CENTRALIZED LOGICAL L3 ROUTING

• US 20130051399A1
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jesse E. Gross IV, Pankaj Thakkar
• Inventors: Thakkar, Pankaj, Gross, Jesse E. IV, Pettit, Justin, Wendlandt, Daniel J., Koponen, Teemu, Casado, Martin, Zhang, Ronghue, Amidon, Keith E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• 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 logically routing a packet between a source machine that is in a first logical domain and a destination machine that is in a second logical domain is described. The method configures a managed switching element as a second-level managed switching element. The method configures a router in a host that includes the second-level managed switching element. The method communicatively couples the second-level managed switching element with the router. The method causes the router to route a packet when the router receives a packet from the first logical domain that is addressed to the second logical domain.

Claims

1. A method for logically routing a packet between a source machine that is in a first logical domain and a destination machine that is in a second logical domain, the method comprising:

configuring a managed switching element as a second-level managed switching element;

configuring a router in a host that includes the second-level managed switching element;

communicatively coupling the second-level managed switching element with the router; and

causing the router to route a packet when the router receives a packet from the first logical domain that is addressed to the second logical domain.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the router in the host comprises configuring the router in a namespace of the host.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the namespace is a machine virtualized in the host.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a tunnel between the second-level managed switching element and a managed edge switching element.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the managed edge switching element is a software switch that executes on another host machine along with a set of virtual machines.

6. A computer configured as a host for managing network traffic to route, the computer comprising:

a set of processing unit;

a software router for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units;

a software switching element for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units, the software switching element communicatively coupled to a plurality of edge switching elements; and

said software switching element having a table configured to facilitate forwarding of packets among the edge switching elements and router.

7. The computer of claim 6, wherein the software switching element of the computer is communicatively coupled to at least one of the edge switching elements through a tunnel.

8. The computer of claim 6, wherein at least a plurality of the edge switching elements are other software switching elements configured on other hosts.

9. The computer of claim 6, wherein the software router is a first router, the computer further comprising:

a second software router for allowing the computer to provide additional routing resources for additional edge switching elements that communicatively couple to the software switching element.

10. The computer of claim 9,wherein for traffic to be routed between the first and second software routers, the traffic does not have to exit the computer.

11. The computer of claim 6, wherein the software router comprises a configurable table for storing entries for controlling data flow through the router.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium for storing a program for configuring a computer to logically route a packet between a source machine that is in a first logical domain and a destination machine that is in a second logical domain, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

configuring a managed switching element as a second-level managed switching element;

configuring a router in a host that includes the second-level managed switching element;

communicatively coupling the second-level managed switching element with the router; and

causing the router to route a packet when the router receives a packet from the first logical domain that is addressed to the second logical domain.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the router in the host comprises a set of instructions for configuring the router in a namespace of the host.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for establishing a tunnel between the second-level managed switching element and a managed edge switching element.

15. A computer configured as a host for managing network traffic to route, the computer comprising:

a set of processing unit;

a software forwarding element for execution by at least one processing unit in the set of processing units;

said software forwarding element having a table for configuring to facilitate L2 and L3 forwarding of packets among the edge switching elements;

said software forwarding element further for communicatively coupling to a plurality of edge switching elements through a plurality of tunnels.

16. The computer of claim 15, wherein at least a plurality of the edge switching elements are other software switching elements configured on other hosts.

17. The computer of claim 15, wherein the software forwarding element performs L2 forwarding of packets when the edge switching elements are not configured to perform a particular set of L2 communication.

18. The computer of claim 17, wherein the particular set of L2 communication includes broadcast messaging.

19. The computer of claim 15,

wherein the software forwarding element and the edge switching elements are part of one logical domain;

wherein the software forwarding element is further for receiving packets from the edge switching elements that are to be sent out of the logical domain;

wherein the computer further comprising a port for the software forwarding element to send a packet from an edge switching element to another device outside of the logical domain.