Shared service access for multi-tenancy in a data center fabric

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10805216-B2
Application number	US-201916367868-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2019
Priority date	May 3, 2016
Publication date	Oct 13, 2020
Grant date	Oct 13, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the embodiments include receiving a packet at a network element of a packet-switched network; identifying a presence of a shared service destination address in a header of the packet; identifying a shared service destination address for the packet based, at least in part, on a destination internet protocol (IP) address stored in a forward information base; and forwarding the packet to the shared service destination address.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a packet at a network element of a packet-switched network;
based on information in the packet, instantiating a tenant-specific virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance;
performing, using the tenant-specific VRF instance, a tenant-specific lookup in a dedicated tenant-specific region of a multi-tenant forwarding information base (FIB) to determine whether or not the packet is directed to a shared service;
in response to determining that the packet is directed to a shared service, deriving a shared service VRF instance for the packet from the tenant-specific VRF instance;
using the shared service VRF instance, performing a shared service lookup in a dedicated shared services region of the FIB to identify a shared service destination address for the packet; and
forwarding the packet to the shared service destination address,
wherein the shared service destination address is only stored once in the FIB and is associated with multiple tenant-specific VRF instances.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
identifying a source internet protocol (SIP) address for the packet;
determining a shared service tag for the shared service destination, the shared service tag identifying one or more shared services associated with the SIP address of the packet; and
applying the shared service tag to an endpoint group tag associated with the SIP address for the packet.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing a tenant-specific lookup in the dedicated tenant-specific region of the FIB includes:
identifying a destination internet protocol (DIP) address for the packet.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the shared service lookup in the dedicated shared services region of the FIB to identify a shared service destination address for the packet comprises:
performing a lookup to identify a shared service IP address, wherein the shared service IP address is only stored once in the FIB and is associated with multiple tenant-specific VRF instances.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing the tenant-specific lookup in the dedicated tenant-specific region of the FIB using a forwarding information base (FIB) key populated with the tenant-specific VRF instance.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
performing the shared service lookup in the dedicated shared service region of the FIB using the FIB key, wherein the FIB key is also populated with the shared service VRF instance.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
performing the shared service lookup and the tenant-specific lookup in parallel.

8. A network element comprising:
an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) comprising a multi-tenant forwarding information base (FIB), wherein the FIB includes:
a tenant-specific region storing tenant-specific destination address information populated based on tenant-specific virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instances; and
a shared service region storing global shared service destination address information populated based on one or more shared service VRF instances, the one or more shared service VRF instances each being derived from one of the tenant-specific VRF instances, and wherein the shared service region comprises a next hop destination for a shared service destination,
wherein the network element is configured to:
receive a packet;
based on information in the packet, instantiate a tenant-specific virtual VRF instance;
perform, using the tenant-specific VRF instance, a tenant-specific lookup in the tenant-specific region of the FIB to determine whether or not the packet is directed to a shared service;
in response to determining that the packet is directed to a shared service, derive a shared service VRF instance for the packet from the tenant-specific VRF instance;
using the shared service VRF instance, perform a shared service lookup in the shared services region of the FIB to identify a shared service destination address for the packet; and
forward the packet to the shared service destination,
wherein the shared service destination address is only stored once in the FIB and is associated with multiple tenant-specific VRF instances.

9. The network element of claim 8 , wherein the network element is configured to:
identify a source internet protocol (SIP) address for the packet;
determine a shared service tag for the shared service destination, the shared service tag identifying one or more shared services associated with the SIP address of the packet; and
apply the shared service tag to an endpoint group tag associated with the SIP address for the packet.

10. The network element of claim 8 , wherein to perform a tenant-specific lookup in the tenant-specific region of the FIB, the network element is configured to:
identify a destination internet protocol (DIP) address for the packet.

11. The network element of claim 8 , wherein to perform the shared service lookup in the shared services region of the FIB to identify a shared service destination address for the packet, the network element is configured to:
perform a lookup to identify a shared service IP address, wherein the shared service IP address is only stored once in the FIB and is associated with multiple tenant-specific VRF instances.

12. The network element of claim 8 , wherein the network element is configured to:
perform the tenant-specific lookup in the tenant-specific region of the FIB using a forwarding information base (FIB) key populated with the tenant-specific VRF instance.

13. The network element of claim 12 , wherein the network element is configured to:
perform the shared service lookup in the shared services region of the FIB using the FIB key, wherein the FIB key is also populated with the shared service VRF instance.

14. The network element of claim 13 , wherein the network element is configured to:
perform the shared service lookup and the tenant-specific lookup in parallel.

15. A data center fabric comprising:
a network element configured to receive a packet from a tenant server, the network element comprising:
an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) comprising a multi-tenant forwarding information base (FIB);
the FIB comprising:
a tenant-specific region storing tenant-specific destination address information populated based on tenant-specific virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instances; and
a shared service region storing global shared service destination address information populated based on one or more shared service VRF instances, the one or more shared service VRF instances each being derived from one of the tenant-specific VRF instances, and wherein the shared service region comprises a next hop destination for a shared service destination; and
a shared services network element comprising a shared services server configured to:
receive a packet;
based on information in the packet, instantiate a tenant-specific virtual VRF instance;
perform, using the tenant-specific VRF instance, a tenant-specific lookup in the tenant-specific region of the FIB to determine whether or not the packet is directed to a shared service;
in response to determining that the packet is directed to a shared service, derive a shared service VRF instance for the packet from the tenant-specific VRF instance;
using the shared service VRF instance, perform a shared service lookup in the shared services region of the FIB to identify a shared service destination address for the packet; and
forward the packet to the shared service destination address,
wherein the shared service destination

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Sinha Satyam
• Rai Smita
• Chu Kit Chiu
• Agrawal Ashutosh
• Wu Wanli
• Nasika Ravikanth
• Edsall Thomas J
• Anandakrishnan Geetha

Classifications

• H04L45/02

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L45/7452

  Multiple parallel or consecutive lookup operations (lookup operation involving Bloom filters H04L45/7459) · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L67/53

  using third party service providers · CPC title

• H04L45/54

  Organization of routing tables · CPC title