FLOW TABLE MANAGEMENT METHOD, AND RELATED DEVICE AND SYSTEM

• US 20170078184A1
• Filed: 11/23/2016
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honor Device Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: TANG, Pengcheng, Zhou, Wei
• Granted Patent: US 10,243,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering

Abstract

A flow table management method, devices, and systems. The flow table management method includes: generating, by a software defined network controller, a first flow table entry, where a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, and the first field set includes N fields; and sending, by the software defined network controller, an OpenFlow protocol message to an OpenFlow switch, where the OpenFlow protocol message carries the first flow table entry. The technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention helps reduce a data volume of flow table entries delivered by an SDN controller to an OpenFlow switch, thereby reducing overheads of a control channel to reduce a congestion risk of the control channel, and reducing occupied network processing resources of the SDN controller and the OpenFlow switch to deliver the flow table entries.

Claims

1. A flow table management method, comprising:

generating, by a software defined network controller, a first flow table entry, wherein a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, the first field set comprises N fields, and N is a positive integer; and

sending, by the software defined network controller, an OpenFlow protocol message to an OpenFlow switch, wherein the OpenFlow protocol message carries the first flow table entry.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the index is a flow table entry identifier of a flow table entry stored in the OpenFlow switch.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein each field in a second field set in the first flow table entry carries multiple actual values, wherein the second field set comprises M fields, and M is a positive integer.

4. The method according to claim 1,

before the generating a first flow table entry, further comprising:

receiving, by the software defined network controller, a first packet or a packet header of a first packet from a switch, and determining, according to a preset processing policy, a routing instruction set used to process the first packet, wherein an instruction field of the first flow table entry carries the routing instruction set or an index of the routing instruction set.

5. A flow table management method, comprising:

receiving, by an OpenFlow switch, an OpenFlow protocol message, wherein the OpenFlow protocol message carries a first flow table entry, a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, the first field set comprises N fields, and N is a positive integer;

obtaining, by the OpenFlow switch, the actual value in the first field set based on the index of the actual value in the first field set; and

replacing, by the OpenFlow switch with the actual value in the first field set, the index that is of the actual value in the first field set and that is carried in the first field set in the first flow table entry.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the index is a flow table entry identifier of a flow table entry stored in the switch, and the obtaining the actual value in the first field set based on the index in the first field set comprises:

obtaining, based on the flow table entry identifier, an actual value filled in a third field set that is in the flow table entry represented by the flow table entry identifier and that has a same protocol type as the first field set, wherein fields that are in the third field set and the first field set and that have a same protocol type have a same actual value.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

sending, by the OpenFlow switch, the stored first flow table entry or an identifier of the first flow table entry to a software defined network controller.

8. The method according to claim 5,

before the OpenFlow switch receives the first flow table entry, further comprising:

sending, by the OpenFlow switch, a first packet or a packet header of a first packet to the software defined network controller, wherein

an instruction field of the first flow table entry carries a routing instruction set used to process the first packet or an index of a routing instruction set; and

the method further comprises;

processing, by the OpenFlow switch, the first packet based on the routing instruction set.

9. A flow table relay method, comprising:

receiving, by a virtual layer device, a first OpenFlow protocol message from a first software defined network controller, wherein the first OpenFlow protocol message carries a first flow table entry, and a first field in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field;

receiving, by the virtual layer device, a second OpenFlow protocol message from a second software defined network controller, wherein the second OpenFlow protocol message carries a second flow table entry, and a fourth field in the second flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the fourth field;

combining, by the virtual layer device, the first flow table entry and the second flow table entry into a third flow table entry; and

sending, by the virtual layer device, a third OpenFlow protocol message carrying the third flow table entry to an OpenFlow switch.

10. A software defined network controller, comprising:

a generation unit, configured to generate a first flow table entry, wherein a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, the first field set comprises N fields, and N is a positive integer; and

a sending unit, configured to send an OpenFlow protocol message to an OpenFlow switch, wherein the OpenFlow protocol message carries the first flow table entry.

11. The software defined network controller according to claim 10, wherein the index is a flow table entry identifier of a flow table entry stored in the OpenFlow switch.

12. The software defined network controller according to claim 10, wherein each field in a second field set in the first flow table entry carries multiple actual values, wherein the second field set comprises M fields, and M is a positive integer.

13. The software defined network controller according to claim 10, wherein

the software defined network controller further comprises a receiving unit, configured to:

before the generation unit generates the first flow table entry, receive a first packet or a packet header of a first packet from a switch, and determine, according to a preset processing policy, a routing instruction set used to process the first packet, wherein an instruction field of the first flow table entry carries the routing instruction set or an index of the routing instruction set.

14. An OpenFlow switch, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive an OpenFlow protocol message, wherein the OpenFlow protocol message carries a first flow table entry, a first field set in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field set, the first field set comprises N fields, and N is a positive integer;

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain the actual value in the first field set based on the index of the actual value in the first field set; and

a replacement unit, configured to replace, with the actual value of the first field set that is obtained by the obtaining unit, the index that is of the actual value in the first field set and that is carried in the first field set in the first flow table entry.

15. The OpenFlow switch according to claim 14, wherein the index is a flow table entry identifier of a flow table entry stored in the OpenFlow switch, wherein

the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain, based on the flow table entry identifier, an actual value filled in a third field set that is in the flow table entry represented by the flow table entry identifier and that has a same protocol type as the first field set, wherein fields that are in the third field set and the first field set and that have a same protocol type have a same actual value.

16. The OpenFlow switch according to claim 14, wherein the OpenFlow switch further comprises:

a first sending unit, configured to send the stored first flow table entry or an identifier of the first flow table entry to a software defined network controller.

17. The OpenFlow switch according to claim 14, wherein

the OpenFlow switch further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to;

before the first flow table entry is received, send a first packet or a packet header of a first packet to the software defined network controller, wherein an instruction field of the first flow table entry carries a routing instruction set used to process the first packet or an index of a routing instruction set; and

a packet processing unit, configured to process the first packet based on the routing instruction set.

18. A virtual layer device, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a first OpenFlow protocol message from a first software defined network controller, wherein the first OpenFlow protocol message carries a first flow table entry, and a first field in the first flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the first field; and

receive a second OpenFlow OpenFlow protocol message from a second software defined network controller, wherein the second OpenFlow protocol message carries a second flow table entry, and a fourth field in the second flow table entry carries an index of an actual value in the fourth field;

a combining unit, configured to combine the first flow table entry and the second flow table entry into a third flow table entry; and

a sending unit, configured to send a third OpenFlow protocol message carrying the third flow table entry to an OpenFlow switch.