Tunneled packet aggregation for virtual networks

• US 9,571,394 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Sivaramakrishnan, Rajagopalan, Krishnan, Anand H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassim, Khaled
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belete, Berhanu
• Application Number:
  US14/226,509
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 370/351, 370/389, 370/392
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/50 using label swapping, e.g. multi-protocol label switch [MPLS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• 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 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/31 by tagging of packets, e.g. using discard eligibility [DE] bits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for enhancing operations of virtual networks. In some examples, a network system includes a plurality of servers interconnected by a switch fabric comprising a plurality of switches interconnected to form a physical network. Each of the servers comprises an operating environment executing one or more virtual machines in communication via one or more virtual networks. The servers comprise a set of virtual routers configured to extend the virtual networks to the operating environments of the virtual machines. A virtual router of the set of virtual routers is configured to aggregate a plurality of inbound tunnel packets according to a same virtual network identifier in order to generate an aggregate tunnel packet. The virtual router is further configured to route the aggregate tunnel packet to a host associated with a virtual network identified by the same virtual network identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a virtual router of a computing device for one or more virtual networks, a plurality of inbound tunnel packets from a physical network;

determining, by the virtual router, whether the inbound tunnel packets include a same virtual network identifier that identifies a virtual network of the virtual networks;

in response to determining the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier, and without separately routing the inbound tunnel packets, aggregating the inbound tunnel packets to generate an aggregate tunnel packet comprising a payload that merges payloads of the inbound tunnel packets and a header that includes a single instance of the same virtual network identifier without including packet headers from each of the inbound tunnel packets; and

routing, by the virtual router, the aggregate tunnel packet to a host associated with the identified virtual network as if the aggregate tunnel packet were received from the physical network.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the virtual router receives the inbound tunnel packets from a switch fabric comprising a plurality of switches interconnected to form a physical network that switches packets for the one or more virtual networks,

wherein a virtual network controller configures and manages the one or more virtual networks within the physical network, and

wherein a server of a plurality of servers interconnected by the switch fabric executes the virtual router, wherein each of the servers comprises an operating environment executing one or more virtual machines in communication via the one or more virtual networks, and wherein the servers execute a set of virtual routers that extends the one or more virtual networks to the virtual machines.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein determining whether the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier and aggregating the inbound tunnel packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet comprises:

invoking an aggregation routine executing in kernel space for a computing device that executes the virtual router and providing, to the aggregation routine, the virtual network identifier as if the virtual network identifier were at least a portion of a layer two (L2) header common to each of the inbound tunnel packets; and

processing the inbound tunnel packets with the aggregation routine as L2 packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet as if the aggregate tunnel packet were an aggregate L2 packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the aggregation routine comprises a Generic Receive Offload (GRO) routine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the same virtual network identifier comprises one of a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) label or VxLAN tag.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the aggregate tunnel packet comprises applying a routing instance associated with the identified virtual network to route the aggregate tunnel packet to the host in accordance with the virtual network identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the aggregate tunnel packet to the host comprises routing the aggregate tunnel packet to a virtual machine operating within a virtual environment provided by the computing device on which the virtual router executes.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets includes an outer header comprising the virtual network identifier and an inner packet comprising an inner header and a payload, and

wherein aggregating the inbound tunnel packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet comprises generating the aggregate tunnel packet to comprise a payload that merges the payloads of the inbound tunnel packets and a packet header that comprises the single instance of the virtual network identifier and at least one packet header field value common to all of the inner headers of the inbound tunnel packets.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets includes an outer header comprising an outer layer three (L3) header and the virtual network identifier and an inner packet comprising an inner L3 header and a payload, and wherein determining whether the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier and aggregating the inbound tunnel packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet having the single instance of the same virtual network identifier comprises:

for each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets, removing the outer L3 header to generate a modified tunnel packet that includes the virtual network identifier and the inner packet for the inbound tunnel packet;

determining the modified tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier;

merging the payloads of the modified tunnel packets to generate a merged payload; and

generating the aggregate tunnel packet to include the virtual network identifier of the inbound tunnel packets, the inner L3 header of the inbound tunnel packets, and the merged payload.

