Network virtualization apparatus and method

• US 8,817,620 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2011
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Casado, Martin, Lambeth, W. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US13/177,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20130058228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: 370/235, 370/397, 370/409, 370/428, 370/465, 709/223, 709/238, 711/206
• US Class Current: 370/235
• 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 network virtualizer for managing several managed switching elements that forward data in a network. The virtualizer includes an interface for receiving input logical forwarding plane data. It also includes a converter for converting the input logical forwarding plane data to output physical control plane data. In some embodiments, the physical control plane data is translation into physical forwarding plane data that direct the forwarding of data by the managed switching elements.

Claims

1. A network virtualization application for managing a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data in a network, the network virtualization application comprising:

an input interface for receiving input logical forwarding plane data that defines a logical data path set in terms of a set of input logical forwarding tables, wherein the logical data path set comprises a configuration for one or more logical switching elements;

a converter for converting the input logical forwarding plane data to output physical control plane data that specifies rules for the managed switching elements to follow in order to implement the logical data path set;

an output interface for receiving the output physical control plane data from the converter and storing the output physical control plane data in a set of output tables;

a publisher for publishing the output physical control plane data to be distributed to a set of the plurality of managed switching elements and subsequently translated by the set of managed switching elements into physical forwarding plane data that direct the forwarding of data packets by the managed switching elements; and

a monitor for detecting a change in network state and modifying the input logical forwarding plane data based on the detected change, wherein the network state comprises a state of the managed switching elements.

2. The network virtualization application of claim 1, wherein the input logical forwarding plane data are at least partially supplied by a control application that translates input logical control plane data, that specifies a definition of the logical data path set, to output logical forwarding plane data.

3. The network virtualization application of claim 1, wherein the monitor is for detecting a change in the state of the managed switching elements.

4. The network virtualization application of claim 3, wherein the monitor is for monitoring the managed switching elements by monitoring a network state data structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements.

5. The network virtualization application of claim 4, wherein the network virtualization application and the network state data structure operate on a same computer.

6. The network virtualization application of claim 4, wherein the network virtualization application and the network state data structure operate on different computers.

7. The network virtualization application of claim 1, wherein the input logical forwarding plane data comprises a plurality of logical flow entries in at least one of the logical forwarding tables that is not accessible for input by a user.

8. The network virtualization application of claim 7, wherein at least a subset of the plurality of logical flow entries specify forwarding rules for forwarding of data between logical addresses of the one or more logical switching elements.

9. The network virtualization application of claim 8, wherein the logical forwarding table with the logical flow entries is a Layer 2 (“

L2”

) table and the plurality of logical flow entries specify L2 forwarding rules.

10. The network virtualization application of claim 9, wherein the L2 forwarding rules are specified in terms of Media Access Control (“

MAC”

) addresses.

11. The network virtualization application of claim 8, wherein the logical forwarding table with the logical flow entries is a Layer 3 (“

L3”

) table and the plurality of logical flow entries specify L3 forwarding rules.

12. The network virtualization application of claim 11, wherein the L3 forwarding rules are specified in terms of Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) addresses.

13. A network virtualization application for managing a network comprising a plurality of network elements, the network elements comprising a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data among the network elements, the network virtualization application comprising:

a network monitor for detecting a change in the plurality of managed switching elements;

an interface for generating logical forwarding plane data based at least in part on the detected change in the network, the logical forwarding plane data defining a logical data path set in terms of a set of logical forwarding tables;

a converter for converting the logical forwarding plane data to physical control plane data that specifies rules for the managed switching elements to follow in order to implement the logical data path set, the physical control plane data for subsequent translation by the managed switching elements into a set of physical data paths that define forwarding behaviors of the managed switching elements;

a publisher for publishing the physical control plane data for distribution to at least one additional network virtualization application.

14. The network virtualization application of claim 13, wherein the interface is further for receiving logical forwarding plane data generated from logical control plane data by a control application.

15. The network virtualization application of claim 13, wherein the physical control plane data are further distributed to the managed switching elements.

16. The network virtualization application of claim 13, wherein the publisher is for publishing the physical control plane data to a data structure shared with the at least one additional network virtualization application.

17. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit manages a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data through a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving input logical forwarding plane data that defines a logical data path set as a set of logical forwarding tables, the logical data path set comprising a configuration for one or more logical switching elements;

converting the input logical forwarding plane data to output physical control plane data that specifies rules for the managed switching elements to follow in order to implement the logical data path set; and

publishing the output physical control plane data in order for the physical control plane data to be distributed to the managed switching elements and subsequently translated by the managed switching elements into a set of physical data paths that defines forwarding behaviors of the managed switching elements.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the output physical control plane data is published to a data structure that stores a state of the network.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for monitoring the data structure to identify changes in the state of the network.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the input logical forwarding plane data is generated from logical control plane data that is at least partially user-specified to define the logical data path set.