Method to check health of automatically discovered controllers in software defined networks (SDNs)

• US 9,667,524 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2015
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Argela Yazilim Ve Bilisim Teknolojileri San. Ve Tic A.S.
• Original Assignee: Argela Yazilim Ve Bilisim Teknolojileri San. Ve Tic A.S.
• Inventors: Kaytaz, Bulent, Parlakisik, Murat, Guney, Nazli, Sunay, Oguz, Ozen, Uygar, Karaman, Melih, Civanlar, Seyhan, Gorkemli, Burak
• Primary Examiner(s): Mesfin, Yemane
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Peter
• Application Number:
  US14/795,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20150312132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• 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 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/036 Updating the topology between route computation elements, e.g. between OpenFlow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/64 using an overlay routing layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/555 Error detection

Abstract

A method to check health of automatically discovered controllers comprises the steps of: (a) a first controller generating a first Controller-Advertisement message carrying the information required to identify and access the first controller when a new switch port becomes active; (b) the first controller sending the generated first Controller-Advertisement to a first switch having the newly activated port; (c) the first controller receiving at least a second Controller-Advertisement message from at least a second controller; (d) the first controller generating a third unsolicited Controller-Advertisement message with its access information to check health of the second controller; (e) the first controller receiving at least a fourth Controller-Advertisement message from the second controller indicating health information of the second controller, wherein the health information is stored in first controller'"'"'s Controller Information Base (CIB).

Claims

1. A method to check health of previously discovered controllers comprising:

a. a first controller directly sending a first controller-advertisement message to a second controller with a solicit flag set indicating it is expecting a response, where the second controller receives the first controller-advertisement message and updates information in a first controller information base (CIB) associated with the second controller to indicate that a first state associated with the first controller is set to “

live”

;

b. the first controller receiving the response directly from the second controller, the second controller sending the response as a second controller advertisement message carrying a second information required to identify and directly access the second controller with the solicit flag cleared indicating that the second controller is not expecting a return response; and

c. the first controller receiving the second controller-advertisement message and updating information by setting a second state associated with the second controller to “

live”

in a second CIB associated with the first controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when the second controller-advertisement message is not received in (c) by the first controller within a predetermined time period, the second state associated with the second controller is set to “

dead”

in the second CIB associated with the first controller.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the second state associated with the second controller is set to “

dead”

, then the first controller periodically retries sending the first controller-advertisement message soliciting a response from the second controller.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein when the first controller-advertisement message is not received in (a) by the second controller within a predetermined time period, the first state associated with the first controller is set to “

dead”

in the first CIB associated with the second controller.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein when the first state associated with the first controller is set to “

dead”

, then the second controller periodically retries sending the second controller-advertisement.