APPLICATION BASED DATA TRAFFIC ROUTING USING NETWORK TUNNELING

• US 20140317276A1
• Filed: 03/17/2014
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aerohive Networks Incorporated (Extreme Networks, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tie, Jun, Liu, Changming
• Granted Patent: US 9,794,169 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application

Abstract

Various implementations described herein relate to routing network data traffic using network tunnels. In some implementations, one or more tunnels are established between a remote gateway device and a central gateway device central gateway system. The remote gateway device can receive data traffic from one or more client devices and analyzed the data traffic. Based at least in part on the resulting analysis, the remote gateway device identified an application or an application type associated with the data traffic. The remote gateway device can select one or more select tunnels, from the one or more tunnels, based at least in part on the identification of the application or the application type associated with the data traffic. Eventually, the remote gateway device can route the data traffic to the central gateway system using the one or more select tunnels.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first network device, first data traffic from a client device;

analyzing the first data traffic;

identifying an application or an application type associated with the first data traffic, the identifying being based at least in part on the analyzing the first data traffic;

routing the first data traffic to a second network device using one or more select tunnels, the select tunnels being selected from a set of tunnels established between the first network device and the second network device, the select tunnels being selected based at least in part on the identifying the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network device is a network gateway device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second network device is another network gateway device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second network device is a cloud-base virtual gateway (CVG).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing the one or more select tunnels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic comprises generating application information associated with the first data traffic.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending the application information to the second network device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein sending the application information to the second network device comprises including a network flow tag in the first data traffic before the first data traffic is routed to the one or more select tunnels, the network flow tag being associated with the application or the application type.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein sending application-to-tunnel binding information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein sending an n-tuple of network flow information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving second data traffic from the second network device over one or more tunnels in the set of tunnels.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising routing the second data traffic to the client device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the one or more select tunnels from the set of tunnels.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing a data traffic routing policy for routing data traffic associated with the application or the application type, the select tunnels being selected further based on the data traffic routing policy.

15. A system comprising:

means for receiving, at a first network device, first data traffic from a client device;

means for analyzing the first data traffic;

means for identifying an application or an application type associated with the first data traffic, the identifying being based at least in part on the analyzing the first data traffic;

means for routing the first data traffic to a second network device using one or more select tunnels, the select tunnels being selected from a set of tunnels established between the first network device and the second network device, the select tunnels being selected based at least in part on the identifying the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic.

16. A system comprising:

one or more network interfaces configured to receive first data traffic from a client device;

a data traffic analysis engine configured to analyze the first data traffic;

a data traffic classification engine configured to identify an application or an application type associated with the first data traffic, the identifying being based at least in part on analysis of the first data traffic;

a data traffic routing engine configured to route the first data traffic to a second network device using one or more select tunnels, the select tunnels being selected from a set of tunnels established between the first network device and the second network device, the select tunnels being selected based at least in part on identification of the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first network device is a network gateway device.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the second network device is another network gateway device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the second network device is a cloud-base virtual gateway (CVG).

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising a network tunnel engine configured to establish the one or more select tunnels.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the identifying the application or the application type associated with the first data traffic comprises generating application information associated with the first data traffic.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a data traffic information engine configured to send the application information associated with the first data traffic to the second network device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein sending the application information to the second network device comprises including a network flow tag in the first data traffic before the first data traffic is routed to the one or more select tunnels, the network flow tag being associated with the application or the application type.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein sending application-to-tunnel binding information.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein sending an n-tuple of network flow information.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more network interfaces are further configured to receive second data traffic from the second network device over one or more tunnels in the set of tunnels.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the data traffic routing engine is further configured to route the second data traffic to the client device.

28. The system of claim 16, wherein the data traffic routing engine is further configured to select the one or more select tunnels from the set of tunnels.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein the data traffic routing engine is further configured to implement a data traffic routing policy for routing data traffic associated with the application or the application type, the select tunnels being selected further based on the data traffic routing policy.