PACKET PROCESSING FOR LOGICAL DATAPATH SETS

• US 20130058335A1
• Filed: 07/06/2012
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Amidon, Keith E., Ingram, Paul S., Casado, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 10,021,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/00 Traffic control in data switching networks arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received H04L1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method that processes network data through a network. The method receives a packet destined for a network host associated with a logical datapath set implemented by a set of managed edge switching elements and a set of managed non-edge switching elements in the network. The method determines whether the packet is a known packet. When the packet is a known packet, the method forwards the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed edge switching elements for forwarding to the network host. When the packet is not a known packet, the method forwards the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed non-edge switching elements for further processing.

Claims

1. A method for processing network data through a network, the method comprising:

receiving a packet destined for a network host associated with a logical datapath set implemented by a set of managed edge switching elements and a set of managed non-edge switching elements in the network;

determining whether the packet is a known packet;

when the packet is a known packet, forwarding the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed edge switching elements for forwarding to the network host; and

when the packet is not a known packet, forwarding the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed non-edge switching elements for further processing.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a lookup operation on a forwarding table, wherein the packet is determined to be a known packet based on the lookup operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the packet is determined to be a known packet when the forwarding table includes an entry that specifies a media access control (MAC) address that is specified in a header of the packet.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the MAC address is a source MAC address.

5. The method claim 2, wherein the packet is determined to be not a known packet when the forwarding table does not include an entry that specifies a media access control (MAC) address that is specified in a header of the packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of managed edge switching elements comprises a set of managed software switching elements.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of managed edge switching elements comprises a set of managed virtual switching elements.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of managed edge switching elements comprises a set of managed hardware switching elements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the further processing comprises flooding the network with a set of packets, each particular packet in the set of packets including a destination MAC address specified in the header of the packet as the particular packet'"'"'s destination MAC address.

10. The method of claim 10, wherein the further processing comprises forwarding the packet to another managed switching element in the set of managed edge switching elements for forwarding to the network host.

11. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit processes network data through a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a packet destined for a network host associated with a logical datapath set implemented by a set of managed edge switching elements and a set of managed non-edge switching elements in the network;

determining whether the packet is a known packet;

when the packet is a known packet, forwarding the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed edge switching elements for forwarding to the network host; and

when the packet is not a known packet, forwarding the packet to a managed switching element in the set of managed non-edge switching elements for further processing

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the logical datapath set is a first logical datapath set, wherein the set of managed edge switching elements and the set of managed non-edge switching elements in the network are for implementing a second logical datapath set.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein data communicated by network hosts associated with the first logical datapath set are isolated from data communicated by network hosts associated with the second logical datapath set.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the set of non-edge switching elements are located at the interior of the network.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein each non-edge switching element of the set of non-edge switching elements is at least two hops away from the network host in the network.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the packet is a multi-recipient packet.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein multi-recipient packet is a broadcast packet.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein multi-recipient packet is a multicast packet.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the further processing comprises forwarding a version of the packet to each recipient specified in the packet.