Integrating service managers into a routing infrastructure using forwarding agents

• US 7,051,066 B1
• Filed: 07/02/1999
• Issued: 05/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Albert, Mark, Tiwari, Pranav Kumar, O'Rourke, Chris, Menditto, Louis F., Howes, Richard A., Tsang, Tzu-Ming, LeBlanc, William M., Jordan, James A., Kersey, Edward A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): BURGESS, BARBARA N
• Application Number:
  US09/347,034
• Time in Patent Office: 2,517 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/232, 709/211
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

A method of providing a network service is disclosed. The method includes implementing a forwarding agent on a router. The forwarding agent is operative to receive instructions from a service manager. Packets are forwarded from the forwarding agent to the service manager, and the forwarding agent receives instructions from the service manager detailing how to handle the forwarded packets.

Claims

1. A method for providing a network service, comprising:

receiving instructions from a service manager at a forwarding agent, the instructions indicating how packets received by the forwarding agent are to be processed;

processing the packets received at the forwarding agent according to the instructions;

forwarding selected packets from the forwarding agent to the service manager in response to the instructions, wherein the forwarding agent and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

receiving packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include actions determined by the service manager for the packet;

receiving a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

determining that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

handling the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding agent forwards the selected packets to the service manager using a user datagram protocol (UDP).

81. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding agent is operable to change a packet source address, a packet destination, or port numbers associated with the packets.

3. A method for providing a network service, comprising:

receiving packet interest instructions from a service manager at a forwarding agent, the instructions specifying packets that the forwarding agent is to communicate to the service manager;

receiving an initial packet at a forwarding agent that matches one of the packets specified in the packet interest instructions from the service manager; and

communicating the initial packet from the forwarding agent to the service manager so that the packet may be processed at the service manager to determine one or more actions that are to be performed for the packet, wherein the forwarding agent and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

receiving packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet;

receiving a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

determining that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

handling the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the receiving packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet includes receiving a user datagram protocol (UDP) packet at the forwarding agent.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving the initial packet from the service manager at the forwarding agent along with the packet handling instructions; and

handling the packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handing instructions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein handling the packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions includes translating the destination internet protocol (IP) address in the packet so that the packet is forwarded to a different IP address than the IP address originally included in a packet header.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein handling the packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions includes communicating the packet to a destination specified in the packet handling instructions using tag switching.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein hand the packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions includes communicating the packet to a destination specified in the packet handling instructions using IP tunneling.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent, the destination being determined by the service manager.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes translating the destination IP address in the packet.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes communicating the packet to the destination using tag switching.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes communicating the packet to the destination using IP tunneling.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the forwarding agent is implemented on a selected one of a group consisting of:

a switch;

a load balancer; and

a router.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving packet interest instructions from a service manager at a forwarding agent specifying packets that the forwarding agent is instructed to communicate to the service manager includes receiving a multicast of the packet interest instructions communicated to a plurality of forwarding agents.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving unicast packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving multicast packet handling instructions from the service manager at the plurality of forwarding agents that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet.

17. The method of claim 3, wherein specifying packets that the forwarding agent is instructed to communicate to the service manager includes receiving a UDP packet at the forwarding agent.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving the packet interest instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent includes receiving a wildcard affinity at the forwarding agent that identifies one or more flows to be received by the forwarding agent.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the wildcard affinity includes a selected one of a group consisting of:

a source IP address;

a destination IP address;

a source port; and

a destination port.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity further includes a protocol identifier.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address includes a plurality of IP addresses.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address includes a plurality of IP addresses.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity destination port includes a plurality of ports.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity source port includes a plurality of ports.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address includes a range of IP addresses.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address includes a range of IP addresses.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity destination port includes a range of ports.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity source port includes a range of ports.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address specifies a set of IP addresses by using a netmask element.

30. The method of claim 19, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address specifies a set of IP addresses by using a netmask element.

