Multi-Homing Device Handling of Host Changes During Control Plane Downtime
AssigneeArista Networks, Inc.
InventorsAnand Narayanan, Mason Alexander Flowers, Pavan Narasimhaprasad, Akhil Shashidhar
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Abstract
A multi-homing network device may undergo an operation during which its control plane is inactive while its data plane remains active. During this operation, host changes such as host additions may occur in the network. To facilitate proper traffic handling for traffic destined for a new host, the multi-homing network device may perform traffic processing collectively with a multi-homing peer network device.
Claims20
A network device operable with a peer network device in a multi-homing configuration, the network device comprising:
- memory circuitry;
- control plane processing circuitry coupled to the memory circuitry;
- and
- data plane processing circuitry coupled to the control plane processing circuitry and configured to:
- obtain an unknown unicast packet while the control plane processing circuitry is inactive;
- and
- forward an encapsulated version of the unknown unicast packet to the peer network device, the encapsulated version of the unknown unicast packet having a tunneling header that includes an indication of how the unknown unicast packet is to be processed by the peer network device.
A network device operable with a peer network device in a multi-homing configuration, the network device comprising:
- memory circuitry;
- control plane processing circuitry coupled to the memory circuitry;
- and
- data plane processing circuitry coupled to the control plane processing circuitry and configured to:
- receive an encapsulated version of an unknown unicast packet from the peer network device when a control plane of the peer network device is inactive, the encapsulated version of the unknown unicast packet having a tunneling header that includes an indication of how the unknown unicast packet is to be processed;
- and
- based on the indication, forward the unknown unicast packet as a known unicast packet to a destination of the unknown unicast packet based on reachability of the destination being known.
A network device comprising:
- control circuitry configured to perform a hitless restart operation;
- and
- a data plane processor coupled to the control circuitry and having data plane memory circuitry, wherein the data plane memory circuitry is configured to store:
- for use during the hitless restart operation,
- an Ethernet segment identifier,
- a designated forwarder of the Ethernet segment,
- a selected multi-homing peer of the Ethernet segment,
- a first traffic processing rule for matching on and processing remote-side ingress unknown unicast traffic,
- a second traffic processing rule for matching on and processing local-side ingress unknown unicast traffic, and
- a third traffic processing rule for matching on and processing encapsulated unknown unicast traffic from the selected multi-homing peer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.