DISJOINT MULTI-PATHING FOR A DATA CENTER NETWORK

• US 20130223440A1
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: DeCusatis, Casimer M., Kamble, Keshav G., Kumbhare, Abhijit P., Recio, Renato J., Singh, Simarbir
• Granted Patent: US 9,185,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/388
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/021 Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/1283 with disjoint links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/357 Fibre channel switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a data center fabric network system includes a controller, a plurality of switches connected to the controller via a plurality of communication links, a source device connected to at least a first switch of the plurality of switches, a destination device connected to at least a second switch of the plurality of switches, and wherein the controller is adapted for: creating a topology of the data center fabric network system, determining paths between the plurality of switches, calculating one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device based on the topology, and writing the one or more disjoint multi-paths into a forwarding table of at least one of: the source device, the first switch, and a nearest shared switch to the source device.

Claims

1. A data center fabric network system, comprising:

a controller;

a plurality of switches connected to the controller via a plurality of communication links;

a source device connected to at least a first switch of the plurality of switches;

a destination device connected to at least a second switch of the plurality of switches; and

wherein the controller is adapted for;

creating a topology of the data center fabric network system,

determining paths between the plurality of switches,

calculating one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device based on the topology, and

writing the one or more disjoint multi-paths into a forwarding table of at least one of;

the source device, the first switch, and a nearest shared switch to the source device.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to operate as an OpenFlow controller.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, provided that the plurality of switches do not themselves execute a discovery protocol to determine paths to other switches in the system, and wherein the controller is further adapted for storing the determined paths between each switch and all other switches to a forwarding table in each switch.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the controller is further adapted for:

calculating at least one disjoint multi-path between each switch and all other switches in the system; and

writing the at least one disjoint multi-path into a forwarding table of each switch.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the controller is further adapted for:

detecting a change in the system;

in response to the change in the system, re-calculating at least one disjoint multi-path between each switch and all other switches in the system; and

writing the at least one disjoint multi-path into a forwarding table of each switch,

wherein the change in the system comprises one of;

addition of a switch to the system, removal of a switch from the system, and change of a property of a switch in the system.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the controller is further adapted for:

detecting a change in the system affecting a disjoint multi-path between the source device and the destination device;

in response to the change in the system, re-calculating one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device; and

writing the one or more re-calculated disjoint multi-paths into the forwarding table of at least one of;

the source device, the first switch, and the nearest shared switch to the source device,

wherein the change in the system comprises one of;

addition of a switch to the system, removal of a switch from the system, and change of a property of a switch in the system.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device are calculated in response to a request from the source device or the nearest shared switch to the source device.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more disjoint multi-paths comprise at least two paths that are disjoint from one another resulting in at least one fully redundant path.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein a control plane for each of the plurality of switches is controlled by the controller.

10. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to create a topology of a data center fabric network system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of switches;

computer readable program code configured to determine paths between each switch and all other switches of the system;

computer readable program code configured to calculate one or more disjoint multi-paths from a source device to a destination device in the system; and

computer readable program code configured to write the one or more disjoint multi-paths into a forwarding table of at least one of;

the source device and a nearest shared switch to the source device.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of switches do not themselves execute a discovery protocol to determine paths to all other switches in the system, and further comprising computer readable program code configured to store the determined paths to a forwarding table in each switch of the system.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to calculate at least one disjoint multi-path between each switch and all other switches in the system; and

computer readable program code configured to write the at least one disjoint multi-path into a forwarding table of each switch.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to detect a change in the system;

computer readable program code configured to re-calculate at least one disjoint multi-path between each switch and all other switches in the system in response to the change in the system; and

computer readable program code configured to write the at least one disjoint multi-path into a forwarding table of each switch,

wherein the change in the system comprises one of;

addition of a switch to the system, removal of a switch from the system, and change of a property of a switch in the system.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to detect a change in the system Affecting a disjoint multi-path between the source device and the destination device;

computer readable program code configured to re-calculate one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device in response to the change in the system; and

computer readable program code configured to write the one or more re-calculated disjoint multi-paths into the forwarding table of at least one of;

the source device and the nearest shared switch to the source device,

wherein the change in the system comprises one of;

addition of a switch to the system, removal of a switch from the system, and change of a property of a switch in the system.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more disjoint multi-paths from the source device to the destination device are calculated in response to a request from the source device or the nearest shared switch to the source device.

16. The computer program product as recited in claim 10, wherein each of the one or more disjoint multi-paths comprise at least two paths that are disjoint from one another resulting in at least one fully redundant path.

17-25. -25. (canceled)