Network packet steering

• US 7,203,192 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2002
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Kim, Paul, Hussain, Zahid, Millet, Tim, Desai, Sachin, Yeung, Ken, Yeung, Louise
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Man U.
• Application Number:
  US10/163,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20030223418A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,771 Days
• Field of Search: 370230-238, 370352-395, 370399-401, 370410-468, 709224-239, 709243-244
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2491 Mapping quality of service [QoS] requirements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/254 Centralised controller, i.e. arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/30 Peripheral units, e.g. input or output ports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/65 Re-configuration of fast packet switches

Abstract

Methods and Systems are provided for steering network packets and bridging media channels to a single processing resource. A mapping associates a processing resource with a network interface module (Netmod) or a number of line interface ports included within the Netmod. In one embodiment, the mapping is configurable within the processing resource and pushed to the Netmod. The Netmod uses the mapping to steer network packets to the processing resource when the packets conform to the mapping. Moreover, the mapping can be used to identify a specific process that is to be performed against the packets once the processing resource receives the steered packets from the Netmod.

Claims

1. A network packet steering system, comprising:

one or more processing resources provided by a network routing/switching device, wherein the network routing/switching device comprises a blade server including a plurality of network interfaces;

one or more network interfaces of the plurality of network interfaces; and

wherein the one or more processing resources are configurable, uniquely identified, and dynamically assigned to a number of the one or more network interfaces or to a number of line interface ports associated with a network interface of the one or more network interfaces, and wherein the one or more network interfaces steer an incoming network packet within the network routing/switching device to an appropriate processing resource of the one or more processing resources based on the dynamically configured assignment.

2. The network packet steering system of claim 1, wherein the dynamically configured assignment is provided by one or more of the processing resources to the one or more network interfaces, and the dynamically configured assignment is represented as a table data structure within a volatile memory of the one or more network interfaces.

3. The network packet steering system of claim 1, wherein the one or more network interfaces use the dynamically configured assignment to process one or more filter operations on the incoming network packet before steering packet.

4. The network packet steering system of claim 3, wherein the one or more filter operations are used to detect at least one of a current volume of network traffic, a content format of the incoming network packet, and a context within which the incoming network packet is received.

5. The network packet steering system of claim 1, wherein the dynamically configured assignment is based on processing capabilities of the one or more processing resources.

6. A network interface steering table data structure residing on a computer readable medium within a network routing/switching device, comprising:

a plurality of interface identifiers corresponding to network interfaces of the network routing/switching device;

a plurality of sub-interface identifiers associated with each interface identifier of the plurality of interface identifiers;

an address and a pointer corresponding to each sub-interface identifier of the plurality of sub-interface identifiers, the address being associated with a processing resource of the network routing/switching device to which packets arriving on the sub-interface are to be steered, the pointer being associated with a specific process within the processing resource that is to be used to process the packets, and both the address and the pointer are dynamically associated with the sub-interface, wherein the corresponding address and corresponding pointer are dynamically reconfigured to load balance received network traffic among a plurality of processing resources of a networking device; and

wherein when a packet is received by a network interface of the network routing/switching device, the network interface steering table data structure is indexed based on one or more of an interface identifier of the network interface receiving the packet and a sub-interface identifier associated with a line interface port of the network interface on which providing the packet was received, and the network interface steering table data structure provides the corresponding address and the corresponding pointer to facilitate steering of the received packet within the network routing/switching device.

7. The network interface steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the network interface steering table data structure is created by an interface associated with the processing resource.

8. The network interface steering table data structure of claim 7, wherein the network interface steering table data structure is pushed from the processing resource to the network interface.

9. The network interface steering table data structure of claim 8, wherein the network interface steering table data structure is pushed to a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) of the network interface.

10. The steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the specific process comprises at least one of a packet forwarding process, a packet routing process, a packet authentication process, and a packet encryption/decryption process.

11. The steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the pointer comprises an identifier used by the processing resource to acquire the specific processing resource to process the packet.

