Method for redirecting data packet to reduce performance impact on link offline

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12526227-B2
Application number	US-202418649634-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2024
Priority date	Apr 29, 2024
Publication date	Jan 13, 2026
Grant date	Jan 13, 2026

Abstract

A method for redirecting data packet on link offline in a network is provided. The method includes detecting an offline link between a first port and a destination port. The method also includes moving the first port to a recovery state by turning on a mirroring feature to make copies of all subsequent frames of data packets to the first port. The method further includes activating a redundant port profile associated with the mirroring feature prepopulated with information including at least a second port linked to the destination port. Furthermore, the method includes forwarding, based on the redundant port profile, the copies of all data packets to the second port linked to the destination port.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for redirecting data packets from an offline link in a network comprising:
receiving data packets by a first switch in the network from an initiator; forwarding the data packets through the network to a first transmit port in a second switch, the data packets being in a transmission queue to be transmitted to a destination port, using a first routing table of the first switch to forward the data packets to at least a fourth switch having a second routing table to further guide forwarding the data packets to the first transmit port in the second switch; detecting an offline state at the first transmit port; activating packet redirection mode with a redundant port profile at the first transmit port, the redundant port profile being prepopulated with routing information for redirecting the data packets in the transmission queue through a redundant path to the destination port via a second transmit port in a third switch; requeuing the data packets as redirect packets in a mirror queue with a header having the redundant path; forwarding the redirect packets in the mirror queue through the network via the redundant path to the second transmit port; identifying the redirected packets by the second transmit port based on the header; removing the header of the redirected packets; and transmitting the redirected packets from the second transmit port to the destination port.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising using the first routing table of the first switch to forward the data packets to at least a fifth switch having a third routing table to further guide forwarding the data packets to the second transmit port in the third switch.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein forwarding the redirect packets in the mirror queue through the network via the redundant path comprises forwarding the redirect packets to the fifth switch based on the header, the fifth switch further forwarding the redirect data to the second transmit port in the third switch based on the third routing table.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising propagating the offline state at the first transmit port to all switches including the fourth switch and the fifth switch in the data plane.

5 . The method of claim 4 , comprising updating the second routing table and the third routing table, based on reception of the offline state at the first transmit port, to not forward data packets destined to the destination port further to the first transmit port in the second switch but to the second transmit port in the third switch.

6 . The method of claim 5 , comprising starting a redirect delay time to allow sufficient time for updating routing tables of all switches in the network.

7 . The method of claim 6 , comprising deactivating the redundant port profile at the first transmit port after the redirect delay time is expired.

8 . A network for redirecting data packets during a link offline event comprising:
a first switch configured to receive data packets from an initiator, the first switch having a first routing table indicating a destination port for the data packets; a fourth switch configured to receive the data packets forwarded from the first switch based on the first routing table, the fourth switch having a second routing table for guiding the data packets to reach the destination port; a fifth switch configured to receive the data packets forwarded from the first switch, the fifth switch having a third routing table for guiding the data packets to reach the destination port; a second switch configured to receive the data packets forwarded from the fourth switch through the network based on the second routing table, the data packets being queued in a transmission queue to be transmitted via a first transmit port to the destination port, and configured to activate a redundant port profile, after the first transmit port is offline, to requeue the data packets in a mirror queue as redirect packets with a redundant path header and forward the data packets to the fifth switch based on the redundant path header; and a third switch configured to receive the redirect packets from the fifth switch based on the third routing table, the third switch comprising a second transmit port configured to transmit the redirect packets to the destination port.

9 . The network of claim 8 , wherein the second switch comprises a control plane software implemented in an application specific integrated circuit to propagate information of the first transmit port being at the offline state to all switches in the network and command to stop data packet transmission from the first transmit port to the destination port.

10 . The network of claim 9 , wherein at least the fourth switch comprises a control plane software configured to, upon receiving the information of the first transmit port being offline, update the second routing table to not further forward data packets destined to the destination port to the first transmit port of the second switch.

11 . The network of claim 8 , wherein the third switch comprises a control plane software implemented in an application specific integrated circuit to check the redundant path header to identify the redirect packets being forwarded from the second switch with the first transmit port being offline, to remove the redundant path header while submitting the redirect packets as data packets in a transmission queue to the second transmit port, and to transmit the data packets to the destination port.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a network system, cause the network system to perform operations comprising:
receiving data packets by a first switch in the network from an initiator; forwarding the data packets through the network to a first transmit port in a second switch, the data packets being in a transmission queue to be transmitted to a destination port, using a first routing table of the first switch to forward the data packets to at least a fourth switch having a second routing table to further guide forwarding the data packets to the first transmit port in the second switch; detecting an offline state at the first transmit port; activating packet redirection mode with a redundant port profile at the first transmit port, the redundant port profile being prepopulated with routing information for redirecting the data packets in the transmission queue through a redundant path to the destination port via a second transmit port in a third switch; requeuing the data packets as redirect packets in a mirror queue with a header having the redundant path; forwarding the redirect packets in the mirror queue through the network via the redundant path to the second transmit port; identifying the redirected packets by the second transmit port based on the header; removing the header of the redirected packets; and transmitting the redirected packets from the second transmit port to the destination port.

Assignees

• Avago Tech Int Sales Pte Lid

Inventors

• Gnanasekaran Sathish K
• Chidambaram Pushpanathan
• Zhang Chao

Classifications

• H04L49/552

  by ensuring the integrity of packets received through redundant connections · CPC title

• H04L1/22 Primary

  using redundant apparatus to increase reliability · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04L45/22

  Alternate routing · CPC title

• H04L45/28 Primary

  using route fault recovery · CPC title