FORWARDING ETHERNET PACKETS

• US 20180241608A1
• Filed: 04/24/2018
• Published: 08/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Tian, Shikun, Wang, Yingbin, Chen, Weicai, Chen, Bo
• Granted Patent: US 10,608,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2596 Translation of addresses of the same type other than IP, e.g. translation from MAC to MAC addresses

Abstract

Forwarding Ethernet packets is disclosed, including: receiving an incoming packet; determining a value based at least in part on performing a hash operation on at least a portion of a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the incoming packet; comparing the value against a pre-established look-up table to determine whether a corresponding index value is found, wherein the pre-established look-up table stores index values and corresponding data sets to respective ones of the index values; determining a destination media access control (MAC) address associated with the incoming packet based at least in part on whether the corresponding index value is found in the pre-established look-up table; and forwarding the incoming packet to a virtual machine associated with the determined destination MAC address.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more processors configured to;

receive an incoming packet;

determine a value based at least in part on performing a hash operation on at least a portion of a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the incoming packet;

determine a media access control (MAC) address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded based at least in part on a determination of whether the value corresponding to the performing the hash operation is comprised in a mapping of index values to MAC addresses; and

forward the incoming packet to a virtual machine associated with the MAC address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded; and

one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors and configured to provide the one or more processors with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping of index values to MAC addresses is stored in a pre-established look-up table, and the determining the MAC address to which the income packet is to be forward comprises:

compare the value against a pre-established look-up table, wherein the pre-established look-up table stores index values and corresponding data sets to respective ones of the index values.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the determining the MAC address to which the income packet is to be forward further comprises:

determine whether the value is included in the pre-established look-up table;

in response to determining that the value is included in the pre-established look-up table, identify the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value based at least in part on the comparing of the value against the pre-established look-up table; and

determine a destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet based at least in part on whether the value is found in the pre-established look-up table.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein to determine the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet based at least in part on whether the value is found in the pre-established look-up table comprises:

determine whether the value is found in the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value; and

in response to determining that the value is found in the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value, select the MAC address from among the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value and perform a MAC address translation on the incoming packet.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein in response to determining that the value is not found in the pre-established look-up table, the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet is determined to comprise a value associated with a destination MAC address included in the incoming packet.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein in response to determining the value can be found in the pre-established look-up table, the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine a matching data set from the one or more data sets corresponding to the value, wherein the matching data set includes an IP address that matches the destination IP address included in the incoming packet; and

determine whether a destination MAC address included in the incoming packet matches a global MAC address associated with the matching data set.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein in response to determining that the destination MAC address included in the incoming packet does not match the global MAC address associated with the matching data set, the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet is determined to comprise a value associated with the destination MAC address included in the incoming packet.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the value determined based at least in part on performing the hash operation on the at least portion of the destination IP address included in the incoming packet comprises a hash value output by the hash operation.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the value determined based at least in part on performing the hash operation on the at least portion of the destination IP address included in the incoming packet comprises a function of a hash value output by the hash operation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the value corresponds to one or more data sets in the pre-established look-up table.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the one or more data sets includes a corresponding IP address, a local MAC address, and a global MAC address.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

receive an outgoing packet;

determine another value based at least in part on performing another hash operation on at least a portion of an origin IP address included in the outgoing packet;

compare the other value against the pre-established look-up table to determine whether the other value can be found; and

determine an origin MAC address associated with the outgoing packet based at least in part on a data set corresponding to the other value.

8. The system of clam 4, wherein in response to determining the destination MAC address included in the incoming packet matches the global MAC address associated with the matching data set, the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet is determined to comprise a value associated with a local MAC address associated with the matching data set.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving an incoming packet;

determining, by one or more processors, a value based at least in part on performing a hash operation on at least a portion of a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the incoming packet;

determining a media access control (MAC) address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded based at least in part on a determination of whether the value corresponding to the performing the hash operation is comprised in a mapping of index values to MAC addresses; and

forwarding the incoming packet to a virtual machine associated with the MAC address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the mapping of index values to MAC addresses is stored in a pre-established look-up table, and the determining the MAC address to which the income packet is to be forward comprises:

comparing the value against a pre-established look-up table, wherein the pre-established look-up table stores index values and corresponding data sets to respective ones of the index values.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining the MAC address to which the income packet is to be forward further comprises:

determining whether the value is included in the pre-established look-up table;

in response to determining that the value is included in the pre-established look-up table, identifying the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value based at least in part on the comparing of the value against the pre-established look-up table; and

determining a destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet based at least in part on whether the value is found in the pre-established look-up table.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet based at least in part on whether the value is found in the pre-established look-up table comprises:

determining whether the value is found in the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value; and

in response to determining that the value is found in the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value, selecting the MAC address from among the set of MAC addresses corresponding to the value and perform a MAC address translation on the incoming packet.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein in response to determining that the value is not found in the pre-established look-up table, the destination MAC address associated with the incoming packet is determined to comprise a value associated with a destination MAC address included in the incoming packet.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a matching data set from the one or more data sets corresponding to the value, wherein the matching data set includes an IP address that matches the destination IP address included in the incoming packet; and

determining whether a destination MAC address included in the incoming packet matches a global MAC address associated with the matching data set.

20. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an incoming packet;

determining a value based at least in part on performing a hash operation on at least a portion of a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the incoming packet;

determining a media access control (MAC) address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded based at least in part on a determination of whether the value corresponding to the performing the hash operation is comprised in a mapping of index values to MAC addresses; and

forwarding the incoming packet to a virtual machine associated with the MAC address to which the incoming packet is to be forwarded.