Mesh architectures for managed switching elements

• US 8,964,598 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Casado, Martin, Amidon, Keith E., Koponen, Teemu, Lambeth, W. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US13/219,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20130058252A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/256, 370/396, 370/397, 370/400, 370406-409, 709/220, 709/252, 709/201, 709/230, 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 network architecture that includes several lower level managed switching elements for forwarding network data to several of network hosts. The network architecture includes a set of higher level managed switching elements. The several lower level managed switching elements and the set of higher level managed switching elements implement several logical datapath sets. Communication channels are established among the several lower level managed switching elements and the set of higher level managed switching elements based on a mesh topology.

Claims

1. A network architecture comprising:

a plurality of lower level managed switching elements for forwarding network data to a plurality of machines comprising a first group of machines that are associated with a first logical datapath set and a second group of machines that are associated with a second logical datapath set, wherein the first and second logical datapath sets define first and second logical switching elements respectively;

a plurality of higher level managed switching elements for processing network data received from the plurality of lower level managed switching elements,

wherein, to distribute processing of the network data from the plurality of lower level managed switching elements amongst the plurality of higher level managed switching elements, the plurality of lower level managed switching elements and the plurality of higher level managed switching elements are configured in a tunnel mesh configuration with at least one tunnel between at least two lower level managed switching elements, and at least two tunnels between each of the two lower level managed switching elements and at least two higher level managed switching elements, wherein the at least two higher level managed switching elements receive network data from the two lower level managed switching elements and process the network data received from the two lower level managed switching elements in order to forward the processed network data to the plurality of machines; and

a set of controller instances for controlling the lower and higher level managed switching elements to implement the first and second logical datapath sets by;

translating the first logical datapath set to a first set of flows that specify rules for forwarding network data between the first group of machines;

translating the second logical datapath set to a second set of flows that specify rules for forwarding network data between the second group of machines; and

configuring the at least two lower level managed switching elements and the at least two higher level managed switching elements with flows from the first and second sets of flows in order to implement the first and second logical switching elements.

2. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a partial tunnel mesh configuration, wherein no tunnel is established between at least one lower level switching element of the plurality of lower level managed switching elements and at least one higher level switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

3. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a full tunnel mesh configuration, wherein at least one tunnel is established between each lower level managed switching element of the plurality of lower level managed switching elements and each higher level managed switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

4. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein, for each managed switching element regardless of whether the managed switching element is higher level or lower level, at least one tunnel is established between the managed switching element and each other managed switching element.

5. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein no tunnel is established between at least one pair of lower level managed switching elements of the plurality of lower level managed switching elements.

6. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein each machine of the plurality of machines is a virtual machine or a physical machine.

7. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lower level managed switching elements and the plurality of higher level managed switching elements are software switching elements.

8. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lower level managed switching elements and the plurality of higher level managed switching elements are virtual switching elements.

9. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein each tunnel is established with a tunneling protocol.

10. The network architecture of claim 1, wherein the plurality of higher level managed switching elements are for processing multi-recipient network data.

11. A network architecture comprising:

a first set of lower level managed switching elements for forwarding network data to a first plurality of machines;

a second different set of lower level managed switching elements for forwarding network data to a second plurality of machines, wherein the first and second pluralities of machines comprise a first group of machines that are associated with a first logical datapath set and a second group of machines that are associated with a second logical datapath set, wherein the first and second logical datapath sets define first and second logical switching elements respectively;

a plurality of higher level managed switching elements for communicating network data between the first plurality of machines and the second plurality of machines, wherein, to distribute, amongst the plurality of higher level managed switching elements, the communication of the network data between the first and second pluralities of machines, the first and second sets of lower level managed switching elements and the plurality of higher level managed switching elements are configured in a tunnel mesh configuration by establishing (i) at least one tunnel between each two lower level managed switching elements in the first set of lower level managed switching elements, (ii) at least one tunnel between each two lower level managed switching elements in the second set of lower level managed switching elements, and (iii) at least two tunnels between each lower level managed switching elements of the first and second sets of lower level managed switching elements and at least two higher level managed switching elements, wherein the at least two higher level managed switching elements communicate network data between the first and second pluralities of machines through the first and second sets of lower level managed switching elements; and

a set of controller instances for controlling the first and second sets of lower level managed switching elements and the at least two higher level managed switching elements to implement the first and second logical datapath sets by;

translating the first logical datapath set to a first set of flows that specify rules for forwarding network data between the first group of machines;

translating the second logical datapath set to a second set of flows that specify rules for forwarding network data between the second group of machines; and

configuring the first and second sets of lower level managed switching elements and the at least two higher level managed switching elements with flows from the first and second sets of flows in order to implement the first and second to s logical switching elements.

12. The network architecture of claim 11, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a full tunnel mesh configuration for the first set of lower level managed switching elements with at least one tunnel established between each lower level managed switching element in the first set of lower level managed switching elements and each higher level managed switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

13. The network architecture of claim 12, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a full tunnel mesh configuration for the second set of lower level managed switching elements with at least one tunnel established between each lower level managed switching element in the second set of lower level managed switching elements and each higher level managed switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

14. The network architecture of claim 11, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a partial tunnel mesh configuration for the first set of lower level managed switching elements, wherein no tunnel is established between at least one lower level managed switching element in the first set of lower level managed switching elements and at least one higher level managed switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

15. The network architecture of claim 14, wherein the tunnel mesh configuration is a partial tunnel mesh configuration for the second set of lower level managed switching elements, wherein no tunnel is established between at least one lower level managed switching element in the second set of lower level managed switching elements and at least one higher level managed switching element of the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

16. The network architecture of claim 11, wherein, for each lower level managed switching element in the first set of lower level managed switching elements, at least one tunnel is established between the lower level managed switching element and each of the other lower level managed switching elements in the first set of lower level managed switching elements.

17. The network architecture of claim 16, wherein, for each lower level managed switching element in the second set of lower level managed switching elements, at least one tunnel is established between the lower level managed switching element and each of the other lower level managed switching elements in the second set of lower level managed switching elements.

18. The network architecture of claim 17, wherein, for each lower level managed switching element in the first set of lower level managed switching elements, at least one tunnel is established between the lower level managed switching element and each higher level managed switching element in the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

19. The network architecture of claim 18, wherein, for each lower level managed switching element in the second set of lower level managed switching elements, at least one tunnel is established between the lower level managed switching element and each higher level managed switching element in the plurality of higher level managed switching elements.

20. The network architecture of claim 11, wherein the first set of lower level managed switching elements does not directly forward data to the second set of lower level managed switching elements.

21. The network architecture of claim 11 further comprising a third set of lower level managed switching elements for forwarding network data to a third plurality of machines, wherein the plurality of higher level managed switching elements is further for communicating network data between the first and second pluralities of machines and the third plurality of machines, wherein tunnels are established between the third set of lower level managed switching elements and the plurality of higher level managed switching elements based on the tunnel mesh configuration.

22. The network architecture of claim 21, wherein the first set of lower level managed switching elements does not directly forward data to the second and third sets of lower level managed switching elements, wherein the second set of lower level managed switching elements does not directly forward data to the third set of lower level managed switching elements.

23. The network architecture of claim 11, wherein each tunnel is established with a tunneling protocol.