DISTRIBUTED LOGICAL L3 ROUTING

• US 20130148541A1
• Filed: 02/01/2013
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Ronghua, Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj
• Granted Patent: US 9,276,897 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 non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program that configures first and second managed forwarding elements to perform logical L2 switching and L3 routing is described. The program generates a first set of flow entries for configuring the first managed forwarding element to perform (1) a first logical L2 processing for a first logical L2 domain, (2) a logical L3 processing, and (3) a second logical L2 processing for a second logical L2 domain. The program generates a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to determine whether the first managed forwarding element has performed the first logical L2 processing, the logical L3 processing, and the second logical L2 processing.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit configures 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 (i) a first logical L2 processing for a first logical L2 domain, (ii) a logical L3 processing, and (iii) a second logical L2 processing for a second logical L2 domain; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to determine whether the first managed forwarding element has performed the first logical L2 processing, the logical L3 processing, and the second logical L2 processing.

2. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first logical L2 processing comprises identifying a port of a logical forwarding element for the first logical L2 domain, the identified port corresponding to a logical router for the logical L3 processing.

3. The machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the identified port has a MAC address corresponding to the logical router.

4. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the logical L3 processing comprises identifying a port of a logical router, the port corresponding to the second logical L2 domain.

5. The machine readable medium of claim 4, wherein the identified port is associated with an IP address that corresponds to an IP subnet for the second logical L2 domain.

6. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second logical L2 processing comprises identifying a port of a logical forwarding element for the second logical L2 domain, the identified port corresponding to a port of the second managed forwarding element.

7. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first logical L2 processing comprises forwarding packets from one logical port to another logical port of a logical forwarding element for the first logical domain.

8. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second logical L2 processing comprises forwarding packets from one logical port to another logical port of a logical forwarding element for the second logical domain.

9. The machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the logical L3 processing comprises routing packets from the first logical domain to the second logical domain.

10. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit configures 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 (i) a logical L2 processing for a first logical L2 domain, (ii) logical L3 processing, and (iii) logical L2 ingress access control list (ACL) operations for a second logical L2 domain; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to perform logical L2 egress ACL operations for the second logical L2 domain.

11. The machine readable medium of claim of claim 10, wherein the logical L2 ingress ACL operations comprise determining whether a logical forwarding element for the second logical L2 domain should accept an incoming packet.

12. The machine readable medium of claim of claim 10, wherein the logical L2 egress ACL operations comprise determining whether a logical forwarding element for the second logical L2 domain should allow a packet to exit the logical forwarding element.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for generating a tunnel between the first and second managed forwarding elements.

14. For a network controller for managing managed forwarding elements that forward data in a network, 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 (i) a first logical L2 processing for a first logical L2 domain, (ii) logical L3 processing, and (iii) a second logical L2 processing for a second logical L2 domain; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to perform logical context mapping to determine whether the first managed forwarding element has performed the first logical L2 processing, the logical L3 processing, and the second logical L2 processing.

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

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a logical L2 processing comprises logical L2 forwarding operations for forwarding packets from one logical port to another logical port in a logical domain.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the logical L3 processing comprises logical L3 routing operations for routing packets from the first logical domain to the second logical domain.

18. For a network controller for managing managed forwarding elements that forward data in a network, 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 (i) a logical L2 processing for a first logical L2 domain, (ii) logical L3 processing, and (iii) logical L2 ingress access control list (ACL) operations for a second logical L2 domain; and

generating a second set of flow entries for configuring the second managed forwarding element to perform a logical L2 egress ACL operations for the second logical L2 domain.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising generating a set of flow entries for one of the first and second managed forwarding elements to establish a tunnel between the first and second managed forwarding elements.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the logical L3 processing comprises logical L3 routing operations for routing packets from the first logical domain to the second logical domain.