FORWARDING DATA PACKETS USING A SERVICE-BASED FORWARDING POLICY

• US 20150281087A1
• Filed: 03/25/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: A10 Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Jalan, Rajkumar, Kamat, Gurudeep, Sankar, Swaminathan, Karampurwala, Hasnain
• Granted Patent: US 9,942,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for forwarding data packets in a service network using a service-based policy. A gateway node may receive data packets from a service session and send the data packets for a forwarding node. The forwarding node may match the service session data packet against a service address and forwarding policy, the forwarding policy being based on capabilities and service configurations of the servicing nodes in the service network. Forwarding node may then forward the service session data packet to a servicing node in accordance with the forwarding policy, and send the service session data packet to a server for processing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for forwarding a data packet in a service network, comprising:

receiving from a client device, the data packet destined to a servicing node;

matching the data packet against a service address;

matching the data packet against a classification rule in a forwarding policy associated with the service address, wherein the classification rule is based on a capability of a second servicing node; and

upon determining that the data packet matches the service address and the packet matches the classification rule, sending to the servicing node.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the classification rule comprises a classification and servicing node information for matching the data packet against the classification of the classification rule.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the classification comprises one or more of:

a source IP address, a source port number, a destination port number, and a link layer address.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the matching the data packet against a classification rule comprises one or more of:

a hashing function, a bit-wise operation, a cryptographic function, a comparison, or a lookup function, and extracting a part of a network address of the data packet.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the capability comprises one or more of:

a network application availability, a network application capability, a network application capacity, a memory capacity, a connection capacity, a hardware module, a hardware processing acceleration, and a hardware based encryption processor module.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second servicing node is the same as the servicing node.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second servicing node is different from the servicing node, and wherein the forwarding policy further comprises a second classification rule indicating the second servicing node.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the classification rule from a network controller, wherein the network controller receives the capability of the second servicing node and generates the classification rule based on the received capability.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the network controller is a network computer different from the forwarding node.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the network controller is a software module in the forwarding node.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer readable code, which when executed by one or more processors, implements a method for forwarding a data packet in a service network, the method comprising:

receiving from a client device, the data packet destined to a servicing node;

matching the data packet against a service address;

matching the data packet against a classification rule in a forwarding policy associated with the service address, wherein the classification rule is based on a capability of a second servicing node; and

upon determining that the data packet matches the service address and the packet matches the classification rule, sending to the servicing node.

12. A computer-implemented method for generating a forwarding policy for a service network comprising a forwarding node and a plurality of servicing nodes, the method comprising:

receiving a capability from a servicing node related to a service address;

generating a plurality of classification rules based on the received capability and a second capability of another servicing node; and

storing the generated classification rules in the forwarding policy.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein generating a plurality of classification rules further comprises:

determining a credit for the received capability;

determining a second credit for the second capability; and

generating the plurality of classification rules further based on the credit and the second credit.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the determining of the credit and the second credit is based on a pre-stored configuration.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of classification rules comprises a first one or more classification rules for the servicing node and a second one or more classification rules for the second servicing node.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the number of rules of the first one or more classification rules is according to the proportion of the credit related to the second credit.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising sending the forwarding policy to a forwarding node, wherein the forwarding policy applies the forwarding policy to a received data packet.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising receiving statistical data from the forwarding node relating to the forwarding policy.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising generating a report based on the received statistical data.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the capability of the servicing node comprises one or more of:

a network application availability, a network application capability, a network application capacity, a memory capacity, a connection capacity, a hardware module, a hardware processing acceleration, and a hardware based encryption processor module.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving an updated capability of the servicing node;

generating an updated plurality of classification rules based on the updated capability; and

updating the forwarding policy with the updated plurality of classification rules.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of classification rule comprises a classification and an indication to the servicing node or the second servicing node.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the classification comprises one or more of:

a source IP address, a source port number, a destination port number, and a link layer address.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the storing the generated classification rules in the forwarding policy comprises sending the forwarding policy to a forwarding node, wherein the forwarding policy applies the forwarding policy to matching a received data packet against a classification of the plurality of classification rules in the forwarding policy.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising receiving statistics data from the servicing node related to the capability of the servicing node.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, further comprising generating a report based on the received statistics data.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, wherein the generating is further based on the received statistics data and a second statistics data from the second servicing node.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the generating further comprises comparing the received statistics data and the second statistics data.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the generating further comprises comparing the received statistics data, the second statistics data and the plurality of classification rules.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer readable code, which when executed by one or more processors, implements a method for generating a forwarding policy for a service network comprising a forwarding node and a plurality of servicing nodes, the method comprising:

receiving a capability from a servicing node related to a service address;

generating a plurality of classification rules based on the received capability and a second capability of another servicing node; and

storing the generated classification rules in the forwarding policy.

31. A service network system for forwarding a data packet in a service network, comprising:

a plurality of servicing nodes, wherein each of the plurality of servicing nodes is configured to;

send to a network controller a capability associated to a service address; and

send to the network controller a collection of statistics data related to the capability;

a forwarding node, wherein the forwarding node is configured to;

receive from the network controller a forwarding policy comprising a plurality of classification rules;

receive a data packet;

match the data packet against the service address;

match the data packet against a classification rule of the forwarding policy;

upon determining that the data packet matches the service address and the classification rule, send the data packet to a servicing node indicated by the classification rule; and

send to the network controller a second collection of statistics data related to the forwarding policy; and

the network controller, wherein the network controller is configured to;

receive a plurality of capabilities from the plurality of servicing nodes;

generate the plurality of classification rules based on the received plurality of capabilities;

store the generated plurality of classification rules in the forwarding policy;

send the forwarding policy to the forwarding node;

receive the plurality of statistics data from the plurality of servicing nodes;

receive the statistics data from the forwarding node; and

generate a report based on the received statistics data.