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US 9,521,071 B2Granted
Federation of controllers management using packet context
AssigneeFreescale Semiconductor, Inc.
InventorsRajesh Kumar Madabushi, Srinivasa R. Addepalli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a network control system, a method for managing traffic flow in a distributed controller environment includes stamping a packet to be forwarded between data forwarding units with flow control information based on an action set associated with a flow entry pushed by a logical controller. The packet is stamped by one or more of the data forwarding units. The flow control information is used to forward the packet between data forwarding units, thereby defining a datapath packet flow.
Claims13
A network control system, comprising:
- a plurality of logical controllers, wherein each logical controller is configured to push a flow entry to one or more data forwarding units, wherein the flow entry is associated with a set of actions for forwarding a data packet;
- a data forwarding unit of the one or more data forwarding units that stamps flow control information to the data packet based on the set of actions, wherein each of the one or more data forwarding units is managed by one of the logical controllers;
- a controller manager in communication with the plurality of logical controllers for managing the plurality of logical controllers;
- and
- a communication channel that enables communication between the plurality of logical controllers and the controller manager,
- wherein the stamped flow control information comprises a logical port receiving the data packet, a physical port receiving the data packet, an identification (ID) of the plurality of logical controllers creating the flow entry, and an ID assigned to the flow entry.
3 more elements
A network control system, comprising:
- a plurality of logical controllers, wherein each logical controller is configured to push a flow entry to one or more data forwarding units, wherein the flow entry is associated with a set of actions for forwarding a data packet;
- a data forwarding unit of the one or more data forwarding units that stamps flow control information to the data packet based on the set of actions, wherein the stamped flow control information comprises a logical port receiving the data packet, a physical port receiving the data packet, an identification (ID) of the plurality of logical controllers creating the flow, and an ID assigned to the flow entry, and wherein each of the one or more data forwarding units is managed by one of the logical controllers;
- a controller manager in communication with the plurality of logical controllers for managing the plurality of logical controllers, wherein the controller manager updates each of the logical controllers regarding addition and removal of one or more logical controllers from the network control system, and registers and assigns a controller ID to each of the logical controllers, and wherein:
- (a) the plurality of logical controllers includes a transaction table and a controller database,
- (b) the transaction table stores transaction details of one or messages transmitted to and received by the plurality of logical controllers with respect to a request for a flow entry, and
- (c) the controller database stores at least one of a controller ID, a remote IP, a remote port, a connection status, and a flow cache;
- and
- a communication channel that enables communication between the plurality of logical controllers and the controller manager.
5 more elements
A method for managing traffic flow in a distributed controller environment, the method comprising:
- pushing, by a logical controller of a plurality of logical controllers, a flow entry to one or more data forwarding units, wherein the flow entry is associated with a set of actions for forwarding a data packet, and wherein the data forwarding units are managed by the logical controller;
- stamping, by one of the one or more data forwarding units, flow control information to the data packet based on the set of actions;
- and
- forwarding the data packet by the one or more data forwarding units to other ones of the data forwarding units,
- wherein the stamped flow control information comprises a logical port receiving the data packet, a physical port receiving the data packet, an identification (ID) of the logical controller creating the flow entry, and an ID assigned to the flow entry.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.