Network switching domains with a virtualized control plane
First Claim
1. A method for implementing a control plane in a distributed fabric system comprised of one or more switching domains, the distributed fabric system including a plurality of network switches coupled to a cell-based switching fabric, the method comprising:
- running a virtual machine on a server connected to a network port of one or more of the network switches of the distributed fabric system that are members of a given switching domain;
managing, by the virtual machine running on the server, a control plane for the one or more network switches of the given switching domain;
receiving, by the server, a protocol control packet from one of the network switches that is a member of the given switching domain; and
forwarding the received protocol control packet to the virtual machine running on the server for processing.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed switching fabric system includes multiple network switches coupled to a cell-based switching fabric by cell-fabric ports. A virtual machine runs on a server connected to a network port of one or more of the network switches that are members of a given switching domain. The virtual machine manages a control plane for the given switching domain. The server receives a protocol control packet from one of the network switches and forwards the received protocol control packet to the virtual machine for processing.
128 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for implementing a control plane in a distributed fabric system comprised of one or more switching domains, the distributed fabric system including a plurality of network switches coupled to a cell-based switching fabric, the method comprising:
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running a virtual machine on a server connected to a network port of one or more of the network switches of the distributed fabric system that are members of a given switching domain; managing, by the virtual machine running on the server, a control plane for the one or more network switches of the given switching domain; receiving, by the server, a protocol control packet from one of the network switches that is a member of the given switching domain; and forwarding the received protocol control packet to the virtual machine running on the server for processing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A distributed fabric system comprising:
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a plurality of scaled-out fabric coupler (SFC) chassis, each SFC chassis having a plurality of cell-based SFC fabric ports and a cell-based fabric element for switching cells among the cell-based SFC fabric ports of that SFC chassis; and a plurality of switching distributed line cards (DLCs), each switching DLC having a plurality of network ports and a plurality of DLC fabric ports, each switching DLC being connected to each of the SFC chassis by one of the DLC fabric ports of that switching DLC, at least one of the DLCs belonging to a switching domain; and a server connected to one of the network ports of the at least one DLC belonging to the switching domain, the server running a control plane virtual machine that manages a control plane for the at least one DLC belonging to the switching domain. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A server system comprising:
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a physical network interface card (NIC) connected to a network port of a given network switch of a cell-based distributed fabric system comprised of a plurality of network switches coupled to a cell-based switching fabric, the given network switch belonging to a switching domain within the cell-based distributed fabric system; a hypervisor in communication with the physical NIC, the hypervisor including a plurality of virtual NICs; a processor running a control plane virtual machine (VM) associated with one of the virtual NICs, the control plane VM managing a control plane for the given network switch belonging to the switching domain. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A network switch, comprising:
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a central processing unit (CPU); a switching chip having a plurality of network ports, the switching chip having logic configured to detect and forward protocol control packets received by the network switch to the CPU through a local CPU port, logic configured to reprogram the local CPU port to be a network port, and logic to forward protocol control packets to the network port rather than to the CPU. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer program product for implementing a control plane in a distributed fabric system comprised of one or more switching domains, the distributed fabric system including a plurality of network switches coupled to a switching fabric by cell-based fabric ports, the computer program product comprising:
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a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising; computer-readable program code configured to provide a virtual machine when executed on a server system; computer-readable program code configured to manage, by the virtual machine when executed, a control plane for one or more of the plurality of network switches that belong to a given switching domain of the distributed fabric system; computer-readable program code configured to receive a protocol control packet from one of the network switches that belong to the given switching domain; and computer-readable program code configured to forward the received protocol control packets to the virtual machine when executing on the server system and managing the control plane for the given switching domain. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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Specification