31. The method of claim 3, wherein the action determined is translating the destination IP address of the initial packet.

32. The method of claim 3, wherein the action determined is forwarding the initial packet to a destination different than the destination IP address of the initial packet.

33. The method of claim 3, wherein the action determined is forwarding the initial packet without changing the initial packet and reporting information about the packet to the service manager.

34. The method of claim 3, wherein the action determined is translating the source IP address of the initial packet.

35. A forwarding agent, comprising:

a service manager receiving interface for receiving instructions from a service manager specifying actions to be performed for server designated packets, wherein the forwarding agent and the slice manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

a service manager sending interface for sending packets to the service manager;

a network packet receiving interface for receiving internet protocol (IP) packets from a network;

a network packet forwarding interface for forwarding IP packets to the network; and

a processor for performing the specified actions on the server designated packets, wherein the forwarding agent it operable to receive packet handling instructions that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet, to receive a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent and to determine that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions, the subsequent packet being handled at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, and wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

36. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 35, further comprising a service manager instruction storage element for storing the service manager instructions.

37. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 36, wherein the service manager instruction storage element includes a general instruction storage that stores criteria for forwarding packets to the service manager and a specific instruction storage that stores specific instructions for handling the server designated packets.

38. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 37, further comprising a comparator for comparing portions of newly received packets to the stored criteria.

39. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 37, wherein the stored criteria are affinities that identify one or more flows.

40. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 35, wherein the forwarding agent is included in a selected one of a group consisting of:

a switch;

a load balancer; and

a router.

41. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 37, wherein the stored criteria include a selected one or more of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, and a destination port.

42. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 35, wherein the server designated packets are designated by affinities.

43. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 35, wherein the server designated packets are designated by a selected one or more of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, and a destination port.

44. The forwarding agent as recited in claim 35, wherein the service manager receiving interface and the network packet receiving interface are the same interface.

82. The forwarding agent of claim 35, wherein the forwarding agent is operable to change a packet source address, a packet destination, or port numbers associated with the packets.

45. A computer readable storage medium for handling packets, the computer readable storage medium comprising code operable to:

receive instructions from a service manager;

process packets according to the instructions;

forward selected packets from a forwarding agent to the service manager, wherein the forwarding agent and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

receive packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet;

receive a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

determine that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

handle the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

83. The medium of claim 45, wherein the forwarding agent is operable to change a packet source address, a packet destination, or port numbers associated with the packets.

46. A computer readable storage medium for providing a network service, the computer readable storage medium comprising code operable to:

receive packet interest instructions from a service manager, the instructions specifying one or more packets that a forwarding agent is to communicate to the service manager, wherein the forwarding agent and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

receive an initial packet that matches one of the packets specified in the packet interest instructions from the service manager;

communicate the initial packet to the service manager so that the packet may be processed at the service manager to determine one or more actions that are to be performed for the packet;

receive packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet;

receive a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

determine that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

handle the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

47. The medium of claim 46, wherein receiving the packet handling instructions from the service manager at the forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet includes receiving a user datagram protocol (UDP) packet at the forwarding agent.

48. Previously Presented) The medium of claim 46, wherein the code is further operable to:

receive the initial packet from the service manager along with the packet handling instructions; and

handle the packet according to the packet handling instructions.

49. The medium of claim 48, wherein handling the packet according to the packet handling instructions includes translating the destination IP address in the packet so that the packet is forwarded to a different IP address than the IP address originally included in the packet header.

50. The medium of claim 48, wherein handling the packet according to the packet handling instructions includes communicating the packet to a destination specified in the packet handling instructions using tag switching.

51. The medium of claim 48, wherein handling the packet according to the packet handling instructions includes communicating the packet to a destination specified in the packet handling using IP tunneling.

52. The medium of claim 46, wherein the code is further operable to forward the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent, the destination being determined by the service manager.

53. The medium of claim 52, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes translating the destination IP address in the packet.

54. The medium of claim 52, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes communicating the packet to the destination using tag switching.

