Dynamic Generation of Flow Entries for Last-Hop Processing

• US 20150117454A1
• Filed: 10/31/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Zhang, Ronghua
• Granted Patent: US 9,124,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2532 Clique of NAT servers

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for a first managed forwarding element that implements logical forwarding elements of a logical network. The method receives a first packet from a second managed forwarding element. The first packet includes context information that indicates a logical network destination that maps to a physical destination connected to the first managed forwarding element. At the first managed forwarding element, the method dynamically generates a flow entry for processing subsequent packets received by the first managed forwarding element from the physical destination and sent to a source of the first packet. The method processes a second packet received by the first managed forwarding element from the physical destination with the dynamically generated flow entry. The dynamically generated flow entry specifies to send the second packet to the second managed forwarding element before logically forwarding the second packet through the logical network.

Claims

1. For a first managed forwarding element that implements logical forwarding elements of a logical network, the logical network comprising at least one middlebox, a method comprising:

receiving a first packet from a second managed forwarding element, the first packet comprising context information indicating a logical network destination that maps to a physical destination connected to the first managed forwarding element;

at the first managed forwarding element, dynamically generating a flow entry for processing subsequent packets received by the first managed forwarding element from the physical destination and sent to a source of the first packet; and

processing a second packet received by the first managed forwarding element from the physical destination with the dynamically generated flow entry, wherein the dynamically generated flow entry specifies to send the second packet to the second managed forwarding element before logically forwarding the second packet through the logical network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically generating the flow entry comprises using values from the first packet to fill in a flow template.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second managed forwarding element processes the first packet to add the context information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the processing by the second managed forwarding element comprises sending the first packet to a first middlebox element that implements the middlebox of the logical network on a same host machine as the second managed forwarding element, wherein the first middlebox element generates state information for a connection between the source and destination of the packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the connection is a transport layer connection.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the middlebox is a firewall and the state information comprises information regarding opening of the connection between the source and destination.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the middlebox is network address translation (SNAT) and the state information comprises a mapping of a first network layer address to a second network layer address.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the state information is not shared with a second middlebox element on a same host machine as the first managed forwarding element.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a third packet from the physical destination that does not match the dynamically generated flow entry; and

processing the third packet by logically forwarding the packet through the logical network before sending the third packet to a third managed forwarding element.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein logical network packets that do not match a dynamically generated flow entry are logically forwarded by an initial managed forwarding element.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically generated flow entry matches the second packet based on a 5-tuple of source and destination IP addresses, source and destination port numbers, and transport layer protocol.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first managed forwarding element comprises a forwarding table with a plurality of flow entries received from a network controller, wherein the dynamically generated flow entry is added to the forwarding table.

13. For a first managed forwarding element that implements logical forwarding elements of a logical network, the logical network comprising a middlebox, the first managed forwarding element operating in a host machine, a method comprising:

processing a first packet received directly from a source machine of the first packet at the first managed forwarding element by (i) identifying the middlebox as a logical egress port of a first logical forwarding element and (ii) forwarding the first packet to a distributed middlebox element implementing the middlebox in the host machine, wherein the distributed middlebox element generates state information for a connection between the source of the first packet and a destination machine of the first packet;

processing a second packet received from the distributed middlebox element by (i) identifying the destination machine as a logical egress port of a second logical forwarding element and (ii) forwarding the second packet to a second managed forwarding element to which the destination machine connects; and

receiving a third packet from the second managed forwarding element, wherein the second managed forwarding element did not identify a logical egress port of the first logical forwarding element for the packet in order for the first managed forwarding element to perform logical network processing and send the third packet to the distributed middlebox element with the generated state information for the connection.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first and second packets have a same set of characteristics.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the source machine of the first packet, the first managed forwarding element, and the distributed middlebox element all reside on the host machine.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the second managed forwarding element resides on a second host machine along with a second distributed middlebox element that implements the middlebox of the logical network, wherein the second distributed middlebox element does not receive the generated state information for the connection.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the second managed forwarding element uses a flow entry dynamically generated while processing the second packet in order to send the third packet to the first managed forwarding before identifying a logical egress port of the first logical forwarding element.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second managed forwarding element identifies a logical egress port of a particular logical switch before sending the third packet to the first managed forwarding element.

19. For a network controller, a method for managing a logical network that comprises a plurality of logical forwarding elements and a middlebox, the method comprising:

generating a first set of flow entries for a first managed forwarding element, the first set of flow entries for use by the first managed forwarding element to perform logical forwarding to implement the plurality of logical forwarding elements when processing packets for which the second managed forwarding element is a first hop, wherein at least one of the flow entries of the first set specifies for the managed forwarding element to forward a packet to a distributed middlebox element that implements the middlebox of the logical network;

generating a second set of flow entries for a second managed forwarding element, the second set of flow entries for use by the second managed forwarding element to perform logical forwarding to implement the plurality of logical forwarding elements when processing packets for which the second managed forwarding element is a first hop; and

generating a particular flow entry for the second managed forwarding element, the particular flow entry specifying for the second managed forwarding element to dynamically generate a new flow entry before delivering a packet received from the first managed forwarding element to a particular machine connected to the second managed forwarding element, wherein the new flow entry specifies for the second managed forwarding element to send packets received from the particular machine with a particular destination address to the first managed forwarding element without using the second set of flow entries to perform logical forwarding for the packets.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the new flow entry specifies for the second managed forwarding element to send a particular packet to the first managed forwarding element without using the second set of flow entries when the particular packet matches a transport connection 5-tuple.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the transport connection 5-tuple comprises a source network layer address, destination network layer address, source transport port number, destination transport port number, and transport protocol.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises distributing the first set of flow entries to the first managed forwarding element and the second set of flow entries to the second managed forwarding element.

23. The method of claim 19 further comprising distributing a same middlebox configuration to a first distributed middlebox element operating at a first host machine with the first managed forwarding element and a second distributed middlebox element operating at a second host machine with the second managed forwarding element.