MANAGED SWITCH ARCHITECTURES: SOFTWARE MANAGED SWITCHES, HARDWARE MANAGED SWITCHES, AND HETEROGENEOUS MANAGED SWITCHES

• US 20130058255A1
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nicira Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Casado, Martin, Amidon, Keith E., Pfaff, Benjamin L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,306,875 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17312 Routing techniques specific to parallel machines, e.g. wormhole, store and forward, shortest path problem congestion routing on a LAN H04L45/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/122 of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV]
• 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 45/02 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 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/00 Packet switching elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/1546 using pipelined operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3063 Pipelined operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 : Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 : Internet protocol [IP] addresses

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a system that includes a set of network controllers for receiving definitions of first and second logical switching elements. The system includes several managed switching elements. The set of network controllers configure the several managed switching elements to implement the defined first and second logical switching elements. The system includes several network hosts that are each (1) communicatively coupled to one of the several managed switching elements and (2) associated with one of the first and second logical switching elements. Network data communicated between network hosts associated with the first logical switching element are isolated from network data communicated between network hosts associated with the second logical switching element.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a set of network controllers for receiving definitions of first and second logical switching elements;

a plurality of managed switching elements, wherein the set of network controllers configure the plurality of managed switching elements to implement the defined first and second logical switching elements; and

a plurality of network hosts that are each (1) communicatively coupled to one of the plurality of managed switching elements and (2) associated with one of the first and second logical switching elements, wherein network data communicated between network hosts associated with the first logical switching element are isolated from network data communicated between network hosts associated with the second logical switching element.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements that implements the first logical switching element is used to implement the second logical switching element.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a plurality of hardware managed switching elements.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of hardware managed switching elements are top-of-rack hardware switches.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises software managed switching elements.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a set of hardware managed switching elements and a set of software switching elements.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements are edge switching elements.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising a set of non-edge switching elements for forwarding network data from a first managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements to a second managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements when the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element when the network data comprises multi-recipient network data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein multi-recipient network data is broadcast network data.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein multi-recipient network data is multicast network data.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element when the first and second managed switching elements are not directly coupled.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second managed switching elements are not directly coupled when a tunnel is not established between the first and second managed switching elements.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of network controllers configure the plurality of managed switching elements through a set of communication protocols.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the set of communication protocols comprises a configuration protocol for communicating configuration information.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the set of communication protocols comprises an OpenFlow protocol for communication flow entries.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of network controllers comprises a first network controller and a second network controller, wherein the first network controller configures a first subset of the plurality of managed switching elements, wherein the second network controller configures a second, different subset of the plurality of managed switching elements.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a plurality of edge switching elements.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the each network controller in the set of network controllers comprises a control application layer, a virtualization application layer, and a network operating system layer.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the definition of the first logical switching element specifies the logical control plane data for the first logical switching element and the definition of the second logical switching element specifies the logical control plane data for the second logical switching element.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the control application layer is for converting the logical control plane data for the first and second logical switching elements to logical forwarding plane data for the first and second logical switching elements.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the virtualization application layer is for converting the logical forwarding plane data of the first and second logical switching elements to physical control plane data for the managed switching elements.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the set of network controllers configure the plurality of managed switching elements to implement the defined first and second logical switching elements by sending the physical control plane data to the plurality of managed switching elements.

24. A method for managing a network, the method comprising:

receiving a definition of a first logical switching element for routing network data between a first plurality of network hosts in the network;

receiving a definition of a second logical switching element for routing network data between a second plurality of network hosts in the network; and

configuring a plurality of managed switching elements in the network to implement the first logical switching element and the second logical switching element so that network data communicated between the first plurality of network hosts are isolated from network data communicated between the second plurality of network hosts.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein at least one managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements that implements the first logical switching element is used to implement the second logical switching element.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a plurality of hardware managed switching elements.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises software managed switching elements.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises virtual managed switching elements.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a set of hardware managed switching elements and a set of software switching elements.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the set of software switching elements comprises a set of virtual switching elements.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements are edge switching elements.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising configuring a set of non-edge switching elements to forward network data from a first managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements to a second managed switching element in the plurality of managed switching elements when the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element when the network data comprises multi-recipient network data.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein multi-recipient network data is broadcast network data.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein multi-recipient network data is multicast network data.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the first managed switching element cannot forward the network data to the second managed switching element when the first and second managed switching elements are not directly coupled.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the first and second managed switching elements are not directly coupled when a tunnel is not established between the first and second managed switching elements.

38. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements are configured through a set of communication protocols.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the set of communication protocols comprises a configuration protocol for communicating configuration information.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the set of communication protocols comprises an OpenFlow protocol for communication flow entries.

41. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of managed switching elements comprises a plurality of edge switching elements.

42. The method of claim 24, wherein the definition of the first logical switching element specifies the logical control plane data for the first logical switching element and the definition of the second logical switching element specifies the logical control plane data for the second logical switching element.

43. The method of claim 42 further comprising converting the logical control plane data for the first and second logical switching elements to logical forwarding plane data for the first and second logical switching elements.

44. The system of claim 43 further comprising converting the logical forwarding plane data of the first and second logical switching elements to physical control plane data for the managed switching elements.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein configuring the plurality of managed switching elements in the network comprises sending the physical control plane data to the plurality of managed switching elements.

46. A network architecture comprising:

a set of network controllers for receiving definitions for a plurality of logical datapath sets; and

a plurality of hardware managed switching elements that are each for (1) coupling to a set of network hosts and (2) forwarding network data to the set of network hosts, wherein the set of network controllers configures the plurality of hardware managed switching element to implement the plurality of logical datapath sets.

a plurality of sets of network hosts, wherein each hardware managed switching element of the plurality of hardware managed switching elements is coupled to a corresponding set of network hosts of the plurality of sets.

47. The network architecture of claim 46, wherein each hardware switching element of the plurality of hardware switching elements is a top-of-rack switch that is coupled to the corresponding set of network hosts.

48. The network architecture of claim 47, wherein each set of network hosts is included in a different rack of hosts.

49. The network architecture of claim 46, wherein the set of network controllers communicates to the plurality of hardware managed switching elements through an OpenFlow communication protocol.

50. A network architecture comprising:

a set of network controllers for receiving definitions for a plurality of logical datapath sets;

a plurality of racks comprising a set of network hosts and a particular network host for hosting a software managed switching element that (1) couples to the set of network hosts and (2) forwards network data to the set of network hosts, wherein the set of network controllers configures the plurality of software managed switching elements to implement the plurality of logical datapath sets; and

a plurality of hardware managed switching elements that are each for forwarding network data to the set of network hosts of a particular rack and the particular network host of the particular rack.

51. The network architecture of claim 50, wherein the plurality of software managed switching elements are virtual switching elements.

52. The network architecture of claim 51, wherein the plurality of particular network hosts are each for hosting a virtual machine that hosts a software managed switching element.

53. The network architecture of claim 50, wherein the plurality of hardware managed switching elements are top-of-rack switches.