Hierarchical managed switch architecture

• US 8,750,164 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Casado, Martin, Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Lambeth, W. Andrew, Yip, Alexander, Amidon, Keith E., Ingram, Paul S.
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US13/177,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20130058250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/390, 370/396, 370/397, 370/400, 370/409, 370/428, 370/432, 709/220, 709/223, 709/238
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17312 Routing techniques specific to parallel machines, e.g. wormhole, store and forward, shortest path problem congestion routing on a LAN H04L45/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• 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 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/036 Updating the topology between route computation elements, e.g. between OpenFlow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/1546 using pipelined operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3063 Pipelined operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 : Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 : Internet protocol [IP] addresses

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for managing several managed switching elements in a network. The method determines configurations for the several managed switching elements to implement a first logical data path set. Based on the determined configurations, the method configures a first set of the several managed switching elements to implement the first logical data path set. The method configures a second set of the several managed switching elements to implement a second logical data path set.

Claims

1. For a network controller that manages switching elements to implement logical datapath sets (LDPSs), a method comprising:

configuring a first plurality of managed edge (ME) switching elements to forward packets for a first LDPS;

configuring a second plurality of ME switching elements to forward packets for a second LDPS;

configuring a first managed non-edge (MNE) switching element to forward a first packet between first and second ME switching elements in the first plurality of ME switching elements, when the first ME switching element cannot forward the first packet to the second ME switching element; and

configuring a second MNE switching element to forward a second packet between third and fourth ME switching elements in the second plurality of ME switching elements, when the third ME switching element cannot forward the second packet to the fourth ME switching element,

wherein configuring the ME and MNE switching elements comprises providing data for specifying flows in the ME and MNE switching elements to forward packets,

wherein the specified flows define forwarding behavior of the first and second pluralities of ME switching elements that effectuates the first LDPS and the second LDPS, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first ME switching element cannot forward the first packet to the second ME switching element because the first ME switching element does not have a flow that specifies that the first packet should be forwarded to the second ME switching element in order for the first packet to reach a destination machine specified in the first packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first packet is a multi-recipient packet directed to a plurality of destination machines, wherein configuring the MNE switching element comprises configuring the first MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet to a set of ME switching elements in the first plurality of ME switching elements that are coupled to the plurality of destination machines specified in the multi-recipient packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein configuring the MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet comprises configuring the first MNE switching element to replicate the multi-recipient packet for each destination machine in the plurality of destination machines and forward the replicated multi-recipient packets to the set of ME switching elements for the set of ME switching elements to forward the replicated multi-recipient packets to the plurality of destination machines.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein configuring the first MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet comprises configuring the first MNE switching element to replicate the multi-recipient packet for each ME switching element in the set of ME switching elements and to forward the multi-recipient packet to the set of ME switching elements for replication and forwarding to the plurality of destination machines.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein each ME switching element in the set of ME switching elements (1) is directly coupled to one or more destination machines in the plurality of destination machines and (2) forwards the multi-recipient packet to the one or more destination machines that are directly coupled to the ME switching element.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second pluralities of ME switching elements include a same ME switching elements.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one ME switching element in the first plurality of ME switching elements is included in the second plurality of ME switching elements.

9. For a network controller that manages switching elements to implement logical datapath sets (LDPSs), a non-transitory computer readable medium of the network controller storing a program executable by at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

configuring a first plurality of managed edge (ME) switching elements to forward packets for a first LDPS;

configuring a second plurality of ME switching elements to forward packets for a second LDPS;

configuring a first managed non-edge (MNE) switching element to forward a first packet between first and second ME switching elements in the first plurality of ME switching elements, when the first ME switching element cannot forward the first packet to the second ME switching element; and

configuring a second MNE switching element to forward a second packet between third and fourth ME switching elements in the second plurality of ME switching elements, when the third ME switching element cannot forward the second packet to the fourth ME switching element,

wherein configuring the ME and MNE switching elements comprises providing data for specifying flows in the ME and MNE switching elements to forward packets,

