SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DIRECT STORAGE ACCESS IN A CONTENT-CENTRIC NETWORK

• US 20180011936A1
• Filed: 09/21/2017
• Published: 01/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mosko, Marc E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,445,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/742 Route cache; Operation thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/748 using longest matching prefix
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for caching content data to a storage device attached to a node in a content-centric network (CCN). During operation, the system receives a content packet; forwards the content packet to an incoming port of an interest in the content packet; caches a copy of the content packet in the attached storage device, assembles a query; which includes at least a network header and an address associated with storage blocks at which the cached copy of the content packet is located, corresponding to the content packet; and stores the query in a cache table, thereby facilitating a subsequent direct access to the storage blocks using the assembled query to retrieve the copy of the content packet.

Claims

1. A method for caching content data to a storage device attached to a switch in a content-centric network (CCN), the method comprising:

receiving a first interest in a content packet;

receiving, by the switch, the content packet;

forwarding the content packet to an incoming port of the first interest in the content packet;

caching a copy of the content packet in the attached storage device, wherein the attached storage device is coupled to the switch via a communication link, and wherein the copy of the content packet is stored in a set of storage blocks located in the attached storage device;

assembling a query frame for retrieving content from at least one storage block, wherein the query frame includes an address of the attached storage device and an identifier of a storage block in the set of storage block;

storing the query frame in a cache table in the switch; and

responsive to receiving an Interest for content of the content packet, retrieving the query frame from the cache and transmitting the query frame to the attached storage device to retrieve the content packet based on the identifier, without assembling communication frames to retrieve the content packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the attached storage device includes at least one of:

an advanced technology attachment (ATA) over Ethernet storage array;

a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) storage array; and

an Internet Small Computer System Interface (i SCSI) storage array.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content packet includes a plurality of fragments, wherein caching a copy of the content packet involves storing each fragment into a separate set of contiguous storage blocks, wherein a separate query frame is assembled for each fragment, and wherein an entry in the cache table corresponding to the content packet includes a plurality of query frames corresponding to the plurality of fragments.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching the cache table to obtain the assembled query frame by performing a longest-prefix-match lookup based on the second interest.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the switch includes multiple line cards each capable of receiving content and interest packets, and wherein the cache table is populated to all of the multiple line cards.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein storing comprises storing the query frame in an entry of the cache table that is indexed by the first interest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein storing comprises storing the query frame in an entry of the cache table that is indexed by a name of a cached content object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein storing comprises storing the query frame in an entry of the cache table indexed by a similarity hash of the first interest computed to uniquely identify a piece of content, based on a hash of a name and one or more fields in the content packet.

9. A system for caching content data to a storage device attached to a switch in a content-centric network (CCN), the system comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions;

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the executable instructions which cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising;

receiving a first interest in a content packet;

receiving, by the switch, the content packet;

forwarding the content packet to an incoming port of the first interest in the content packet;

caching a copy of the content packet in the attached storage device, wherein the attached storage device is coupled to the switch via a communication link, and wherein the copy of the content packet is stored in a set of storage blocks located in the attached storage device;

assembling a query frame for retrieving content from at least one storage block, wherein the query frame includes an address of the attached storage device and an identifier of a storage block in the set of storage block;

storing the query frame in a cache table in the switch; and

responsive to receiving an Interest for content of the content packet, retrieving the query frame from the cache and transmitting the query frame to the attached storage device to retrieve the content packet based on the identifier, without assembling communication frames to retrieve the content packet.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the attached storage device includes at least one of:

an advanced technology attachment (ATA) over Ethernet storage array;

a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) storage array; and

an Internet Small Computer System Interface (i SCSI) storage array.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the content packet includes a plurality of fragments, wherein caching a copy of the content packet involves storing each fragment into a separate set of contiguous storage blocks, wherein a separate query frame is assembled for each fragment, and wherein an entry in the cache table corresponding to the content packet includes a plurality of query frames corresponding to the plurality of fragments.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to execute to instructions stored in the memory that cause the processor to search the cache table to obtain the assembled query frame by performing a longest-prefix-match lookup based on the second interest.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the switch includes multiple line cards each capable of receiving content and interest packets, and wherein the processor is further to execute to instructions stored in the memory that cause the processor to populate the cache table to all of the multiple line cards.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory that cause the processor to store the query frame in an entry of the cache table indexed by a similarity hash of the first interest computed to uniquely identify a piece of content, based on a hash of a name and one or more fields in the content packet.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for caching content data to a storage device attached to a switch in a content-centric network (CCN), the method comprising:

receiving a first interest in a content packet;

receiving, by the switch, the content packet;

forwarding the content packet to an incoming port of the first interest in the content packet;

caching a copy of the content packet in the attached storage device, wherein the attached storage device is coupled to the switch via a communication link, and wherein the copy of the content packet is stored in a set of storage blocks located in the attached storage device;

assembling a query frame for retrieving content from at least one storage block, wherein the query frame includes an address of the attached storage device and an identifier of a storage block in the set of storage block;

storing the query frame in a cache table in the switch; and

responsive to receiving an Interest for content of the content packet, retrieving the query frame from the cache and transmitting the query frame to the attached storage device to retrieve the content packet based on the identifier, without assembling communication frames to retrieve the content packet.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the attached storage device includes at least one of:

an advanced technology attachment (ATA) over Ethernet storage array;

a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) storage array; and

an Internet Small Computer System Interface (i SCSI) storage array.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the content packet includes a plurality of fragments, wherein caching a copy of the content packet involves storing each fragment into a separate set of contiguous storage blocks, wherein a separate query frame is assembled for each fragment, and wherein an entry in the cache table corresponding to the content packet includes a plurality of query frames corresponding to the plurality of fragments.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

searching the cache table to obtain the assembled query frame by performing a longest-prefix-match lookup based on the received interest.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein storing comprises storing the query frame in an entry of the cache table that is indexed by the first interest.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein storing comprises storing the query frame in an entry of the cache table indexed by a similarity hash of the first interest computed to uniquely identify a piece of content, based on a hash of a name and one or more fields in the content packet.