FILTER TABLES FOR MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

• US 20170331672A1
• Filed: 05/11/2016
• Published: 11/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Fedyk, Donald, Bottorff, Paul Allen
• Granted Patent: US 10,097,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5041 characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/66 Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering

Abstract

In accordance with examples disclosed herein, a filter table for Media Access Control (MAC) chaining contains mappings between signature addresses, service functions, and management functions, to identify corresponding service function chains. The filter table is to store statistic information about the packet. A controller is to uniquely identify a management function corresponding to the signature address, and modify tables of packet signature addresses usable to modify the packet to cause the packet to be forwarded to the management function. The controller is to update the statistic information about the packet.

Claims

1. A networking component comprising:

an ingress port to receive a packet including a signature address;

a filter table to be used in Media Access Control (MAC) chaining, to contain mappings between signature addresses, service functions, and management functions, to identify corresponding service function chains, wherein the filter table is to store statistic information about the packet;

a controller to uniquely identify a management function corresponding to the signature address, and modify tables of packet signature addresses usable to modify the packet to cause the packet to be forwarded to the management function, wherein the controller is to update the statistic information about the packet.

2. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the management function is to trace a service function chain (SFC) to check chain integrity of the SFC, including locating and isolating an integrity failure of the SFC.

3. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the management function is to generate a management packet, independent of user traffic, containing management information usable to exercise a given branch of the SFC.

4. The networking component of claim 1, wherein, in response to identifying that a management packet does not contain management information, the management function is to use a heuristic approach based on a packet payload, to exercise a given branch of the SFC.

5. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the controller is to convert a N-ary branching control of a MAC chain to a binary tree, and generate a minimal match binary prefix for a given branch point of the binary tree branching control.

6. The networking component of claim 5, wherein the controller is to assign a local branch prefix to a given service or management function, wherein the local branch prefix enables the corresponding function to compare the local branch prefix to the minimal match binary prefix and accordingly determine which branch to take.

7. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the management function is to send a management packet to an upstream service function forwarder (SFF) to invalidate an entry in the SFF corresponding to an integrity failure in a SFC.

8. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the management function is to send a management packet to a management plane to inform the management plane to handle an integrity failure in a SFC.

9. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the management function is a provisioning function to check operation of a SFC before putting live traffic on the SFC.

10. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the metadata of the packet includes a type-length-value (TLV) portion storing a tag to uniquely indicate the management function corresponding to the tag.

11. The networking component of claim 1, wherein the statistic information corresponds to at least one of i) performance tracking of the packet, and ii) topology monitoring of the packet.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving, at an ingress port, a packet including a signature address;

mapping, by a filter table to be used in MAC chaining, between signature addresses, service functions, and management functions, to identify a corresponding service function chain;

storing, by the filter table, statistic information about the packet;

uniquely identifying, by a controller, a management function corresponding to the signature address;

modifying, by the controller, tables of packet signature addresses usable to modify the packet to cause the packet to be forwarded to the management function; and

updating, by the controller, the statistic information about the packet.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising tracing, by the management function, a service function chain (SFC) to check chain integrity of the SFC, including locating and isolating an integrity failure of the SFC.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a computing system that, when executed, cause the computing system to:

receive, at an ingress port, a packet including a signature address;

map, by a filter table to be used in MAC chaining, between signature addresses, service functions, and management functions, to identify a corresponding service function chain;

store, by the filter table, statistic information about the packet;

uniquely identify, by a controller, a management function corresponding to the signature address;

modify, by the controller, tables of packet signature addresses usable to modify the packet to cause the packet to be forwarded to the management function; and

update, by the controller, the statistic information about the packet.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions that cause the computing system to generate a management packet, independent of user traffic, containing management information usable to exercise a given branch of the SFC.