Systems and methods for forming and using a group of link aggregation groups to reduce traffic on interconnect links

• US 9,660,901 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2012
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Sivasankar, Ravikumar, Nandakumaran, Purushothaman
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Harun
• Application Number:
  US13/677,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20140133486A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• Field of Search: 370392, 370228, 370235, 370401, 370254, 370419, 370389, 370216
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/41 by acting on aggregated flows or links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A first switch forms first and second LAGs and a main LAG comprising the first and second LAGs as sub-LAGs. Forming the first and second LAGs comprises receiving LACP data units which indicate that the first switch is connected to second and third switches through first and second pluralities of ports, and forming the first LAG of the first plurality of ports and the second LAG of the second plurality of ports. The second and third switches share a control plane. In forming the first and second LAGs, LACP data units are received from the second and third switches and include unique identifiers of the second and third switches respectively. Forming the main LAG comprises receiving one or more LACP data units which indicate that the first and second plurality of ports are to be part of the main LAG, and forming the main LAG based on such LACP data units. Other features are also provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising a first switch performing operations of:

forming a first link aggregation group (LAG), forming a second LAG, and forming a main LAG comprising each port of the first and second LAGs, the first LAG being a first sub-LAG of the main LAG, the second LAG being a second sub-LAG of the main LAG;

maintaining, in a memory, association between destination media access control (MAC) addresses and those ports and/or LAGs on which packets with such destination MAC addresses are to be forwarded, such that a unicast MAC address is associable with any of the first and second sub-LAGs, to cause the first switch to forward packets such that if a packet is received on a port that is not part of the main LAG, then;

if the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is a unicast address associated with the first sub-LAG in the memory, then the packet is forwarded over the first sub-LAG;

if the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is a unicast address associated with the second sub-LAG in the memory, then the packet is forwarded over the second sub-LAG; and

if the packet is a flooding packet and/or the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is not associated with any port or LAG in the memory, then the packet is forwarded over the main LAG;

wherein forming the first and second LAGs comprises receiving a plurality of link aggregation control protocol (LACP) data units at the first switch, the LACP data units indicating that the first switch is connected to a second switch through a first plurality of ports and a third switch through a second plurality of ports, and forming the first sub-LAG of the first plurality of ports and the second sub-LAG of the second plurality of ports;

wherein the second and third switches share a control plane;

wherein in forming the first and second LAGs, the LACP data units are received at the first switch from the second and third switches, with;

LACP data units from the second switch including a type-length-value (TLV) element that has a unique identifier of the second switch as a value of the TLV element; and

LACP data units from the third switch including a TLV element that has a unique identifier of the third switch as a value of the TLV element;

wherein forming the main LAG comprises receiving one or more LACP data units at the first switch which indicate to the first switch that the first and second plurality of ports are to be part of the main LAG, and forming the main LAG based on such one or more LACP data units.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second switch is a master switch generating LACP data units for the second and third switches, and sending to the third switch, over one or more links each of which is connected to the second and third switches, the LACP data units generated for the third switch, the third switch sending to the first switch the LACP data units received from the second switch.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second and third switches are in a stacking relationship.

4. An information handling system comprising:

a first switch that includes;

a computer processor in communication with a plurality of ports for receiving and sending packets; and

a memory in communication with the computer processor;

wherein the first switch is configured to use the computer processor, the memory, and the ports to;

(1) recognize those of the ports that are assignable to link aggregation groups (LAGs) and to form at least a first LAG comprising a first group of said ports, a second LAG comprising a second group of said ports, the first and second groups being disjoint from each other, and a main LAG which comprises the first and second groups of said ports, the first LAG being a first sub-LAG of the main LAG, the second LAG being a second sub-LAG of the main LAG; and

(2) maintain a look-up table in said memory which associates media access control (MAC) addresses with ports and/or LAGs, such that a unicast MAC address is associable with any of the first and second sub-LAGs, to cause the first switch to forward packets based on the packets'"'"' destination MAC addresses such that if a packet is received on a port that is not part of the main LAG, then;

if the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is a unicast address associated with the first sub-LAG by the look-up table, then the packet is forwarded over the first sub-LAG;

if the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is a unicast address associated with the second sub-LAG by the look-up table, then the packet is forwarded over the second sub-LAG; and

if the packet is a flooding packet and/or the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is not associated with any port or LAG by the look-up table, then the packet is forwarded over the main LAG;

wherein the first switch is configured to form the first and second sub-LAGs and the main LAG when links forming the first sub-LAG are coupled to a second switch and links forming the second sub-LAG are coupled to a third switch, wherein the second and third switches share a control plane;

wherein forming the first and second sub-LAGs comprises receiving a plurality of link aggregation control protocol (LACP) data units at the first switch, the LACP data units indicating that the first switch is connected to the second switch through a first plurality of ports and the third switch through a second plurality of ports such that in forming the first and second sub-LAGs, the LACP data units are received at the first switch from the second and third switches, with;

LACP data units from the second switch including a type-length-value (TLV) element that has a unique identifier of the second switch as a value of the TLV element; and

LACP data units from the third switch including a TLV element that has a unique identifier of the third switch as a value of the TLV element;

wherein forming the main LAG comprises receiving one or more LACP data units at the first switch which indicate to the first switch that the first and second plurality of ports are to be part of the main LAG, and forming the main LAG based on such one or more LACP data units.

5. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein a packet with a destination media address control (MAC) address is sent by the first switch over the second sub-LAG to the third switch if the destination MAC address is associated with the second sub-LAG in the look-up table.

6. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein a packet with a destination MAC address is sent by the first switch over the main LAG to either the second switch or the third switch if the destination MAC address is not associated with the first or second sub-LAG in the look-up table.

7. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein a packet without a destination MAC address in the lookup table is sent by the first switch over the main LAG.

8. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein the memory of the first switch further includes a plurality of hashing algorithms, including a source-MAC hashing algorithm, the hashing of which is determined by a source MAC address of packets received from a host having the source MAC address as its MAC address, the host being connected to the first switch such that the packets sent from the host with the source MAC address are hashed to one member port of the main LAG based on the source MAC address.

9. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein a unicast MAC address is associable with any of the first and second sub-LAGs to cause the first switch to forward packets based on the packets'"'"' destination MAC addresses such that if a packet is received on a port that is in the first or second sub-LAG and the packet is a flooding packet and/or the packet'"'"'s destination MAC address is not associated with any port or LAG by the look-up table, then the packet is not forwarded over the main LAG.

10. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the first sub-LAG consists of the first plurality of ports, and the second sub-LAG consists of the second plurality of ports.