Methods and apparatuses for automating return traffic redirection to a service appliance by injecting traffic interception/redirection rules into network nodes

• US 8,837,486 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Badhani, Devendra Mohan, Feng, Chao, Sharma, Samar, Venkataramana, Kalyan
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, DUC CHI
• Application Number:
  US13/557,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20140029423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/30 Routing of multiclass traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/18 End to end

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for automating return traffic redirection to a service appliance by injecting forwarding policies in a packet-forwarding element are disclosed herein. An example method for automating return traffic redirection can include: establishing a communication channel between a service appliance and a packet-forwarding element; and transmitting an out-of-band message over the communication channel to the packet-forwarding element. The message can include a forwarding policy that requests the packet-forwarding element to forward predetermined packets to the service appliance.

Claims

1. A method for automating return traffic redirection, the method comprising:

at a service appliance, establishing a communication channel between the service appliance and a packet-forwarding element;

at the service appliance, transmitting an out-of-band message over the communication channel to the packet-forwarding element, the message comprising a forwarding policy that requests the packet-forwarding element to forward predetermined packets to the service appliance;

at the service appliance, receiving a packet having a source address of a client device and a destination address of the service appliance;

at the service appliance, performing a load balancing algorithm to select a server among one or more servers;

at the service appliance, changing the destination address of the packet to an address of the selected server; and

at the service appliance, forwarding the packet having the source address of the client device and the destination address of the selected server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a policy-based routing (PBR) rule.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the PBR rule comprises one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules are based on source addresses of the predetermined packets.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the service appliance, receiving a message from the packet-forwarding element indicating a change in network configuration;

at the service appliance, generating an updated forwarding policy that reflects the change network configuration; and

at the service appliance, transmitting an updated out-of-band message over the communication channel to the packet-forwarding element, the message comprising the updated forwarding policy.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication channel is a port channel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the service appliance is configured to perform a load-balancing service.

8. A method for automating return traffic redirection, the method comprising:

at a packet-forwarding element, establishing a communication channel between a service appliance and the packet-forwarding element; and

at the packet-forwarding element, receiving an out-of-band message over the communication channel from the service appliance, the message comprising a forwarding policy that requests the packet-forwarding element to forward predetermined packets to the service appliance;

at the packet-forwarding element, receiving a return packet having a source address of a server and a destination address of a client device;

at the packet-forwarding element, determining whether to forward the return packet to the service appliance based on the forwarding policy; and

at the packet-forwarding element, transmitting or not transmitting the return packet to the service appliance based on the determination.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the message is a policy-based routing (PBR) rule.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the PBR rule comprises one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules are based on source addresses of the predetermined packets.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

at the packet-forwarding element, transmitting a message to the service appliance indicating a change in network configuration; and

at the packet-forwarding element, receiving an updated out-of-band message over the communication channel from the service appliance, the message comprising an updated forwarding policy that reflects the change in network configuration.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising, at the packet-forwarding element, transmitting the out-of-band message to one or more adjacent packet-forwarding elements.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the communication channel is a port channel.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for automating return traffic redirection having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a service appliance, cause the service appliance to:

establish a communication channel between the service appliance and a packet-forwarding element; and

transmit an out-of-band message over the communication channel to the packet-forwarding element, the message comprising a forwarding policy that requests the packet-forwarding element to forward predetermined packets to the service appliance, and having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the packet-forwarding element, cause the packet-forwarding element to;

receive the out-of-band message over the communication channel from the service appliance;

receive a return packet having a source address of a server and a destination address of a client device;

determine whether to forward the return packet to the service appliance based on the forwarding policy; and

transmit or not transmit the return packet to the service appliance based on the determination.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 15, wherein the message is a policy-based routing (PBR) rule.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 16, wherein the PBR rule comprises one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more criteria and corresponding forwarding rules are based on source addresses of the predetermined packets.