Power management in a network of interconnected switches

• US 9,942,097 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2015
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Brocade Communications Systems, LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gandhi, Ram Kumar, Chikkamath, Shivalingayya, Raman, Mythilikanth
• Primary Examiner(s): Rutkowski, Jeffrey M
• Assistant Examiner(s): RANDHAWA, MANDISH K
• Application Number:
  US14/792,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20160197784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,009 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0833 for reduction of network energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A switch can reduce power consumption in a switch network by disabling under-utilized links between switches. The switch can include one or more line cards each operable to transmit and receive packets over a respective link to a remote switch. The switch can also comprise a control mechanism operable to place under-utilized links in standby mode whenever possible to conserve power. During operation, the switch can receive a standby request for placing a first link to a neighboring switch in a standby mode, and determines whether one or more eligible links to the neighboring switch can accommodate traffic from the first link. If the eligible links are able to accommodate traffic from the first link, and if the local switch and the neighboring switch agree to place the first link in standby mode, the local switch proceeds to place the first link in standby mode.

Claims

1. A switch, comprising:

one or more line cards; and

power control circuitry configured to;

identify a first standby request from a second switch for placing a first link in a standby mode;

determine whether at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link;

determine whether a local standby request for the first link is pending;

in response to determining that the at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link and no local standby request is pending, place a local line card corresponding to the first link in a standby mode; and

defer processing the first standby request in response to determining that the local standby request is pending.

2. The switch of claim 1, wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to reject the first standby request in response to determining that there are insufficient number of eligible links to accommodate traffic from the first link.

3. The switch of claim 2, wherein rejecting the first standby request comprises one of:

generating a negative acknowledgement (NACK) for the first standby request; and

not returning an acknowledgement (ACK) message within a timeout period.

4. The switch of claim 1, wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to:

identify a second standby request from a local line card for placing a second link in a standby mode;

generate, for a neighbor switch corresponding to the second link, a third standby request for placing the second link in standby mode; and

reject the second standby request in response to determining a timeout for the third standby request.

5. The switch of claim 4, wherein the second standby request is based on the second link reaching a low-bandwidth threshold at the local line card.

6. The switch of claim 1, wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to:

determine whether a priority associated with the at least one eligible link is sufficiently high to accommodate traffic from the first link; and

reject the first standby request in response to determining that the priority associated with the at least one eligible link is not sufficiently high.

7. The switch of claim 1, wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to:

determine whether the first link is a member of a trunk; and

in response to determining that the first link is a member of the trunk, update trunk state information to remove the first link from the trunk.

8. The switch of claim 1, wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to:

identify a link activation request;

select, from a set of eligible links in standby mode, a link with a lowest priority that satisfies a priority requirement associated with the activation request; and

activate the selected link.

9. The switch of claim 1, wherein the switch is in a network of interconnected switches, and wherein the power control circuitry is further configured to maintain global topology information of the network of interconnected switches.

10. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a switch, a first standby request from a second switch for placing a first link in a standby mode;

determining whether at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link;

determining whether a local standby request for the first link is pending;

in response to determining that the at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link and no local standby request is pending, placing a local line card corresponding to the first link in a standby mode; and

defer processing the first standby request in response to determining that the local standby request is pending.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising rejecting the first standby request in response to determining that there are insufficient number of eligible links to accommodate traffic from the first link.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein rejecting the first standby request comprises one of:

generating a negative acknowledgement (NACK) for the first standby request; and

not returning an acknowledgement (ACK) message within a timeout period.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a second standby request from a local line card for placing a second link in a standby mode;

generating, for a neighbor switch corresponding to the second link, a second standby request for placing the first link in standby mode; and

rejecting the second standby request in response to determining a timeout for the third standby request.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second standby request is based on the second link reaching a low-bandwidth threshold at the local line card.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining whether a priority associated with the at least one eligible link is sufficiently high to accommodate traffic from the first link; and

rejecting the first standby request in response to determining that the priority associated with the at least one eligible link is not sufficiently high.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining whether the first link is a member of a trunk; and

in response to determining that the first link is a member of the trunk, updating trunk state information to remove the first link from the trunk.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a link activation request;

selecting, from a set of eligible links in standby mode, a link with a lowest priority that satisfies a priority requirement associated with the link activation request; and

activating the selected link.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the switch is in a network of interconnected switches;

and

wherein the method further comprises maintaining global topology information of the network of interconnected switches.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a storage device coupled to the processor and storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising;

identifying a first standby request from a second computer system for placing a first link in a standby mode;

determining whether at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link;

determine whether a local standby request for the first link is pending;

in response to determining that the at least one eligible link can accommodate traffic from the first link and no local standby request is pending, placing a local line card corresponding to the first link in standby mode; and

defer processing the first standby request in response to determining that the local standby request is pending.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises rejecting the first standby request in response to determining that there are insufficient number of eligible links to accommodate traffic from the first link.