wherein the specified flows define forwarding behavior of the first and second pluralities of ME switching elements that effectuates the first LDPS and the second LDPS, respectively.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first ME switching element cannot forward the first packet to the second ME switching element because the first ME switching element does not have a flow that specifies that the first packet should be forwarded to the second ME switching element in order for the first packet to reach a destination machine specified in the first packet.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first plurality of ME switching elements comprises a set of instructions for configuring each ME switching element in the first plurality of ME switching elements to forward the first packet to the first MNE switching element, when the ME switching element does not have a flow that specifies that the first packet should be forwarded to a particular ME switching element in order for the first packet to reach a destination computing device machine specified in the first packet.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first packet is a multi-recipient packet directed to a plurality of destination machines, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first MNE switching element comprises a set of instructions for configuring the MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet to a set of ME switching elements in the first plurality of ME switching elements that are coupled to the plurality of destination machines specified in the multi-recipient packet.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first plurality of ME switching elements comprises a set of instructions for configuring each ME switching element in the first plurality of ME switching elements to forward the multi-recipient packet to the first MNE switching element, when the ME switching element receives the multi-recipient packet from a machine coupled to the ME switching element.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13,

wherein the multi-recipient packet is a first multi-recipient packet,

wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first MNE switching element comprises a set of instructions for configuring the first MNE switching element to forward a second multi-recipient packet to a set of ME switching elements in the second plurality of ME switching elements that are coupled to a plurality of destination machines specified in the second multi-recipient packet.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for configuring the first MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet comprises a set of instructions for configuring the first MNE switching element to replicate the multi-recipient packet for each destination in the plurality of destination machines and forward the replicated multi-recipient packets to the set of ME switching elements for the set of ME switching elements to forward the replicated multi-recipient packets to the plurality of destination machines.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions configuring the MNE switching element to forward the multi-recipient packet comprises a set of instructions for configuring the MNE switching element to replicate the multi-recipient packet for each ME switching element in the set of ME switching elements and to forward the multi-recipient packet to the set of ME switching elements for replication and forwarding to the plurality of destination machines.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein at least one ME switching element in the first plurality of ME switching elements is included in the second plurality of ME switching elements.

18. A network for implementing a plurality of logical datapath sets (LDPSs) with a plurality of physical managed switching elements, the network comprising:

a first plurality of managed edge (ME) switching elements to forward packets for a first LDPS;

a second plurality of ME switching elements to forward packets for a second LDPS;

a first managed non-edge (MNE) switching element to forward a first packet between first and second ME switching elements in the first plurality of ME switching elements, when the first ME switching element cannot forward the first packet to the second ME switching elements;

a second MNE switching element to forward a second packet between third and fourth ME switching elements in the second plurality of ME switching elements, when the third ME switching element cannot forward the second packet to the fourth ME switching element; and

at least one controller for supplying data to the ME and MNE switching elements to specify flows that define how the ME and MNE switching elements should forward packets,

wherein the specified flows define forwarding behavior of the first and second pluralities of ME switching elements that effectuates the first LDPS and the second LDPS, respectively.

19. The network of claim 18, wherein the first plurality of ME switching elements, the second plurality of ME switching elements, and the first and second MNE switching elements use layer 2 forwarding to forward packets based on media access control address (MAC) addresses.

20. The network of claim 18, wherein the first plurality of ME switching elements, the second plurality of ME switching elements, and the first and second MNE switching elements use layer 3 forwarding to forward packet based on Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

21. The network of claim 18, the network further comprising:

a third MNE switching element to forward a third packet between the first and second MNE switching elements, when the first MNE switching element cannot forward the third packet to the second MNE switching element.

22. The network of claim 21, wherein the third MNE switching element is further to identify a particular MNE switching element to which the third packet is forwarded so that the third packet reach a destination machine specified in the third packet'"'"'s header, when the third MNE switching element does not have a flow that specifies that the third packet should be forwarded to the particular MNE switching element.

23. The network of claim 22, wherein the third MNE switching element is further to forward the third packet to the particular MNE switching element upon performing the logical context learning.