Superset packet forwarding for overlapping filters and related systems and methods

• US 8,842,548 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2012
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Keysight Technologies Singapore (Holdings) Pte. Limited. (Keysight Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ANUE Systems (Keysight Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pleshek, Ronald A., Webb, Charles A. III, Cheney, Keith E., Hilton, Gregory S., Abkowitz, Patricia A., Thakkar, Arun K., Thaker, Himanshu M.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, MAN U
• Application Number:
  US13/346,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20120106354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 370241-389, 370392-419, 709224-233
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/028 by filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed that allow for improved management and control of packet forwarding in network systems. Network devices and tool optimizers and a related systems and methods are disclosed for improved packet forwarding between input ports and output ports. The input ports and output ports are configured to be connected to source devices and destination devices, for example, network sources and destination tools in a network monitoring environment. The network devices and tool optimizers disclosed can use superset packet forwarding, such that ingress filter engines are configured with ingress filter rules so as to forward a superset of packets to output ports associated with overlapping filters. Egress filter engines are configured with egress filter rules to then determine which of the superset packets are actually sent out the output ports.

Claims

1. A network packet forwarding device having superset packet forwarding for automatic filter overlap processing, comprising:

one or more input ports configured to receive packets from one or more source devices;

a plurality of output ports configured to send packets to two or more destination devices;

packet forwarding circuitry coupled between the input ports and the output ports and configured to forward packets from the input ports to the output ports;

at least one ingress filter engine coupled to the packet forwarding circuitry and configured to use ingress filter rules to control at least in part how packets are forwarded from the input ports to the output ports, the ingress filter engine being configured to provide a single forwarding action per packet;

at least one egress filter engine coupled to the packet forwarding circuitry and configured to use egress filter rules to control at least in part how packets are sent by the output ports to destination devices;

a filter interface configured to allow a user to define a plurality of filters representing how packets are desired to be forwarded from input ports to output ports; and

a dynamic filter processor configured to analyze the user-defined filters, to automatically identify filters having different forwarding actions for packets from a single input port as overlapping filters, to automatically generate the ingress filter rules so that packets matching ingress filter rules for an overlapping filter are forwarded to all output ports associated with any other overlapping filter, to automatically generate the egress filter rules, and to automatically apply the ingress and egress filter rules to the ingress and egress filter engines so that the ingress and egress filter engines are configured to cause packets from the single input port to be forwarded according to the different forwarding actions provided by the overlapping filters;

wherein the ingress filter rules generated for overlapping filters forward packets to a superset of all output ports associated with the overlapping filters and wherein egress filter rules generated for overlapping filters allow only packets that match the overlapping filters to be sent by the output ports to the destination devices.

2. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the dynamic filter processor is configured to automatically generate the ingress and egress filter rules regardless of an order in which a user defines the overlapping filters.

3. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the interface is configured to be accessed through one or more management platforms by a plurality of users at the same time.

4. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of ingress filter engines, with each ingress filter engine having a processing priority with respect to each of the other ingress filter engines.

5. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the dynamic filter processor is configured to implement filter rules for a first overlapping filter without affecting operation of filter rules for a second overlapping filter.

6. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein packets matching a filter configured to pass all received packets to at least one output port are not forwarded to output ports associated with any other overlapping filter.

7. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the ingress filter engine is configured to process filter rules according to a processing priority, and wherein packets matching an ingress filter rule are not forwarded to output ports associated with higher prioirity ingress filter rules.

8. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the interface is configured to allow a user to determine a class of service for each filter, and wherein the egress filter engine is configured to use the class of service to determine packets to drop first when a buffer overflow condition exists at an egress buffer.

9. The network packet forwarding device of claim 1, wherein the source devices comprise network monitoring sources and the destination devices comprise network monitoring tools.

10. A method for superset packet forwarding for automatic filter overlap processing, comprising:

providing one or more input ports configured to receive packets from one or more source devices;

providing a plurality of output ports configured to send packets to two or more destination devices;

forwarding packets between the input ports and the output ports using packet forwarding circuitry;

using at least one ingress filter engine to control at least in part how packets are forwarded from the input ports to the output ports based upon ingress filter rules, the ingress filter engine being configured to provide a single forwarding action per packet;

using at least one egress filter engine to control at least in part how packets are sent by the output ports to destination devices based upon egress filter rules;

allowing a user to define through an interface a plurality of filters representing how packets are desired to be forwarded from input ports to output ports;

analyzing the user-defined filters;

automatically identifying filters having different forwarding actions for packets from a single input port as overlapping filters;

automatically generating the ingress filter rules so that packets matching ingress filter rules for an overlapping filter are forwarded to all output ports associated with any other overlapping filter;

automatically generating the egress filter rules;

automatically applying the ingress and egress filter rules to the ingress and egress filter engines so that the ingress and egress filter engines are configured to cause packets from the single input port to be forwarded according to the different forwarding actions provided by the overlapping filters; and

forwarding packets according to the user-defined filters;

wherein the ingress filter rules generated for overlapping filters forward packets to a superset of all output ports associated with the overlapping filters and wherein egress filter rules generated for overlapping filters allow only packets that match the overlapping filters to be sent by the output ports to the destination devices.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically generating the ingress and egress filter rules regardless of an order in which a user defines the overlapping filters.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising allowing a plurality of users to access the interface through one or more management platforms at the same time.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a plurality of ingress filter engines, with each ingress filter engine having a processing priority with respect to each of the other ingress filter engines.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising implementing filter rules for a first overlapping filter without affecting operation of filter rules for a second overlapping filter.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising keeping packets matching a filter configured to pass all received packets to at least one output port from being forwarded to output ports associated with any other overlapping filter.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the ingress filter engine processes rules according to a processing priority, and further comprising keeping packets matching an ingress filter rule from being forwarded to output ports associated with higher prioirity ingress filter rules.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the source devices comprise network monitoring sources and the destination devices comprising network monitoring tools.