Method to build a modular distributed network device using microservices architecture

A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon, which when executed by a processor performs a method of processing data traffic in a network having multiple network routing apparatuses, the method comprising:

• reading a configuration file from a data storage module to create a first component, the configuration file defining a behavior of the component;
• creating a set of tables that are used to store data associated with the first component;
• publishing the set of tables to a service discovery component for making it available to multiple components in any of the multiple networking routing apparatuses;
• discovering, using the service discovery component, other components by the first component;
• establishing an inter-process communication channel between the components to generate a route for relaying data traffic in the network;
• and
• relaying the data traffic in the network based on the route.

A network routing apparatus, comprising:

• multiple functional modules, including a processor, a data storage module, an input/output module, a shared memory, and a network module, wherein each functional module is driven by a micro-services based software architecture comprising a TCP/IP stack, a protocol serializer, a protocol de-serializer, an in-memory data store, and multiple components, wherein the multiple components include a forwarding component, an input-output component and app component,
• wherein the forwarding component is configured to create a first set of tables for forwarding information from an incoming control packet to the input-output component,
• wherein the input-output component is configured to create a second set of tables for forwarding information from the incoming control packet to the app component after performing input-output processing of the incoming control packet, and
• wherein the app component is configured to determine a route for relaying data traffic in a network based on the protocol-specific routing and the first and second sets of tables.