IMPLEMENTING A SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORK USING EVENT RECORDS THAT ARE TRANSMITTED FROM A NETWORK SWITCH

• US 20140003422A1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Mogul, Jeffrey C., Congdon, Paul T., Barron, Dwight L
• Granted Patent: US 9,325,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74591 using content-addressable memories [CAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Each of a plurality of data packets that is received on a network switch can be associated with a corresponding event record that identifies one or more flow table rules for that data packet. A plurality of event records, which individually can correspond to one or more of the data packets, is transmitted to a programmable resource for use in controlling a Software Defined Network.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a software defined network, the method comprising:

associating each of a plurality of data packets received on a network switch with a corresponding event record that identifies one or more flow table rules for that data packet;

transmitting a plurality of event records to a programmable resource for use in controlling the Software Defined Network, each of the plurality of event records corresponding to one or more of the plurality of data packets.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a buffer on the switch that includes the plurality of event records, and wherein transmitting the plurality of event records includes transmitting a set of event records maintained in a block of the buffer to the programmable resource.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising compressing at least the set of event records before the set of event records is transmitted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding event record that is associated with each of the plurality of data packets specifies a size of the data packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event record that is associated with each of the plurality of data packets specifies a time stamp when the data packet was received at the switch.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the programmable resource is external to the switch.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the programmable resource is a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) resource that is utilized by a processing unit.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing a plurality of counters in the DRAM, the plurality of counters being determined from the plurality of event records that are streamed from the switch.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising implementing one or more triggers for controlling the Software Defined Network based on a threshold that is determined from the plurality of counters.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the programmable resource is a central processing unit that resides on the switch.

11. A network switch for a Software Defined Network, comprising:

a flow table;

an event record generator to determine a event record for an incoming data packet, the event record generator referencing the incoming data packet to an entry for the flow table in order to determine a rule number for the incoming data packet, the event record for the incoming data packet identifying the rule number and a size of the incoming data packet;

a buffer to maintain a plurality of event records for a plurality of data packets; and

a transmission component that transmits a set of multiple event records from the buffer to an external programmable resource.

12. The switch of claim 11, further comprising a compression component that compresses the plurality of event records maintained with the buffer.

13. The switch of claim 11, wherein the transmission component includes a direct memory access (DMA) component that streams the set of multiple event records to a memory resource of the external programmable resource.

14. A switching system for a software defined network, the switching system comprising:

a programmable resource;

a memory associated with the programmable resource;

a network switch that is a separate physical component from the programmable resource, the network switch comprising;

a flow table;

an event record generator to determine a event record for an incoming data packet, the event record generator referencing the incoming data packet to an entry for the flow table in order to determine a rule number for the incoming data packet, the event record for the incoming data packet identifying the rule number and a size of the incoming data packet;

a buffer to maintain a plurality of event records for a plurality of data packets; and

a transmission component that transmits a set of multiple event records from the buffer to the memory of the programmable resource.

15. The switching system of claim 14, further comprising a controller, and

wherein the programmable resource constructs a set of counters from the set of multiple event records, and defines one or more triggers based on a threshold condition that is defined from one or more counters in the set of counters;

and

wherein the programmable resource communicates the one or more triggers to the controller in order to implement one or more policies that are associated with the threshold condition.