Martin, Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj
• Granted Patent: US 8,830,835 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing

Abstract

A network controller for managing a set of interconnection switching elements that connect segmented networks to a shared physical interconnection network. The network controller includes i) an interface for receiving a logical control plane definition of a logical switching element that couples to a set of network segments at different segmented networks; ii) a control application for translating the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element into a first set of flow entries in a logical forwarding plane; and iii) a virtualization application for translating the first set of flow entries into a second set of flow entries in a physical control plane. The flow entries in the physical control plane are for subsequent conversion by the managed interconnection switching elements into a third set of flow entries in a physical forwarding plane that directs the forwarding of network data by the managed interconnection switching elements.

Claims

1. A network controller for managing a set of interconnection switching elements that connect segmented networks to a shared physical interconnection network, the network controller comprising:

an interface for receiving a logical control plane definition of a logical switching element that couples to a set of network segments at different segmented networks;

a control application for translating the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element into a first set of flow entries in a logical forwarding plane; and

a virtualization application for translating the first set of flow entries into a second set of flow entries in a physical control plane, the flow entries in the physical control plane for subsequent conversion by the managed interconnection switching elements into a third set of flow entries in a physical forwarding plane that directs the forwarding of network data by the managed interconnection switching elements.

2. The network controller of claim 1, wherein the control application uses a first rules engine to translate the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element into a first set of flow entries and the virtualization application uses a second rules engine to translate the first set of flow entries into the second set of flow entries.

3. The network controller of claim 2, wherein the first and second rules engines are the same rules engine.

4. The network controller of claim 1, wherein the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element, the first set of flow entries, and the second set of flow entries are each represented as different sets of n Log tables.

5. The network controller of claim 1, wherein the network controller is one of a plurality of distributed controller instances.

6. The network controller of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises an application programming interface (API) for receiving data to define the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element.

7. The network controller of claim 6, wherein the API receives the data from a user interface.

8. The network controller of claim 1, wherein a first network segment is segmented using virtual local area network (VLAN) tagging and a second network segment is segmented using multi-protocol labeling system (MPLS) labeling.

9. The network controller of claim 1, wherein a first network segment is segmented using a first VLAN technique and a second network segment is segmented using a second VLAN technique.

10. The network controller of claim 1, wherein the logical switching element comprises a plurality of logical ports, and each port couples to a different network segment.

11. The network controller of claim 10, wherein a plurality of different network addresses are defined for each network segment.

12. The network controller of claim 11, wherein for a particular logical port that couples to a particular network segment, the flow entries specify that a packet the destination address of which matches one of the network addresses defined for the particular network segment is for forwarding to the particular logical port of the logical switching element.

13. At a network controller that manages a set of interconnection switching elements that connect segmented networks to a common physical interconnection network, a method comprising:

receiving a definition of a logical switching element that couples to a plurality of network segments located in different segmented networks, each network segment comprising a plurality of machines;

generating a first set of lookup entries in a logical forwarding plane for implementing the logical switch;

generating a second set of lookup entries in a physical control plane based on the first set of lookup entries; and

distributing the second set of lookup entries to the managed interconnection switching elements for subsequent conversion into physical control plane lookup entries that the managed interconnection switching elements use to forward packets from machines at one network segment to machines at a different network segment, wherein packets sent to a first machine and a second machine at a same particular network segment are forwarded to a same managed interconnection switching element.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein distributing the second set of lookup entries comprises publishing the lookups to a database that stores network state information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the first set of lookup entries and generating the second set of lookup entries comprises using a same rules engine for converting input tables to output tables.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the input tables for generating the first set of lookup comprise the definition of the logical switching element converted into a particular database table format and the output tables comprise the first set of lookups.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the input tables for generating the second set of lookups comprise the first set of lookups, bindings between ports of the logical switching element and the different network segments, and network addresses of machines located in the different network segments, and the output tables comprise the second set of lookups.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the output tables of the generation of the second set of lookups further comprise (i) lookups for different network segments from which a packet is received to ingress ports of the logical switching element and (ii) lookups for mapping egress ports of the logical switching element to different interconnection switching elements.

19. A machine readable medium storing a network controller instance which when executed by at least one processing unit manages a set of interconnection switching elements that connect segmented networks to a common physical interconnection network, the network controller instance comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a definition of a logical switching element that couples to a plurality of network segments located in different segmented networks, each network segment comprising a plurality of machines;

generating a first set of lookup entries in a logical forwarding plane for implementing the logical switch;

generating a second set of lookup entries in a physical control plane based on the first set of lookup entries; and

distributing the second set of lookup entries to the managed interconnection switching elements for subsequent conversion into physical control plane lookup entries that the managed interconnection switching elements use to forward packets from machines at one network segment to machines at a different network segment, wherein packets sent to a first machine and a second machine at a same particular network segment are forwarded to a same managed interconnection switching element.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 20, wherein the interconnection switching elements are extenders.