12. The steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the network interface uses the corresponding address and the corresponding pointer to steer the packet to the processing resource and have the specific process performed against the packet on the processing resource.

13. The network interface steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the corresponding address and corresponding pointer are dynamically reconfigured responsive to network traffic changes.

14. The network interface steering table data structure of claim 6, wherein the corresponding address and corresponding pointer are dynamically reconfigured to facilitate throughput by a networking device.

15. A method comprising:

providing a dynamically configurable mapping that associates each of a plurality of network interfaces of a network routing/switching device or each of one or more components of the plurality of network interfaces with one or more processing resources of a plurality of processing resources of the network routing/switching device;

responsive to receiving a packet on a particular network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, determining an appropriate processing resource of the plurality of processing resources to which the received packet is to be steered by retrieving information indicative of the associated processing resource from the dynamically configurable mapping based on one or more of the particular network interface upon which the received packet arrived and a component of the network interface upon which the received packet arrived; and

load balancing network traffic among the plurality of processing resources by configuring the mapping responsive to a change in one or more network traffic characteristics.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to processing and memory capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to operational status of the plurality of processing resources.

18. A network packet steering apparatus comprising:

a mapping means for dynamically associating a plurality of network interfaces of a network routing/switching device or one or more components of the plurality of network interfaces with a plurality of processing resources of the network routing/switching device, wherein the network routing/switching device comprises a blade server; and

a steering means, communicatively coupled with the mapping means and responsive to receipt of a packet on a particular network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, for dynamically determining an appropriate processing resource of the plurality of processing resources to which the received packet is to be steered based upon the mapping means.

19. A method comprising:

providing a dynamically configurable mapping that associates each of a plurality of network interfaces of a network routing/switching device or each of one or more components of the plurality of network interfaces with one or more processing resources of a plurality of processing resources of the network routing/switching device;

responsive to receiving a packet on a particular network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, determining an appropriate processing resource of the plurality of processing resources to which the received packet is to be steered by retrieving information indicative of the associated processing resource from the dynamically configurable mapping based on one or more of the particular network interface upon which the received packet arrived and a component of the network interface upon which the received packet arrived; and

load balancing network traffic among the plurality of processing resources by configuring the mapping to account for differing processing capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to processing and memory capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to operational status of the plurality of processing resources.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the load balancing is accomplished by configuring the mapping responsive to a change in one or more network traffic characteristics.

23. A program on a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a network routing/switching device, perform a method comprising:

providing a dynamically configurable mapping that associates each of a plurality of network interfaces of the network routing/switching device or each of one or more components of the plurality of network interfaces with one or more processing resources of a plurality of processing resources of the network routing/switching device;

responsive to receiving a packet on a particular network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, determining an appropriate processing resource of the plurality of processing resources to which the received packet is to be steered by retrieving information indicative of the associated processing resource from the dynamically configurable mapping based on one or more of the particular network interface upon which the received packet arrived and a component of the network interface upon which the received packet arrived; and

load balancing network traffic among the plurality of processing resources by configuring the mapping responsive to a change in one or more network traffic characteristics.

24. The program on a computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to processing and memory capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

25. The program on a computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to operational status of the plurality of processing resources.

26. A program on a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a network routing/switching device, perform a method comprising:

providing a dynamically configurable mapping that associates each of a plurality of network interfaces of the network routing/switching device or each of one or more components of the plurality of network interfaces with one or more processing resources of a plurality of processing resources of the network routing/switching device;

responsive to receiving a packet on a particular network interface of the plurality of network interfaces, determining an appropriate processing resource of the plurality of processing resources to which the received packet is to be steered by retrieving information indicative of the associated processing resource from the dynamically configurable mapping based on one or more of the particular network interface upon which the received packet arrived and a component of the network interface upon which the received packet arrived; and

load balancing network traffic among the plurality of processing resources by configuring the mapping to account for differing processing capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

27. The program on a computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to processing and memory capabilities of the plurality of processing resources.

28. The program on a computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises reconfiguring the dynamically configurable mapping responsive to operational status of the plurality of processing resources.