Network control apparatus and method for creating and modifying logical switching elements

• US 9,525,647 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Issued: 12/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koponen, Teemu, Thakkar, Pankaj, Fulton, Bryan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US13/269,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20120147898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,901 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/50 Queue scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/254 Centralised controller, i.e. arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

A network controller for managing several managed switching elements that forward data in a network that includes the managed switching elements. The network controller is further for creating a logical switching element to be implemented in a set of managed switching elements. The network controller includes a set of modules for receiving input data specifying a logical switching element and for creating, based on the received input data, a set of logical switch constructs for the logical switching element by performing a set of database join operations. At least one of the logical switch constructs is for facilitating non-forwarding behavior of the logical switching element.

Claims

1. A controller comprising:

a set of processing units;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by the set of processing units manages a plurality of managed forwarding elements that forward data between devices in a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

receiving input data specifying a set of logical switch constructs for a logical switching element, the set of logical switch constructs comprising a logical queue;

defining, based on the received input data, the logical switching element having the set of logical switch constructs; and

creating corresponding physical switch constructs to which the logical switch constructs map at the plurality of managed forwarding elements, wherein the physical switch constructs comprise a physical queue created in at least one of the managed forwarding elements in the plurality of managed forwarding elements, wherein the logical queue maps to the physical queue.

2. The controller of claim 1, wherein the set of logical switch constructs further comprises a logical queue collection.

3. The controller of claim 2, wherein the logical queue and the logical queue collection are for facilitating non-forwarding behavior of the logical switching element.

4. The controller of claim 2, wherein the logical queue is for queuing data coming into the logical switching element through a logical port.

5. The controller of claim 2, wherein the logical queue collection is for associating with a logical port and the logical queue to send data coming through the logical port to the logical queue.

6. The controller of claim 1, wherein forwarding behaviors of the plurality of managed forwarding elements are defined in a logical forwarding table associated with the logical switching element.

7. The controller of claim 6, wherein the logical forwarding table is a Layer 2 (L2) table that specifies L2 forwarding rules for forwarding of data between logical Media Access Control (MAC) addresses.

8. The controller of claim 6, wherein the logical forwarding table is a Layer 3 (L3) table that specifies L3 forwarding rules for forwarding of data between logical Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

9. The controller of claim 1, wherein the program does not provide a user of the program with a configuration of the managed forwarding elements in which the logical switching element is implemented.

10. The controller of claim 1, wherein the received input data specifying the set of logical switch constructs for the logical switching element is received from a user of the program.

11. The controller of claim 1, wherein the received input data specifying the set of logical switch constructs for the logical switching element is received from a network information base (NIB) data structure for storing data for managing the plurality of managed forwarding elements.

12. An electronic system comprising:

a set of processing units;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by the set of processing units manages a plurality of managed forwarding elements that forward data between devices in a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

receiving input data specifying a set of logical switch constructs for a logical switching element, the set of logical switch constructs comprising a logical queue; and

defining, based on the received input data, the logical switching element having the set of logical switch constructs, wherein logical switch constructs map to corresponding physical switch constructs created at the plurality of managed forwarding elements, wherein the physical switch constructs comprise a physical queue created in at least one of the managed forwarding elements in the plurality of managed forwarding elements, wherein the logical queue maps to the physical queue.

13. The electronic system of claim 12, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for receiving input data specifying a change in the logical switching element and for modifying one or more logical switch constructs of the set of logical switch constructs based on the received input data specifying the change.

14. The electronic system of claim 13, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for modifying, in response to the change in the logical switching element, one or more managed forwarding elements of the plurality of managed forwarding elements by modifying one or more physical switch constructs of the managed forwarding elements that correspond to the modified logical switch constructs.

15. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program which when executed by a set of processing units manages a network comprising a plurality of managed forwarding elements that forward data between devices in the network, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving input data specifying a set of logical switch constructs for a logical switching element, the set of logical switch constructs comprising a logical queue;

defining, based on the received input data, the logical switching element having the set of logical switch constructs; and

creating corresponding physical switch constructs to which the logical switch constructs map at the plurality of managed forwarding elements, wherein the physical switch constructs comprise a physical queue in at least one of the managed forwarding elements in the plurality of managed forwarding elements that maps to the logical queue.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the set of logical switch constructs further comprises a logical queue collection.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of managed forwarding elements comprises at least one of a hardware switch and a virtual switch.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the network further comprises a plurality of host machines that send data to the logical switching element.