FORWARDING DATA PACKETS

• US 20170041230A1
• Filed: 04/21/2015
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: H3C Technologies Co., Limited (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: WANG, Ruping, Huang, Liwei
• Granted Patent: US 10,305,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/64 Hybrid switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

A first node receives an original data packet sent from a terminal device. The first node inserts a forwarding identifier into original data packet and forwards the modified data packet to the other node. The other node forwards the data packet according to the forwarding identifier.

Claims

1. A method for forwarding data packets in a SDN network, comprising:

receiving, by a SDN switch, an original data packet from a terminal device when the SDN switch is a first node of a forwarding path which is determined by a SDN controller;

searching, by the SDN switch, its flow table based on a keyword carried in the original data packet to find a first ID entry which is matched with the keyword, wherein the first ID entry includes a mapping relationship among the keyword, a forwarding identifier (For ID) and a first action set;

inserting, by the SDN switch, the For ID of the matched first ID entry into the original data packet to generate a modified data packet according to the first action set,

forwarding, by the SDN switch, the modified data packet through a first egress port according to the first action set so that the other nodes of the forwarding path could process the modified data packet according to the For ID.

2. The method according to claim 1, when the switch is an intermediate node of the forwarding path, the method further comprising:

after receiving the modified data packet from other node, the SDN switch searching, according to the For ID, its flow table to find a second ID entry which is matched with the For ID carried in data packet;

wherein the second ID entry include a mapping relationship between the For ID and a second action set; and

wherein the second action set includes forwarding the modified data packet through a second egress port.

3. The method according to claim 1, when the switch is a tail node of the forwarding path, the method further comprising:

after receiving the modified data packet from the intermediate node, the SDN switch searching, according to the For ID, its flow table to find a third ID entry which is matched with the For ID carried in data packet;

wherein the third ID entry include a mapping relationship between the For ID and a third action set; and

wherein the third action set includes removing the For ID and forwarding the original data packet through a third egress port.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

processing, by the SDN switch, the data packet according to a fourth action set of a keyword entry which is matched with the keyword of the data packet.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

sending, by the SDN switch, the original packet to a SDN controller when the original packet is matched with a default entry;

saving ID entry or keyword entry returned from the SDN controller.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

deleting, by the SDN switch, an ID entry which has a For ID carried in an aging message sent from the SDN controller.

7. A SDN switch comprising a processor and a storage, the storage comprising instructions of forwarding data packet;

wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the processor to;

receive an original data packet from a terminal device when the SDN switch is a first node of a forwarding path which is determined by a SDN controller;

search its flow table based on a keyword carried in the original data packet to find a first ID entry which is matched with the keyword, wherein the first ID entry includes a mapping relationship among the keyword, a For ID and a first action set;

insert the For ID of the matched first ID entry into the original data packet to generate a modified data packet according to the first action set,

forward the modified data packet through a first egress port according to the first action set so that the other nodes of the forwarding path could process the modified data packet according to the For ID.

8. The SDN switch according to claim 7, wherein when the switch is an intermediate node of the forwarding path, the instructions further cause the processor to:

after receiving the modified data packet from other node, search according to the For ID, its flow table to find a second ID entry which is matched with the For ID carried in data packet;

wherein the second ID entry include a mapping relationship between the For ID and a second action set; and

wherein the second action set includes forwarding the modified data packet through a second egress port.

9. The SDN switch according to claim 7, wherein when the switch is a tail node of the forwarding path, the instructions further cause the processor to:

after receiving the modified data packet from the intermediate node, search, according to the For ID, its flow table to find a third ID entry which is matched with the For ID carried in data packet;

wherein the third ID entry include a mapping relationship between the For ID and a third action set; and

wherein the third action set includes removing the For ID and forwarding the original data packet through a third egress port.

10. The SDN switch according to claim 7, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

process the data packet according to a fourth action set of a keyword entry which is matched with the keyword of the data packet.

11. The SDN switch according to claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

send the original packet to a SDN controller when the original packet is matched with a default entry;

save ID entry or keyword entry returned from the SDN controller.

12. The SDN switch according to claim 7, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

delete an ID entry which has a For ID carried in an aging message sent from the SDN controller.

13. A method for controlling data packets forwarding in an SDN network, comprising:

calculating, by a controller, a forwarding path for an original data packet after receiving the original data packet from an SDN switch;

determining, by the controller, a first node, each intermediate node and a tail nod of the forwarding path;

generating, by the controller, a first ID entry for the first node, a second ID entry of each intermediate node and a third ID entry for the third node;

wherein the ID entry includes a mapping relationship between forwarding Identifier (For ID) and an action set; and

distributing, by the controller, the generated ID entries to each node respectively.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the first ID entry includes a mapping relationship among the keyword, a For ID and a first action set;

the first action set includes inserting the For ID of the matched first ID entry into the original data packet to generate a modified data packet and forwarding the modified data packet through a first egress port;

wherein the second ID entry includes a mapping relationship between the For ID and a second action set; and

wherein the second action set includes forwarding the modified data packet through a second egress port

wherein the third ID entry includes a mapping relationship between the For ID and a third action set; and

wherein the third action set includes removing the For ID and forwarding the original data packet through a third egress port.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the controller, whether there is an idle For ID before generating ID entries;

if there is an idle For ID, the controller selecting an idle For ID from a preset ID table to generate the ID entries and set an aging time for each ID entry;

if there is no idle For ID, the controller generating and distributing keyword entries for each node of the forwarding path respectively.

notifying, by the controller, each node to delete ID entry which include the For ID when the aging time of a For ID is reached.