Selectively refreshing address registration information

• US 9,419,881 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2014
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Haggar, Jeffrey D., Ratcliff, Bruce, Rau, Benjamin T., Stevens, Jerry W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): La, Phong
• Application Number:
  US14/550,975
• Publication Number:
  US 20150078176A1
• Time in Patent Office: 633 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/72 Routing based on the source address
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5076 Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS

Abstract

Facilitating communications within a processing environment. Inbound traffic and outbound traffic on one or more virtual interfaces of the processing environment are monitored for a predefined amount of time. Based on the monitoring, a determination is made as to whether for a selected component of a virtual interface of the one or more virtual interfaces an inbound frame has been received but an outbound frame has not been transmitted for the predetermined amount of time. Based on determining that the inbound frame has been received but the outbound frame has not been transmitted, a generated outbound frame is forwarded to cause address registration information for the virtual interface to be refreshed.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating communications within a processing environment, said method comprising:

monitoring, for a predefined amount of time, inbound traffic and outbound traffic on a virtual interface of the processing environment, wherein the monitoring comprises recording an indication of one or more inbound frames in an inbound counter and an indication of one or more outbound frames, if any, in an outbound counter;

determining based on the monitoring whether for a selected component of the virtual interface an inbound frame has been received on the virtual interface but no outbound frame has been transmitted on the virtual interface to an external network device for the predefined amount of time, the determining comprising checking the inbound counter and the outbound counter, wherein the inbound counter is associated with a connection identifier of the virtual interface based on a scope of the monitoring being an interface scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic associated with the connection identifier are monitored, or the inbound counter is associated with a particular address of the virtual interface based on the scope of the monitoring being an address scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic associated with the particular address of the virtual interface are monitored; and

based on determining that the inbound frame has been received on the virtual interface but no outbound frame has been transmitted on the virtual interface for the predefined amount of time, forwarding a generated outbound frame to cause a refresh of address registration information for the virtual interface to ensure that the address registration information is maintained.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected component comprises an identifier of the virtual interface, in which the determining is based on monitoring inbound traffic and outbound traffic for the virtual interface, as one entity, or the selected component comprises a particular address of the virtual interface, in which the determining is based on monitoring inbound traffic and outbound traffic for the particular address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring is performed at a selected scope of monitoring, the selected scope comprising the interface scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic associated with the connection identifier of the virtual interface are monitored, the connection identifier being the selected component, and wherein the determining comprises determining whether the inbound frame has been received for the connection identifier but no outbound frame has been transmitted for the connection identifier, and the forwarding comprises forwarding the generated outbound frame based on determining the inbound frame has been received but no outbound frame has been transmitted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring is performed at a selected scope of monitoring, the selected scope comprising the address scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic on the particular address of the virtual interface are monitored, the particular address being the selected component, and wherein the determining comprises determining whether the inbound frame has been received for the particular address but no outbound frame has been transmitted for the particular address, and the forwarding comprises forwarding the generated outbound frame based on determining the inbound frame has been received but no outbound frame has been transmitted.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the address registration information comprises one or more Media Access Control (MAC) addresses stored in a forwarding table of a switch located within a network of the processing environment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises generating the generated outbound frame, the generating comprising creating a null gratuitous address resolution protocol (ARP) request frame, said null gratuitous ARP request frame comprising a destination address and a source address.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises indicating that the virtual interface is to be monitored, the indicating employing a refresh primitive, the refresh primitive comprising a start subcommand to indicate monitoring is to be performed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicating further specifies a scope for the monitoring, the scope comprising the interface scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic for the connection identifier of the virtual interface are monitored, or the address scope in which inbound traffic and outbound traffic for the particular address of the virtual interface are monitored.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises initiating the determining based on a timer event, the timer event indicating the predefined amount of time for monitoring has been reached.