Distributed multicast by endpoints

• US 9,432,204 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2013
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shen, Jianjun, Tessmer, Alexander, Singh, Ram Dular, Wang, Hua, Wan, Da
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kumar, Shailendra
• Application Number:
  US14/020,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20150055651A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,089 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1854 with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing

Abstract

A novel method of conducting multicast traffic in a network is provided. The network includes multiple endpoints that receive messages from the network and generate messages for the network. The endpoints are located in different segments of the network, each segment including one or more of the endpoints. For a source endpoint to replicate a particular message (e.g., a data packet) for all endpoints belonging to a particular replication group (i.e., multicast group) within the network, the source endpoint replicates the particular message to each endpoint within the source endpoint'"'"'s own segment and to a proxy endpoint in each of the other segments. Each proxy endpoint in turn replicates the particular message to all endpoints belonging to the particular replication group within the proxy endpoint'"'"'s own segment.

Claims

1. A method of performing multicast in a network, the method comprising:

receiving a message at a particular endpoint of a network, the message specifying a particular multi cast group;

replicating the message to a first set of endpoints belonging to the particular multicast group, wherein the first set of endpoints are located in a local segment of the network that includes the particular endpoint; and

replicating the message to a second set of endpoints belonging to the particular multicast group by replicating the message to a set of proxies that are selected for the particular multicast group, each proxy for forwarding the message to a set of endpoints belonging to the particular multicast group in a remote segment of the network,

wherein each multicast group in a plurality of multicast groups has a designated proxy in the remote segment, at least two of the multicast groups having different designated proxies in the remote segment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting a proxy for each remote segment for each multicast group.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the proxy of a multicast group in a remote segment is randomly selected from a pool of endpoints in the remote segment.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the proxy is selected by a central Controller.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the proxy is selected based on endpoint network load.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein replicating the message to the first set of endpoints comprises forwarding the replicated message to each endpoints in the first set of endpoints by unicast.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein replicating the message to the first set of endpoints comprises forwarding the replicated message to all endpoints in the first set of endpoints by multicast.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network does not support multicast traffic between different segments.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the segments in the network allows a message to be replicated to a plurality of recipients at once.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the segments in the network does not allow a message to be replicated to a plurality of recipients at once.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the segments is a multicast island.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the proxy of the particular multicast group in a remote segment replicates the message to the set of set of endpoints belonging to the particular multicast group in the remote segment by multicast.

13. An electronic device comprising:

a set of processing units for executing sets of instructions; and

a machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one of the processing units replicates and forwards data packets, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

receiving a multicast data packet of a particular multicast group from a particular endpoint of a remote segment of a network, wherein the particular multicast group has a designated proxy in a local segment that is different from another multicast group'"'"'s designated proxy in the local segment, wherein the electronic device is designated as the proxy for the particular multicast group in the local segment; and

replicating and forwarding the received multicast data packet to a plurality of endpoints in the local segment of the network that includes the electronic device, wherein the network does not support multicast traffic between the remote segment and the local segment.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the program further comprising a set of instructions for receiving membership information for the particular multicast group.

15. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the program further comprising a set of instructions for adding the electronic device to the particular multicast group.

16. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions for replicating and forwarding the received packet comprises a set of instructions for sending the received packet to the plurality of endpoints in the local segment by multicast.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the local segment is a multicast island that supports multicast by physical network.

18. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions for replicating and forwarding the received packet comprises a set of instructions for sending the received packet to each endpoint in the plurality of endpoints in the local segment by unicast.

19. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the local segment does not support multicast by physical network.

20. The electronic device of claim 13 further comprises a hypervisor for operating at least one virtual machine.

21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the hypervisor is an endpoint of the local segment.

22. A method comprising:

providing a hypervisor for operating a set of virtual machines;

connecting a particular virtual machine in the set of virtual machines to a logical network overlaying a physical network, the logical network allocated a multicast group in the physical network; and

sending a data packet from the particular virtual machine to a plurality of receivers in the logical network, wherein at least one of the receivers is in a remote segment of the physical network than the particular virtual machine, wherein the remote segment comprises a proxy for replicating and forwarding the data packet to receivers in the remote segment that belong to the multicast group corresponding to the logical network, wherein each multicast group in a plurality of multicast groups has a designated proxy in the remote segment, at least two of the multicast groups having different designated proxies in the remote segment.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the physical network does not allow multicast traffic between different segments.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the remote segment allows multicast traffic by physical network.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the logical network is one of a plurality of logical networks overlaying the physical network.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein each logical network is allocated a different multicast group in the physical network.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the proxy of the remote segment is a hypervisor.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the hypervisor is a tunnel endpoint for the logical network.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein the hypervisor encapsulates the data packet with an identifier for the logical network for transmission in the physical network.