Network virtualization apparatus

• US 8,817,621 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: Casado, Martin, Koponen, Teemu
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US13/177,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20130058226A1
• 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 virtualization apparatus for managing a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data in a network. The network virtualization apparatus comprises a controller for converting logical control plane data to logical forwarding plane data. It also includes a virtualizer for converting the logical forwarding plane data to physical control plane data. In some embodiments, the physical control plane data is subsequently translated into physical forwarding plane data that direct the forwarding of data by the managed switching elements.

Claims

1. A distributed network control system comprising:

a plurality of network controller instances for managing a plurality of managed switching elements that forward data in a network, each network controller instance comprising;

a control application for converting logical control plane data, that specifies a definition of a logical data path set, into logical forwarding plane data that specifies a first set of forwarding rules that effectuate the logical data path set definition specified by the logical control plane data, wherein the logical control plane data and logical forwarding plane data define one or more logical switching elements of the logical data path set;

a virtualization application for converting the logical forwarding plane data into physical control plane data that specifies a second set of forwarding rules for the managed switching elements to follow in order to implement the logical data path set; and

a publisher for publishing the physical control plane data for subsequent distribution to the managed switching elements and subsequent translation by the managed switching elements into physical forwarding plane data that direct the forwarding of data packets by the managed switching elements.

2. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the logical control plane data are at least partially supplied by at least one user.

3. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein each network controller instance further comprises a monitor for (i) monitoring the managed switching elements and (ii) supplying the control application with logical control plane data based on the managed switching elements.

4. The distributed network control system of claim 3, wherein the monitor is for monitoring the managed switching elements by monitoring a data storage structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements.

5. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein each network controller instance further comprises a monitor for (i) monitoring a data storage structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements and (ii) supplying the virtualization application with additional input logical forwarding plane data based on the managed switching elements.

6. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the logical forwarding plane data comprises logical flow entries in at least one logical forwarding table that is not accessible for input by a source of input of the logical control plane data.

7. The distributed network control system of claim 6, wherein a plurality of the logical flow entries specify at least one of Layer 2 (“

L2”

) flow entries for forwarding of data between logical Media Access Control (“

MAC”

) addresses and Layer 3 (“

L3”

) flow entries for forwarding of data between logical Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) addresses of the logical switching elements.

8. The distributed network control system of claim 6, wherein the logical control plane data expresses the logical data path set as a set of high-level constructs that the control application converts into the logical flow entries of the logical forwarding plane data.

9. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the control application is for converting the logical control plane data to the logical forwarding plane data based at least partially on physical control plane data detected by monitoring the managed switching elements.

10. The distributed network control system of claim 9, wherein each network controller instance further comprises a monitor for monitoring the managed switching elements to detect changes in the physical control plane data.

11. The distributed network control system of claim 10, wherein the monitor is for monitoring the managed switching elements by monitoring a data storage structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements.

12. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the virtualization application is for converting the logical forwarding plane data to physical control plane data at least partially based on additional physical control plane data detected by monitoring a network state data structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements.

13. The distributed network control system of claim 12, wherein each network controller instance further comprises a monitor for monitoring the network state data structure that stores data regarding the managed switching elements.

14. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the control application and virtualization application each comprises a table mapping engine that performs table mapping operations, wherein the control application comprises a first set of input tables for storing the logical control plane data and a first set of output tables for storing the logical forwarding plane data generated by the table mapping engine of the control application from the logical control plane data in the first set of input tables, wherein the virtualization application comprises a second set of input tables for storing the logical forwarding plane data and a second set of output tables for storing the physical control plane data that the virtualization application'"'"'s table mapping engine produces from the logical forwarding plane data in the second set of input tables.

15. The distributed network control system of claim 14, wherein the control application and virtualization application use the same table mapping engine.

16. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the network controller instance is one integrated application for execution on a computing device, the control application being a front end of the integrated application and the virtualization application being a back end of the integrated application.

17. The distributed network control system of claim 1, wherein the control application and the virtualization application are two separate applications for execution on a computing device.