APPLICATION HINTS FOR NETWORK ACTION

• US 20140280838A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Warnicke, Ed, Finn, Norman, Kanekar, Bhushan
• Granted Patent: US 9,282,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A user application may provide a hint which may be used by a compute device to select a tag to be inserted into the packets generated by the user application. Upon some event, the application transmits a hint associated with a network flow generated by the user application to a stack associated with the computing device. One of the layers of the stack—e.g., the operating system in the computing device—may include a hint database that contains rules for selecting tags using a received hint as input. The layer may then insert the tag into one or more packets of the network flow. When processing the packet, network devices in the SDN enabled network recognize the tag and perform an action corresponding to the tag.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a tag for use in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment, the method comprising:

receiving an attribute from a user application executing on a computing device, the attribute describing a network flow associated with the user application;

comparing the attribute to one or more rules to select at least one tag for the network flow, wherein the selected tag is associated with a corresponding action to be performed in the SDN environment;

inserting the received tag into at least one packet in the network flow; and

after inserting the received tag, transmitting the at least one packet into the SDN environment, wherein at least one network device in the SDN environment is configured to recognize the tag in the at least one packet and perform the corresponding action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers through which packets of the network flow traverse before being transmitting into the SDN environment, further comprising:

transmitting the attribute from the user application to at least one layer of the hierarchical stack, wherein the at least one layer stores a local copy of the one or more rules to select the at least one tag.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one layer is one of:

a network library associated with the user application, an operating system executing on the computing device, and a virtual machine executing on the computing device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one layer receives the one or more rules from a tag controller tag controller associated with the SDN environment and inserts the selected tag into the at least one packet in the network flow as the at least one packet traverses the hierarchical stack.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, before the attribute is transmitted by the user application, the tag controller uses a description associated with the attribute to generate the one or more rules for evaluating the receiving attributes, further comprising:

receiving a hint database comprising the one or more rules from the tag controller.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute is embedded into a separate data communication that traverses a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers in the computing device, wherein the attribute traverses the stack in the separate data communication until the attribute arrives at one of the plurality of layers that contains the one or more rules used to select the at least one tag.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute is selected from a plurality of attributes based on an event occurring at the user application, wherein the event is at least one of:

the user application beginning to execute, establishing a remote connection, receiving a user request, and estimating a duration or total data transfer amount of the network flow.

8. A computer program product for selecting a tag for use in a SDN environment, the computer program product comprising:

computer code that receives an attribute from a user application executing on a computing device, the attribute describing a network flow associated with the user application;

computer code that compares the attribute to one or more rules to select at least one tag for the network flow, wherein the selected tag is associated with a corresponding action to be performed in the SDN environment;

computer code that inserts the received tag into at least one packet in the network flow; and

computer code that, after inserting the received tag, transmits the at least one packet into the SDN environment, wherein at least one network device in the SDN environment is configured to recognize the tag in the at least one packet and perform the corresponding action.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computing device comprises a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers through which packets of the network flow traverse before being transmitting into the SDN environment, the computer program product further comprising:

computer code that transmits the attribute from the user application to at least one layer of the hierarchical stack, wherein the at least one layer stores a local copy of the one or more rules to select the at least one tag.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the at least one layer is one of:

a network library associated with the user application, an operating system executing on the computing device, and a virtual machine executing on the computing device.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the at least one layer receives the one or more rules from a tag controller tag controller associated with the SDN environment and inserts the selected tag into the at least one packet in the network flow as the at least one packet traverses the hierarchical stack.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein, before the attribute is transmitted by the user application, the tag controller uses a description associated with the attribute to generate the one or more rules for evaluating the receiving attributes, further comprising:

computer code that receives a hint database comprising the one or more rules from the tag controller.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the attribute is embedded into a separate data communication that traverses a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers in the computing device, wherein the attribute traverses the stack in the separate data communication until the attribute arrives at one of the plurality of layers that contains the one or more rules used to select the at least one tag.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the attribute is selected from a plurality of attributes based on an event occurring at the user application, wherein the event is at least one of:

the user application beginning to execute, establishing a remote connection, receiving a user request, and estimating a duration or total data transfer amount of the network flow

15. A system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a memory containing a program that, when executed on the computer processor, performs an operation for selecting a tag for use in a SDN environment, comprising;

receiving an attribute from a user application executing on a computing device, the attribute describing a network flow associated with the user application;

comparing the attribute to one or more rules to select at least one tag for the network flow, wherein the selected tag is associated with a corresponding action to be performed in the SDN environment;

inserting the received tag into at least one packet in the network flow; and

after inserting the received tag, transmitting the at least one packet into the SDN environment, wherein at least one network device in the SDN environment is configured to recognize the tag in the at least one packet and perform the corresponding action.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing device comprises a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers through which packets of the network flow traverse before being transmitting into the SDN environment, further comprising:

transmitting the attribute from the user application to at least one layer of the hierarchical stack, wherein the at least one layer stores a local copy of the one or more rules to select the at least one tag.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one layer is one of:

a network library associated with the user application, an operating system executing on the computing device, and a virtual machine executing on the computing device.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one layer is one of:

a network library associated with the user application, an operating system executing on the computing device, and a virtual machine executing on the computing device.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the attribute is embedded into a separate data communication that traverses a hierarchical stack comprising a plurality of layers in the computing device, wherein the attribute traverses the stack in the separate data communication until the attribute arrives at one of the plurality of layers that contains the one or more rules used to select the at least one tag.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the attribute is selected from a plurality of attributes based on an event occurring at the user application, wherein the event is at least one of:

the user application beginning to execute, establishing a remote connection, receiving a user request, and estimating a duration or total data transfer amount of the network flow