PHYSICAL PATH DETERMINATION FOR VIRTUAL NETWORK PACKET FLOWS
First Claim
1. A method for determining a physical network path of a packet flow comprising:
- generating, with a network device, one or more flow trace packets having incrementally increasing respective time-to-live (TTL) values;
sending, with the network device, the flow trace packets on an outbound interface of the network device for the physical network path; and
receiving, with the network device, corresponding time exceeded messages for the flow trace packets, wherein each of the time exceeded messages includes a source network address of a network element on the physical network path.
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Abstract
In general, techniques are described for determining a physical network path taken by packets of a network packet flow. The techniques may be applied to determine, or “trace,” a physical network path in the virtualized network domain. In some examples, a network device includes one or more processors and a switch executed by the processors to forward packets of a packet flow to a physical network path. The network device also includes a flow trace module to generate one or more flow trace packets having incrementally increasing respective time-to-live (TTL) values, wherein the switch module forwards the flow trace packets on an outbound interface of the network device for the physical network path, and wherein the flow trace module receives corresponding time exceeded messages for the flow trace packets, wherein each of the time exceeded message includes a source network address of a network element on the physical network path.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for determining a physical network path of a packet flow comprising:
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generating, with a network device, one or more flow trace packets having incrementally increasing respective time-to-live (TTL) values; sending, with the network device, the flow trace packets on an outbound interface of the network device for the physical network path; and receiving, with the network device, corresponding time exceeded messages for the flow trace packets, wherein each of the time exceeded messages includes a source network address of a network element on the physical network path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A network device comprising:
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one or more processors; a switch executed by the processors to forward packets of a packet flow to a physical network path; and a flow trace module to generate one or more flow trace packets having incrementally increasing respective time-to-live (TTL) values, wherein the switch module forwards the flow trace packets on an outbound interface of the network device for the physical network path, and wherein the flow trace module receives corresponding time exceeded messages for the flow trace packets, wherein each of the time exceeded messages includes a source network address of a network element on the physical network path. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:
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generate, with a network device, one or more flow trace packets having incrementally increasing respective time-to-live (TTL) values; send, with the network device, the flow trace packets on an outbound interface of the network device for the physical network path; receive, with the network device, corresponding time exceeded messages for the flow trace packets, wherein each of the time exceeded message includes a source network address of a network element on a physical network path; and determine, with the network device, the physical network path using the source network addresses of the time exceeded message.
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Specification