Extended tag networking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10367736-B2
Application number	US-201816001820-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 6, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

Techniques are provided for enabling tag networking. In one example, a network device (e.g., switch, router, etc.) is configured to receive a packet of a traffic flow and to analyze the traffic flow to determine the packet belongs to a particular type of traffic. The network device can then add and/or change a tag in a data field of the packet. The tag, among other things, serves as an identifier for the particular type of traffic flow. The tag is identifiable by a downstream node that is preconfigured to recognize the tag and to carry out logic in response to recognizing the tag. Advantageously, the tag functionality of the present approach provides a generalized way of adding information to packets; the information and the associated functionalities are customizable during a runtime of the network.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computer-implemented method for tag networking, the method comprising:
determining that one or more network devices in a computer network are configured to handle a tag;
receiving, at the one or more network devices, a packet of a traffic flow, wherein the packet includes the tag located among data of the packet;
reading the packet to identify the tag that is located among the data of the packet;
performing a tag lookup to find logic that is associated with the tag; and
applying the logic to the packet in response to performing the tag lookup, wherein the logic includes instructions for carrying out a service of the network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out by a switch of the network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the service includes at least one of security operations, Quality of Service (QoS) operations, or traffic throttling operations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the logic includes directing the packet to go through a particular part of the network and not through another part of the network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the logic includes applying a Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee to the packet, wherein the QoS guarantee includes ensuring particular traffic associated with the packet experiences no more than a predetermined amount of latency.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tag lookup requires fewer computations than a deep packet inspection (DPI) of the packet, and wherein the tag lookup includes less than 500 instructions and the DPI of the packet includes more than 1000 instructions.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tag lookup includes less than 50 instructions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the logic is performed according to an application loaded on a switch, wherein the application includes one or more instructions that instruct the switch how to apply logic to packets passing through the switch.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the application loaded on the switch is pre-installed on the switch by using a single platform kit for the network, wherein the single platform kit includes a set of tools for configuring network devices of the network to share protocols.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, performs an operation for tag networking, the operation comprising:
determining that one or more network devices in a computer network are configured to handle a tag;
receiving, at the one or more network devices, a packet of a traffic flow, wherein the packet includes the tag located among data of the packet;
reading the packet to identify the tag that is located among the data of the packet;
performing a tag lookup to find logic that is associated with the tag; and
applying the logic to the packet in response to performing the tag lookup, wherein the logic includes instructions for carrying out a service of the network.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the service includes at least one of security operations, Quality of Service (QoS) operations, or traffic throttling operations.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein applying the logic includes applying a Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee to the packet, wherein the QoS guarantee includes ensuring particular traffic associated with the packet experiences no more than a predetermined amount of latency.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein applying the logic is performed according to an application loaded on a switch, wherein the application includes one or more instructions that instruct the switch how to apply logic to packets passing through the switch.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the application loaded on the switch is pre-installed on the switch by using a single platform kit for the network, wherein the single platform kit includes a set of tools for configuring network devices of the network to share protocols.

15. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing program code, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation for tag networking, the operation comprising:
determining that one or more network devices in a computer network are configured to handle a tag;
receiving, at the one or more network devices, a packet of a traffic flow, wherein the packet includes the tag located among data of the packet;
reading the packet to identify the tag that is located among the data of the packet;
performing a tag lookup to find logic that is associated with the tag; and
applying the logic to the packet in response to performing the tag lookup, wherein the logic includes instructions for carrying out a service of the network.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the service includes at least one of security operations, Quality of Service (QoS) operations, or traffic throttling operations.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein applying the logic includes applying a Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee to the packet, wherein the QoS guarantee includes ensuring particular traffic associated with the packet experiences no more than a predetermined amount of latency.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the tag lookup requires fewer computations than a deep packet inspection (DPI) of the packet, and wherein the tag lookup includes less than 500 instructions and the DPI of the packet includes more than 1000 instructions.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein applying the logic is performed according to an application loaded on a switch, wherein the application includes one or more instructions that instruct the switch how to apply logic to packets passing through the switch.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the application loaded on the switch is pre-installed on the switch by using a single platform kit for the network, wherein the single platform kit includes a set of tools for configuring network devices of the network to share protocols.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Pruss Richard M
• Mcdowall John E
• Medved Jan

Classifications

• H04L63/1408

  by monitoring network traffic (monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00) · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• H04L45/38 Primary

  Flow based routing · CPC title

• H04L47/31

  by tagging of packets, e.g. using discard eligibility [DE] bits · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title