Communication apparatus, system, method, and non-transitory medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10649847-B2
Application number	US-201515573033-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2015
Priority date	May 11, 2015
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

A communication apparatus comprising: a plurality of communication processes, each performing communication process on a flow associated thereto; a plurality of network interfaces, each of the network interfaces adapted to be connected to a network; a dispatcher that receives a packet from the network interface and dispatches the packet to an associated communication process, based on a dispatch rule that defines association of a flow to a communication process to which the flow is dispatched; and a control unit that performs control to roll back each of the communication processes using saved image thereof.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A communication apparatus comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled with the processor and storing a program executable by the processor; and
a plurality of network interfaces, each of the network interfaces connected to a network, wherein the processor, based on the program stored in the memory, is configured to execute:
a plurality of communication processes, each performing communication processing on a flow associated thereto;
a dispatch process that receives a packet from at least one network interface out of the plurality of the network interfaces, and dispatches the packet to an associated communication process, based on a dispatch rule that defines association of the flow to the associated communication process to which the flow is dispatched; and
a rollback control process that performs control to roll back each of the communication processes using a saved image thereof, wherein the rollback control process is configured to:
save an image of a communication process and an integrity measure thereof;
check whether or not a currently calculated integrity measure of the communication process is the same as the integrity measure previously calculated and saved; and
rollback the communication process by restoring the image thereof being saved, when the currently calculated integrity measure of the communication process is found to be not the same as the integrity measure of the communication process previously calculated and saved.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rollback control process
saves, on a storage device, a state, execution codes, or, the state and the execution codes, of the communication process, in accordance with a setup, and
performs roll back by overwriting one of the state, the execution codes, or, the state and the execution codes that are saved, to an existing state, existing execution codes, or, the existing state and the existing execution codes, of the communication process.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute:
a hypervisor that controls the communication process, wherein
the hypervisor executes the rollback control process.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rollback control process performs updating of a rollback image of the communication process, wherein responsive to an occurrence of a predetermined event for triggering rollback, the rollback control process performs rollback with a latest roll back image saved.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rollback control process creates a communication process using the saved image thereof, and causes the dispatch process to change the communication process, to which the flow is dispatched, in the dispatch rule, from an existing communication process to the created communication process.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication process includes
a switch process that, upon reception of a packet dispatched thereto by the dispatch process, matches header field information of the packet with a rule for handling the flow, and handles the packet based on the matching result, wherein the rule includes a match field that is matched with header field information of a packet; and an action field that prescribes handling of matching packet,
wherein the rollback control process controls to perform rollback of the switch process, every time the switch process handling the flow or N number of the flows, wherein N is a predetermined integer number not less than 2, or, responsive to an occurrence of a predetermined event for triggering rollback.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication process includes
a management process that performs communication with a controller that controls the communication apparatus,
the communication apparatus further comprising
a packet processor performing packet processing according to a rule for handling the flow, wherein the dispatch process monitors the rule for handling the flow.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication process includes
a controller process that, upon reception of a message from a switch, generates a rule for handling the flow to be applied for each of switches on a path for the flow, the rule including a match field that is matched with header field information of a packet received by the switch, and an action field that prescribes handling of matching packet by the switch, and sends the generated rule to each of switches on the path for the flow, wherein the rollback control process controls to perform rollback of the controller process,
after the controller process handles a request from the switch,
after handling one operation,
periodically, or,
responsive to an occurrence of a predetermined event for triggering rollback.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the controller process executes
a controller core process; and
an application interface, wherein in the roll back of the communication process, at least one of the controller core process or the application interface is rolled back, or the controller core process and the application interface are separately rolled back.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication process is configured to be executed in an environment allocated thereto, the environment arranged for each of the communication processes being isolated from each of one or more environments arranged for remaining one or more communication processes.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication apparatus is a switch apparatus comprising, as the plurality of the communication processes,
a plurality of switch processes, each of the switch processes performing switch processing on the flow associated thereto.

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the communication apparatus is a controller apparatus comprising, as the plurality of the communication processes,
a plurality of controller processes, each of the controller processes performing control of one or more associated switch processes, wherein the dispatch process dispatches a message from a switch to an associated controller process, based on a dispatch rule that defines association of the switch to the controller process to which a message from the switch is dispatched.

13. A communication system comprising:
a switch; and
a controller to control the switch, wherein
the switch comprises:
a processor;
a memory coupled with the processor and storing a program executable by the processor; and
a plurality of network interfaces, each of the network interfaces connected to a network, wherein the processor, based on the program store in the memory, is configured to execute:
a plurality of switch processes, each of the switch processes performing switch processing on a flow associated thereto;
a dispatch process that receives a packet from at least one network interface out of the plurality of the network interfaces and dispatches the packet to an associated switch process, based on a dispatch rule that defines association of the flow to the associated switch process to which the flow is dispatched; and
a rollback control process that performs control to roll back each of the switch processes using a saved image thereof, wherein the rollback control process is configured to:
save an image of a switch process and an integrity measure thereof;
check whether or not currently calculated integrity measure of the

Assignees

• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Sasaki Takayuki
• Perrig Adrian
• Capkun Srdjan
• Soriente Claudio
• Jayaram Masti Ramya
• Lee Jason

Classifications

• G06F11/14

  Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F21/606

  by securing the transmission between two devices or processes · CPC title

• G06F11/1402 Primary

  Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying · CPC title

• H04L63/12

  Applying verification of the received information (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32) · CPC title

• G06F9/52

  Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores · CPC title