METHODS AND APPARATUS TO ROUTE CONTROL PACKETS BASED ON ADDRESS PARTITIONING

• US 20110286457A1
• Filed: 05/24/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Kadangode K., Breslau, Lee M., Ee, Cheng Tien
• Granted Patent: US 9,491,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/741 Routing in networks with a plurality of addressing schemes, e.g. with both IPv4 and IPv6
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74591 using content-addressable memories [CAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to route control packets based on address partitioning. A disclosed example method includes receiving a packet in a server, determining the packet is a control packet, forwarding the packet to a processor, identifying via the processor an address prefix of the packet, accessing a forwarding table and determining via the processor at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix, transmitting the packet from the processor to the server via the outgoing interface, and statically forwarding the packet from the server to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the processor.

Claims

1. A method to route control packets based on address partitioning, the method comprising:

receiving a packet in a server;

determining the packet is a control packet;

forwarding the packet to a processor;

identifying via the processor an address prefix of the packet;

accessing a forwarding table and determining via the processor at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix;

transmitting the packet from the processor to the server via the outgoing interface; and

statically forwarding the packet from the server to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the processor.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

aggregating the packet with a second packet that has the same address prefix as the packet upon identifying the address prefix of the packet; and

transmitting the second packet with the packet.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving the packet in the processor, identifying a first source address of the packet associated with a second router that sent the packet to the server;

changing the source address of the packet to a second source address associated with the processor; and

prior to transmitting the packet to the router, changing the source address of the packet to the first source address.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving the packet in the processor, identifying a first destination address of the packet associated with the router;

changing the destination address of the packet to a second destination address associated with the processor; and

prior to transmitting the packet to the determined router, changing the destination address of the packet to the first destination address.

5. A method as defined in claim 4, wherein determining at least one of the router or the outgoing interface includes cross-referencing the second destination address to at least one of the router or the outgoing interface.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the address prefix of the packet is included within a destination address of a header of the packet.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the outgoing interface is determined based on an interface that received the packet.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the packet in the router; and

updating control plane information based on information within the packet.

14. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein control plane information includes at least one of a routing path, a router address, an address subspace associated with the router, or a next hop address of an adjacent router.

6. (canceled)

7. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

15. An apparatus to route control packets based on address partitioning, the apparatus comprising:

a processor to;

identify an address prefix of a packet;

access a forwarding table and determine at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix; and

transmit the packet via the outgoing interface; and

a server to;

statically forward the packet to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the processor.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the server is to:

receive the packet;

determine the packet is a control packet; and

forward the packet to the processor.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to:

aggregate the packet with a second packet that has the same address prefix as the packet; and

transmit the second packet with the packet.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to:

identify a first source address of the packet associated with a second router that sent the packet to the server;

change the source address of the packet to a second source address associated with the processor; and

prior to transmitting the packet to the determined router, change the source address of the packet to the first source address.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to:

identify a first destination address of the packet associated with the router;

change the destination address of the packet to a second destination address associated with the processor; and

prior to transmitting the packet to the router, changing the destination address of the packet to the first destination address.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 20, wherein the processor is to determine at least one of the router or the outgoing interface by cross-referencing the second destination address to at least one of the router or the outgoing interface.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the router is at least one of an external network router or included within an array of routers.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 22, wherein the array of routers is associated with an address space and the router is associated with an address subspace of the address space.

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, further comprising a duplicate manager to store information within the packet.

26. An apparatus as defined in claim 25, wherein the processor is to send the information to a second router upon the second router sending an instruction to the processor indicating the second router is replacing the router.

19. (canceled)

24. (canceled)

27. A machine-accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to:

receive a packet;

determine the packet is a control packet;

identify an address prefix of the packet;

access a forwarding table and determine at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix;

transmit the packet via the outgoing interface; and

statically forwarding the packet to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the outgoing interface.

28-32. -32. (canceled)