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US 8,369,345 B1Granted
Multi-router system having shared network interfaces
AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.
InventorsSriram Raghunathan, Yong Luo, Wai Leung Chan, Surinder Singh, Abbas Sakarwala, Harmeet Sahni, Jian Cui
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A multi-router system is described in which hardware and software components of one or more standalone routers can be partitioned into multiple logical routers. The multiple logical routers are isolated from each other in terms of routing and forwarding functions yet allow network interfaces to be shared between the logical routers. Moreover, different logical routers can share network interfaces without impacting the ability of any of the logical routers to be independently scaled to meet the bandwidth demands of the customers serviced by the logical router.
Claims27
A multi-router system comprising:
- at least one standalone router comprising:
- a routing engine;
- a plurality of packet forwarding engines to forward network packets in accordance with forwarding information;
- a set of network interface cards coupled to each of the packet forwarding engines by a switch fabric that forwards packets between the plurality of packet forwarding engines of the standalone router;
- at least two tunnel interface cards to form network tunnels;
- and
- a control system coupled to the standalone router, the control system comprising a plurality of routing engines,
- wherein each of the routing engines of the control system is associated with a different partition of the packet forwarding engines and the network interface cards of the standalone router, including at least one of the tunnel interface cards, to form a plurality of hardware logical routers,
- wherein at least two of the plurality of hardware logical routers are configured to communicate with a shared one of the interface cards of the standalone router via the tunnel interface cards, and
- wherein the tunnel interface cards of the hardware logical routers forward packets to the shared one of the interface cards of the standalone router by receiving outbound tunneled packets from the hardware logical routers destined for a network and looping the tunneled packets back to the hardware logical routers as inbound packets received from the network via a tunnel.
7 more elements
A multi-router system comprising:
- at least one standalone router comprising:
- a routing engine;
- a plurality of packet forwarding engines to forward network packets in accordance with forwarding information;
- a set of network interface cards coupled to each of the packet forwarding engines by a switch fabric that forwards packets between the plurality of packet forwarding engines of the standalone router;
- at least two tunnel interface cards to form network tunnels;
- and
- a control system coupled to the standalone router, the control system comprising a plurality of routing engines,
- wherein each of the routing engines of the control system is associated with a different partition of the packet forwarding engines and the network interface cards of the standalone router, including at least one of the tunnel interface cards, to form a plurality of hardware logical routers,
- wherein at least two of the plurality of hardware logical routers are configured to communicate with a shared one of the interface cards of the standalone router via the tunnel interface cards,
- wherein the packet forwarding engines of the standalone router maintain layer three (L3) forwarding information for the hardware logical router with which they are associated, and
- wherein the routing engine of the standalone router maintains layer two (L2) forwarding information for directing packets between the shared interface card and the packet forwarding engines of the hardware logical routers without maintaining L3 forwarding information for routes reachable by the hardware logical routers.
8 more elements
A method comprising:
- partitioning forwarding components of a standalone router into a first group, a second group and a remaining group, wherein each of the first and second groups of the forwarding components of the standalone router includes a packet forwarding engine coupled to a set of physical interfaces and a tunnel interface card, and wherein the remaining group of the forwarding components of the standalone router includes at least one shared network interface;
- associating each of the first and second groups of forwarding components with a respective routing engine of a control system to form a plurality of hardware logical routers;
- and
- with the tunnel interface cards, communicating packets between the forwarding components of the hardware logical routers and the shared interface of the standalone router by one or more tunnels,
- wherein communicating packets between the forwarding components of the hardware logical routers and the shared interface of the standalone router by one or more tunnels comprises:
- forming outbound tunneled packets with a first one the hardware logical routers, wherein the outbound tunneled packets include a logical tunnel cookie that provides identification data associated with an internal tunnel through the tunnel interface card of the hardware logical router;
- forwarding the outbound tunneled packets from the first one of the hardware logical routers to the tunnel interface card of the first one of the hardware logical routers;
- looping the tunneled packets back from the tunnel interface card to the first one of the hardware logical routers as inbound packets received from a network;
- removing the tunnel cookie from each of the inbound packets with the forwarding components of the first one of the hardware logical routers upon receiving the inbound packets back from the tunnel interface cards;
- performing a route lookup on the inbound packets with the first one of the hardware logical routers and forming an outbound packet having encapsulation required by the shared interface of the standalone router;
- and
- forwarding the outbound packets from the first one of the hardware logical routers to the shared interface of the standalone router.
9 more elements
A multi-router system comprising:
- at least one standalone router comprising:
- a routing engine;
- a plurality of packet forwarding engines to forward network packets in accordance with forwarding information;
- and
- a set of network interface cards coupled to each of the packet forwarding engines by a switch fabric that forwards packets between the plurality of packet forwarding engines of the standalone router;
- a control system coupled to the standalone router, the control system comprising a plurality of routing engines,
- wherein each of the routing engines of the control system is associated with a different partition of the packet forwarding engines and the network interface cards of the standalone router to form a plurality of hardware logical routers,
- wherein at least two of the plurality of hardware logical routers are configured to communicate with a shared one of the interface cards of the standalone router via network tunnels,
- wherein the packet forwarding engines of the standalone router maintain layer three (L3) forwarding information for the hardware logical router with which they are associated, and
- wherein the routing engine of the standalone router maintains layer two (L2) forwarding information for directing packets between the shared interface card and the packet forwarding engines of the hardware logical routers without maintaining L3 forwarding information for routes reachable by the hardware logical routers.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.