US 8,761,036 B2Granted

Network control apparatus and method with quality of service controls

AssigneeNicira, Inc.

InventorsBryan J. Fulton, Paul S. Ingram, Pankaj Thakkar

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Abstract

A control application of some embodiments allows a user to enable a logical switching element for Quality of Service (QoS). QoS in some embodiments is a technique to apply to a particular logical port of a logical switching element such that the switching element can guarantee a certain level of performance to network data that a machine sends through the particular logical port. The control application of some embodiments receives user inputs that specify a particular logical switch to enable for QoS. The control application may additionally receive performance constraints data. The control application in some embodiments formats the user inputs into logical control plane data. The control application in some embodiments then converts the logical control plane data into logical forwarding data that specify QoS functions.

Claims21

Dependent claims

For a controller, a method for controlling a logical switching element comprising one or more logical ports, the logical switching element implemented in one or more managed switching elements that forward data in a network, each managed switching element having one or more ports to which machines connect, the method comprising:

receiving user inputs for specifying (i) a logical queue for a logical port of the logical switching element for implementing a logical data path set (LDPS) and (ii) a set of performance constraints to apply to the logical port using the logical queue;
based on the user inputs, creating the logical queue for the logical port and applying the set of performance constraints to the logical port, wherein the logical port is mapped to a particular port of a managed switching element to which a particular machine connects;
and
associating the logical queue with a physical queue for the particular port of the managed switching element, the physical queue for queuing data received at the managed switching element through the particular port according to the set of performance constraints before the managed switching element sends the data toward a destination of the data.

1 more element

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a network controller program for execution by at least one processing unit to control a logical switching element comprising a set of logical ports, the logical switching element implemented in a set of managed switching elements that forward data in a network, each managed switching element having a set of ports to which machines connect, the network controller program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, from a user, inputs for specifying (i) a logical queue for a logical port of the logical switching element for implementing a logical data path set (LDPS) and (ii) a set of performance constraints to apply to the logical port using the logical queue;
based on the received inputs, creating the logical queue for the logical port and applying the set of performance constraints to the logical port, wherein the logical port is mapped to a particular port of a managed switching element to which a particular machine connects;
and
associating the logical queue with a physical queue for the particular port of the managed switching element, the physical queue for queuing data received at the managed switching element through the particular port according to the set of performance constraints before the managed switching element sends the data toward a destination of the data.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/177,545Filed 6 Jul 2011 · us provisional application
Priority: 6 Jul 2010
Published: US 2013/0058358 A17 Mar 2013
Granted: 24 Jun 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification21 codes

H04L 41/0895
Configuration management of networks or network elements: configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or…
G06F 15/17312
Intercommunication techniques: routing techniques specific to parallel machines, e.g. wormhole, store and forward, shortest path problem congestion
H04L 12/4633
Interconnection of networks: interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
H04L 41/0816
Characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings: the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events

Family

Application61/361,912Us provisional application · filed 6 Jul 2010
Application61/361,913Us provisional application · filed 6 Jul 2010
Application61/429,753Us provisional application · filed 4 Jan 2011
Application61/429,754Us provisional application · filed 4 Jan 2011
Application61/466,453Us provisional application · filed 22 Mar 2011
Application61/482,205Us provisional application · filed 3 May 2011
Application61/482,615Us provisional application · filed 4 May 2011
Application61/482,616Us provisional application · filed 4 May 2011
Application61/501,743Us provisional application · filed 27 Jun 2011
Application61/501,785Us provisional application · filed 28 Jun 2011
US 2013/0058358 A1Pre-grant publication · published 7 Mar 2013
US 8,761,036 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.