Service processing switch

• US 8,064,462 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2010
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Millet, Tim, Hussain, Zahid
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, MAN U
• Application Number:
  US12/781,808
• Publication Number:
  US 20100220732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• Field of Search: 370230-235, 370253-255, 370312-352, 370386-397, 709217-224, 709238-246, 714 14- 21
• US Class Current: 370/395
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2408 for supporting different services, e.g. a differentiated services [DiffServ] type of service
• 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 47/326 with random discard, e.g. random early discard [RED]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6215 Individual queue per QOS, rate or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/623 Weighted service order
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 : for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 : for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 : Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/164 : at the network layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 : Negotiation of communication capabilities

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing IP services in an integrated fashion are provided. According to one embodiment, a system includes a switch fabric and a line interface/network module, multiple virtual routing engines (VREs) and a virtual services engine (VSE) coupled with the switch fabric. The line interface/network module receives packets, steers ingress packets to a selected VRE and transmits egress packets according to their relative priority. VREs determines if a packet associated with a packet flow requires processing by the VSE by performing flow-based packet classification on the packet and evaluating forwarding state information associated with previously stored flow learning results. The VSE includes a central processing unit configured to perform firewall processing, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering and anti-virus processing. If the packet is determined to require processing by the VSE, then the packet is steered to the VSE for firewall, URL filtering and/or anti-virus processing.

Claims

1. A system for providing Internet Protocol (IP) services, comprising:

a switch fabric;

a line interface/network module coupled to the switch fabric;

a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) coupled to the switch fabric; and

a virtual services engine (VSE), coupled to the switch fabric, including at least one central processing unit configured to perform firewall processing, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering and anti-virus processing;

wherein the line interface/network module receives packets and steers ingress packets across the switch fabric to a selected VRE of the plurality of VREs and transmits egress packets according to their relative priority;

wherein the line interface/network module includes an egress forwarding manager which applies priority queuing to the egress packets based on DiffServ marking and transmits the egress packets out of the line interface/network module;

wherein the selected VRE determines if a packet associated with a packet flow requires processing by the VSE by performing flow-based packet classification on the packet and evaluating forwarding state information associated with previously stored flow learning results based on a previously received packet of the packet flow; and

if the packet is determined to require processing by the VSE, then steering the packet across the switch fabric to the VSE for one or more of the firewall processing, the URL filtering and the anti-virus processing.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second VSE.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the second VSE comprises an advanced security engine (ASE).

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the ASE comprises a plurality of encryption accelerators, a key accelerator and a security manager configured to load balance and manage security sessions across the plurality of encryption accelerators.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the line interface/network module includes an ingress forwarding manager which maintains a steering table mapping virtual local area networks to one or more VREs of the plurality of VREs.

6. A method for providing Internet Protocol (IP) services comprising:

providing within a flow manager of a switch a steering table mapping a plurality of virtual local area networks (VLANs) to one or more of a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) of the switch;

receiving a packet associated with a VLAN of the plurality of VLANs at a line interface/network module of a plurality of line interface/network modules of the switch;

the flow manager steering the packet across a fabric of the switch to a VRE of the plurality of VREs based on a result of a steering table lookup of the VLAN in the steering table;

the VRE identifying a packet flow with which the packet is associated by performing deep packet classification;

the VRE determining if the packet requires processing by a virtual services engine (VSE) of a plurality of VSEs of the switch by consulting a flow cache, the VSE including at least one central processing unit configured to perform firewall processing, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering and anti-virus processing;

if the packet requires processing by the VSE, transferring the packet across the fabric to the VSE for processing;

if the packet is not dropped or otherwise blocked as a result of one or more of the firewall processing, the URL filtering and the anti-virus processing, the VSE transferring the processed packet back to the VRE for forwarding;

applying, by an egress forwarding manager of the line interface/network manger, priority queuing to egress packets based on DiffServ marking; and

transmitting, by the egress forwarding manager, the egress packets out of the line/interface/network module.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the switch further comprises an advanced security engine (ASE), including a plurality of encryption accelerators, a key accelerator and a security manager, the method further comprising load balancing and managing security sessions, by the security manager, across the plurality of encryption accelerators.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the line interface/network module includes an ingress forwarding manager, the method further comprising maintaining, by the ingress forwarding manager, a steering table that maps virtual local area networks to one or more VREs of the plurality of VREs.

7. A system for providing Internet Protocol (IP) services, comprising:

a fabric;

a line interface/network module coupled to the fabric;

a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) coupled to the fabric; and

a virtual services engine (VSE), coupled to the switch fabric, including at least one central processing unit configured to perform firewall processing, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering and anti-virus processing;

an advanced security engine (ASE) coupled to the fabric;

wherein the line interface/network module receives packets and steers the packets to a selected VRE of the plurality of VREs based on a result of a steering table lookup;

wherein the line interface/network module includes an egress forwarding manager which applies priority queuing to egress packets based on DiffServ marking and transmits the egress packets out of the line interface/network module;

wherein the selected VRE determines if a packet associated with a packet flow requires processing by the one or both of the VSE and the ASE by performing flow-based packet classification on the packet and evaluating forwarding state information associated with previously stored flow learning results based on a previously received packet of the packet flow;

if the packet has been determined to require processing by the VSE, then steering the packet to the VSE for one or more of the firewall processing, the URL filtering and the anti-virus processing; and

if the packet is not dropped or otherwise blocked as a result of one or more of the firewall processing, the URL filtering and the anti-virus processing and the packet has been determined to require processing by the ASE, then the VSE steering the processed packet to the ASE for processing.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the ASE comprises a plurality of encryption accelerators, a key accelerator and a security manager configured to load balance and manage security sessions across the plurality of encryption accelerators.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the line interface/network module includes an ingress forwarding manager which maintains a steering table mapping virtual local area networks to one or more VREs of the plurality of VREs.