55. The medium of claim 52, wherein forwarding the packet from the service manager to a destination other than the forwarding agent includes communicating the packet to the destination using IP tunneling.

56. The medium of claim 46, wherein the forwarding agent is implemented on a selected one of a switch and a router.

57. The medium of claim 46, wherein the service manager is implemented on a switch.

58. The medium of claim 46, wherein receiving the packet interest instructions from a service manager includes receiving a multicast of the packet interest instructions sent to a plurality of forwarding agents.

59. The medium of claim 58, wherein the code is further operable to receive unicast packet handling instructions from the service manager that includes the actions determined by the service manager for the packet.

60. The medium of claim 58, wherein the code is further operable to receive multicast packet handling instructions from the service manager at the plurality of forwarding agents that include the actions determined by the service manager for the packet.

61. The medium of claim 46, wherein the code is further operable to receive a UDP packet at the forwarding agent.

62. The medium of claim 46, wherein the code is further operable to receive a wildcard affinity.

63. The medium of claim 62, wherein the wildcard affinity includes a selected one or more of a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port, and a destination port.

64. The medium of claim 62, wherein the wildcard affinity further includes a protocol identifier.

65. The medium of claim 62, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address includes a plurality of IP addresses.

66. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address includes a plurality of IP addresses.

67. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity destination port includes a plurality of ports.

68. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity source port includes a plurality of ports.

69. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address includes a range of IP addresses.

70. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address includes a range of IP addresses.

71. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity destination port includes a range of ports.

72. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity source port includes a range of ports.

73. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity source IP address specifies a set of IP addresses by using a netmask element.

74. The medium of claim 63, wherein the wildcard affinity destination IP address specifies a set of IP addresses by using a netmask element.

75. The medium of claim 46, wherein the action determined is translating the destination IP address of the initial packet.

76. The medium of claim 46, wherein the action determined is forwarding the initial packet to a destination different than the destination IP address of the initial packet.

77. The medium of claim 46, wherein the action determined is forwarding the initial packet without changing the initial packet and reporting information about the packet to the service manager.

78. The medium of claim 46, wherein the action determined is translating the source IP address of the initial packet.

79. A system for providing a network service, comprising:

means for receiving instructions from a service manager, the instructions indicating how packets received are to be processed;

means for processing the packets according to the instructions;

means for forwarding selected packets to the service manager;

means for receiving packet handling instructions from the service manager at a forwarding agent that includes the actions determined by the service manager for the packet, wherein the forwarding agent and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager within the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

means for receiving a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

means for determining that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

means for handling the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.

80. A system for providing a network service, comprising:

means for receiving packet interest instructions from a service manager, the instructions specifying packets to be sent to the service manager;

means for receiving an initial packet that matches one of the packets specified in the packet interest instructions from the service manager;

means for communicating the initial packet to the service manager so that the packet may be processed at the service manager to determine actions that are to be performed for the packet;

means for receiving packet handling instructions from the service manager at a forwarding agent that include the actions determined by the service manger for the packet, wherein the forwarding agent, and the service manager are configured on a single network device such that one or more packets may be exchanged between the forwarding agent and the service manager with the network device, and wherein the single network device includes an additional forwarding agent and an additional service manager and the single network device is coupled to one or more servers that are operable to satisfy a request generated by one or more clients that are coupled to a network disposed between the clients and the single network device, and wherein a portion of traffic generated by the clients, which is destined for one or more of the servers, is handled by the forwarding agent and another portion of the traffic is handled by the additional forwarding agent;

means for receiving a subsequent packet at the forwarding agent;

means for determining that the subsequent packet matches a criteria included in the packet handling instructions; and

means for handling the subsequent packet at the forwarding agent according to the packet handling instructions, wherein the packet interest instructions provided by the service manager are associated with a selected one of a group consisting of;

a routing operation;

a load balancing operation;

a packet modification operation;

a tunneling operation; and

a tag switching operation.