DHT-based control network implementation method and system, and network controller

• US 9,479,432 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Hu, Yongsheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Oveissi, David
• Application Number:
  US14/650,765
• Publication Number:
  US 20150372905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

The disclosure discloses a Distributed Hash Table (DHT)-based control network implementation method and system. The method includes that: switches establish routing control channels with specified network controllers in a distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network; head-node network controllers generate P2P path creation request messages, and forward the P2P path creation request messages along paths until the P2P path creation request messages reach end-node network controllers; each network controller on the paths transmits forwarding flow tables contained in the P2P path creation request messages to the switches managed by themselves to finish respective local path creation according to the P2P path creation request messages; and the head-node network controllers determine whether the paths are successfully created or not in combination with local path creation results according to received P2P path creation responses. The disclosure further discloses a network controller. By the disclosure, a network controller network is self-organized, and is automatically accessed by the switches, and meanwhile, calculation and transmission of the network paths are easy to manage.

Claims

1. A Distributed Hash Table (DHT)-based control network implementation method, comprising:

establishing, by switches, routing control channels with specified network controllers in a distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network;

performing, by one of the network controllers first receiving a path creation request as a head-node network controller, path calculation, generating P2P path creation request message, and forwarding the P2P path creation request message along a path;

transmitting, by the network controllers receiving the P2P path creation request message on the path, forwarding flow tables contained in the P2P path creation request message to the switches managed by themselves to finish respective local path creation, wherein the network controllers receiving the P2P path creation request message include intermediate-node network controllers and an end-node network controller, wherein each of the intermediate-node network controllers on the path forwards the P2P path creation request message along the path after finishing local path creation, and the end-node network controller returns P2P path creation response message along reverse path after finishing local path creation;

updating, by each of the intermediate-node network controllers receiving the P2P path creation response message, the P2P path creation response message in combination with a local path creation result, and forwarding the updated P2P path creation response message along the reverse path; and

determining, by the head-node network controller, whether the path is successfully created or not in combination with a local path creation result after receiving the P2P path creation response message;

wherein a destination node of the P2P path creation request message is the end-node network controller on the path;

a routing path header of the P2P path creation request message consists of Identifiers (ID) of the other network controllers except the end-node network controller on the path; and

a message body of the P2P path creation request message consists of the forwarding flow tables transmitted to each switch on the path.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of establishing, by the switches, the routing control channels with the specified network controllers in the distributed P2P network comprises:

selecting, by a boot server, network controllers responsible for managing the switches according to a distributed algorithm, and returning a network controller list including the selected network controllers to the switches;

establishing, by the switches, the routing control channels with the selected network controllers;

or,

executing, by a boot server, a Domain Name Service (DNS) reorientation function and returning a network controller list to the switches;

selecting, by the switches, any one of the network controllers from the network controller list and sending a routing control channel establishment request to any one of the network controllers;

receiving, by the switches from the any one of the network controllers, a network controller list including network controllers responsible for managing the switches; and

establishing, by the switches, the routing control channels with the network controllers responsible for managing the switches in the network controller list.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the routing control channels are OpenFlow protocol channels, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) channels or DIAMATER channels.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein sequences of the network controllers on the path and sequences of the switches on the path are obtained by path calculation.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein

the IDs of the other network controllers are arranged according to sequences of the other network controllers on the path;

and

the forwarding flow tables transmitted to each switch are arranged according to the sequences of the switches on the path.

6. The method according to claim 1, after the head-node network controllers generates the P2P path creation request message, further comprising:

transmitting, by the head-node network controller, the forwarding flow tables contained in the P2P path creation request message to the switches managed by themselves.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of returning, by the end-node network controller on the path, the P2P path creation response message along the reverse path after finishing local path creation is implemented as follows:

when local path creation succeeds, returning, by the end-node network controller, successful P2P path creation response message; and

when local path creation fails, returning, by the end-node network controller, failed P2P path creation response message.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the step of updating, by each of the intermediate-node network controller receiving the P2P path creation response message, the P2P path creation response message in combination with the local path creation result, and forwarding the updated P2P path creation response message along the reverse path is implemented as follows:

when local path creation succeeds and the successful P2P path creation response message is received, forwarding the updated successful P2P path creation response message along the reverse path;

when local path creation succeeds and the failed P2P path creation response message is received, forwarding the updated failed P2P path creation response message along the reverse path; and

when local path creation fails and the failed or successful P2P path creation response message is received, forwarding the updated failed P2P path creation response message along the reverse path.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the step of determining, by the head-node network controller, whether the path is successfully created or not in combination with the local path creation result after receiving the P2P path creation response message is implemented as follows:

when the head-node network controller receives the successful P2P path creation response message and local path creation succeeds, determining, by the head-node network controller, that path creation succeeds; and

when the head-node network controller receives the failed P2P path creation response message or local path creation fails, determining, by the head-node network controller, that path creation fails, and performs path recalculation.

10. The method according to claim 9, after each of the network controllers on the path receives the P2P path creation response message, further comprising:

when the failed P2P path creation response message is received or local path creation fails, performing, by each of the network controllers, rollback operation on the forwarding flow tables which have been locally transmitted.