10. A network system comprising:

a switch fabric comprising a plurality of switches interconnected to form a physical network;

a virtual network controller device configured to configure and manage one or more virtual networks within the physical network; and

a plurality of servers interconnected by the switch fabric, wherein each of the servers comprises an operating environment executing one or more virtual machines in communication via the one or more virtual networks, and wherein the servers execute at least one virtual router configured to extend the one or more virtual networks to the operating environments of the virtual machines,

wherein a virtual router of the at least one virtual router is configured to;

receive a plurality of inbound tunnel packets from a physical network;

determine whether the inbound tunnel packets include a same virtual network identifier that identifies a virtual network of the virtual networks;

in response to determining the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier, and without separately routing the inbound tunnel packets, aggregate the inbound tunnel packets to generate an aggregate tunnel packet comprising a payload that merges payloads of the inbound tunnel packets and a header that includes a single instance of the same virtual network identifier without including packet headers from each of the inbound tunnel packets;

route, by the virtual router, the aggregate tunnel packet to a host associated with the identified virtual network as if the aggregate tunnel packet were received from the physical network.

11. The network system of claim 10,

wherein to determine whether the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier and to aggregate the tunnel packets to generate an aggregate tunnel packet the virtual router is configured to:

invoke an aggregation routine executing in kernel space for the server that executes the virtual router and provide, to the aggregation routine, the virtual network identifier as if the virtual network identifier were at least a portion of a layer two (L2) header common to each of the inbound tunnel packets; and

process the inbound tunnel packets with the aggregation routine as L2 packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet as if the aggregate tunnel packet were an aggregate L2 packet.

12. The network system of claim 11, wherein the aggregation routine comprises Generic Receive Offload (GRO).

13. The network system of claim 10, wherein the same virtual network identifier comprises one of a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) label or VxLAN tag.

14. The network system of claim 10, wherein to route the aggregate tunnel packet to the host the virtual router applies a routing instance associated with the identified virtual network to route the aggregate tunnel packet to the host in accordance with the virtual network identifier.

15. The network system of claim 10, wherein to route the aggregate tunnel packet to the host the virtual router routes the aggregate tunnel packet to a virtual machine operating within a virtual environment provided by the server that executes the virtual router.

16. The network system of claim 10,

wherein each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets includes an outer header comprising the virtual network identifier and an inner packet comprising an inner header and a payload, and

wherein to aggregate the inbound tunnel packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet the virtual router generates the aggregate tunnel packet to comprise a payload that merges the payloads of the inbound tunnel packets and a packet header that comprises the single instance of the virtual network identifier and at least one packet header field value common to all of the inner headers of the inbound tunnel packets.

17. The network system of claim 10,

wherein each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets includes an outer header comprising an outer layer three (L3) header and the virtual network identifier and an inner packet comprising an inner L3 header and a payload, and

wherein to determine whether the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier and to aggregate the inbound tunnel packets to generate the aggregate tunnel packet having the single instance of the same virtual network identifier the virtual router is configured to:

for each inbound tunnel packet of the inbound tunnel packets, remove the outer L3 header to generate a modified tunnel packet that includes the virtual network identifier and the inner packet for the inbound tunnel packet;

determine the modified tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier;

merge the payloads of the modified tunnel packets to generate a merged payload; and

generate the aggregate tunnel packet to include the virtual network identifier of the inbound tunnel packets, the inner L3 header of the inbound tunnel packets, and the merged payload.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:

receive, by a virtual router of a computing device for one or more virtual networks, a plurality of inbound tunnel packets from a physical network;

determine, by the virtual router, whether the inbound tunnel packets include a same virtual network identifier that identifies a virtual network of the virtual networks;

in response to determining the inbound tunnel packets include the same virtual network identifier, and without separately routing the inbound tunnel packets, aggregate the inbound tunnel packets to generate an aggregate tunnel packet comprising a payload that merges payloads of the inbound tunnel packets and a header that includes a single instance of the same virtual network identifier without including packet headers from each of the inbound tunnel packets; and

route, by the virtual router, the aggregate tunnel packet to a host associated with the identified virtual network as if the aggregate tunnel packet were received from the physical network.