11. A Distributed Hash Table (DHT)-based control network implementation system, comprising:

switches and network controllers, wherein

the switches are configured to establish routing control channels with specified network controllers in a distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network;

the network controllers includes a head-node network controller first receiving a path creation request, and intermediate-node network controllers and an end-node network controller;

wherein the head-node network controller is configured to perform path calculation, generate P2P path creation request message, and forward the P2P path creation request message along a path;

the intermediate-node network controllers and an end-node network controller are configured to, when receiving the P2P path creation request message, transmit forwarding flow tables contained in the P2P path creation request message to the switches managed by themselves to finish respective local path creation;

each of the intermediate-node network controllers is configured to forward the P2P path creation request message along the path after finishing local path creation;

the end-node network controller is configured to return P2P path creation response message along reverse path after finishing local path creation;

correspondingly,

each of the intermediate-node network controllers is further configured to, when receiving the P2P path creation response message, update the P2P path creation response message in combination with a local path creation result, and forward the updated P2P path creation response message along the reverse path; and

the head-node network controller is further configured to determine whether the path is successfully created or not in combination with a local path creation result after receiving the P2P path creation response message;

wherein a destination node of the P2P path creation request message is the end-node network controllers on the path;

a routing path header of the P2P path creation request message consists of Identifiers, ID of the other network controllers except the end-node network controller on the path; and

a message body of the P2P path creation request message consists of the forwarding flow tables transmitted to each switch on the path.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a boot server,

the boot server is configured to select network controllers responsible for managing the switches according to a distributed algorithm, and return a network controller list including the selected network controllers to the switches;

correspondingly,

the switches are further configured to establish the routing control channels with the selected network controllers;

or,

the boot server is configured to execute a Domain Name Service (DNS) reorientation function and return a network controller list to the switches;

correspondingly,

the switches are further configured to select any one of the network controllers from the network controller list, send a routing control channel establishment request to any one of the network controllers, and receive a network controller list including network controllers responsible for managing the switches from any one of the network controllers, and then establish the routing control channels with the network controllers responsible for managing the switches in the network controller list.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein

The head-node network controller is further configured to, after generating the P2P path creation request message, transmit the forwarding flow tables contained in the P2P path creation request messages to the switches managed by themselves.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein

the end-node network controller is further configured to return successful P2P path creation response message along the reverse path when local path creation succeeds;

and return failed P2P path creation response message along the reverse path when local path creation fails.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein

each of the intermediate-node network controllers is further configured to, when receiving the P2P path creation response message, forward the updated successful P2P path creation response message along the reverse path when local path creation succeeds and the successful P2P path creation response message is received;

forward the updated failed P2P path creation response message along the reverse path when local path creation succeeds and the failed P2P path creation response message is received; and

forward the updated failed P2P path creation response message along the reverse path when local path creation fails and the failed or successful P2P path creation response message is received.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein

the header-node network controller is further configured to, after receiving the P2P path creation response message, determine that path creation succeeds when the successful P2P path creation response message is received and local path creation succeeds;

and determine that path creation fails, and perform path recalculation when the failed P2P path creation response message is received or local path creation fails.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein

each of the network controllers is further configured to, after receiving the P2P path creation response message, perform rollback operation on the forwarding flow tables which have been locally transmitted if the failed P2P path creation response message is received or local path creation fails.

18. A network controller, comprising:

a memory for storing instructions; and

a processor connected with the memory for implement a first routing control protocol module, a distributed processing module, a routing control and transmission module and a distributed routing protocol module, wherein

the first routing control protocol module is configured to be responsible for establishment of a routing control channel between the network controller and a switch and information interaction between the network controller and the switch;

the distributed processing module is configured to generate a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) path creation request message according to path information provided by the routing control and transmission module, and provide the P2P path creation request message for the distributed routing protocol module to forward;

generate a P2P path creation response message according to a local path creation result provided by the routing control and transmission module, and provide the P2P path creation response message for the distributed routing protocol module to forward;

receive the P2P path creation request message provided by the distributed routing protocol module, and provide a forwarding flow table contained therein for the routing control and transmission module;

receive the P2P path creation response message provided by the distributed routing protocol module, update the received P2P path creation response message according to the local path creation result provided by the routing control and transmission module, and provide the updated P2P path creation response message for the distributed routing protocol module to forward; and

determine whether a path is successfully created or not according to the local path creation result provided by the routing control and transmission module and the P2P path creation response message provided by the distributed routing protocol module;

the routing control and transmission module is configured to perform path calculation to obtain the path information when the network controller receives the path creation request as a head-node network controller, and provide the path information for the distributed processing module; and

transmit the forwarding flow table provided by the distributed processing module for the corresponding switch to finish local path creation through the first routing control protocol module, and provide the local path creation result for the distributed processing module; and

the distributed routing protocol module is configured to forward or receive the P2P path creation request message along the path;

forward or receive the P2P path creation response message along a reverse path; and

provide the received P2P path creation request message or P2P path creation response message for the distributed processing module;

wherein a destination node of the P2P path creation request message is the end-node network controller on the path;

a routing path header of the P2P path creation request message consists of Identifiers, ID of the other network controllers except the end-node network controller on the path; and

a message body of the P2P path creation request message consists of the forwarding flow tables transmitted to each switch on the path.

19. The network controller according to claim 18, wherein

the distributed processing module is further configured to, when path creation is determined to fail, notify the routing control and transmission module to execute rollback operation on the forwarding flow table;

and

the routing control and transmission module is further configured to perform rollback operation on the transmitted forwarding flow table through the first routing control protocol module.