Generic centralized architecture for software-defined networking with low latency one-way bypass communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9450805-B2
Application number	US-201314044177-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2013
Priority date	Oct 3, 2012
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

A generic centralized, software-defined networking configuration for connecting network is defined as a generic multi-layer topology network entities interconnected either vertically or horizontally regardless of the employed network topology/graph). This centralized configuration enables establishment of a connection between any two networking entities by 1) bypassing intermediate protocol layers and 2) eliminating any handshaking between peer elements of the same layer. The centralized software-defined controller notifies in parallel all involved network entities along a connection path to take all necessary actions (i.e. reconfiguration) to establish the new connection. The centralized controller has authority to control only entities that are software-defined SD.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A centralized, software-defined networking configuration for connecting network entities, the configuration comprising:
a network configuration of network entities connected vertically across layers and horizontally on the same layer, particular ones on the network entities being software defined SD entities and remaining network entities being non-SD entities and some non-SD entities being connected to at least one of the SD entities; and
a centralized software-defined controller for controlling network entities, non-SD entities being uncontrollable by the controller, responsive to a demand for a communication path between two entities, the controller informs all involved entities to form the communication path, the controller being only responsible for a notification of the involved entities and the allocation of resources with the entities themselves being responsible for local implementation and configuration;

wherein the centralized controller sends parallel configuration messages using out-of-band connections, such as through the Internet and the TCP protocol, to all involved entities, which can take immediate action such that there is no need for handshaking between peer entities and in turn, all the involved entities merely send an acknowledgment message to the centralized controller, whereby once all entities send such an acknowledgement a communication path is considered to be established.

2. The networking configuration of claim 1 , wherein the controller keeps track of all the SD network entities and can establish communication paths between them as long as they are all connected to each other either vertically or horizontally, the centralized controller establishing communication paths that begin, traverse and end inside a domain of the controller.

3. The networking configuration of claim 2 , wherein data flowing inside a controller's domain actually needs to reach an entity outside the domain, and conventional protocols and technologies take over to bring the data to destination, the controller's domain being all vertical and horizontal entities that form a connected graph.

4. The network configuration of claim 1 , further comprising software-defined SD protocol stacks, the SD protocol stacks including SD network entities located at different layers in a stack, communication path commands being issued by the controller over parallel configuration messages which may be implemented using arbitrary protocols.

5. The network configuration of claim 1 , further comprising software defined SD protocol stacks receiving parallel configuration messages from the controller, the protocol stacks including a source SD protocol stack wherein centralized commands from the controller distributed in parallel enable one-way bypasses from the source SD protocol stack to a destination protocol stack by removing two-way handshaking between any two intermediate protocol stacks along the way.

6. The network configuration of claim 1 , further comprising software defined SD protocol stacks receiving parallel configuration messages from the controller, the protocol stacks including a source SD protocol stack and a destination protocol stack wherein a SD vertical bypass communication is directly carried out using lowest-layer network entities without making extraneous intermediate trips up the protocol stack at the destination stack, and another SD enabled vertical bypass of hops is exploited to minimize the overall processing latency.

7. A centralized, software-defined networking configuration for connecting network entities, the configuration comprising:
a network configuration of network entities connected vertically across layers and horizontally on the same layer, particular ones on the network entities being software defined SD entities and remaining network entities being non-SD entities and some non-SD entities being connected to at least one of the SD entities;
a centralized software-defined controller for controlling network entities, non-SD entities being uncontrollable by the controller, responsive to a demand for a communication path between two entities, the controller informs all involved entities to form the communication path, the controller being only responsible for a notification of the involved entities and the allocation of resources with the entities themselves being responsible for local implementation and configuration; and
software defined SD protocol stacks receiving parallel configuration messages from the controller, the protocol stacks including a source SD protocol stack wherein commands from the controller enable a vertical bypass hops from a highest layer SD network entity to a lowest layer SD network entity thereby reducing processing delay or latency.

8. A computer implemented centralized, software-defined networking method for connecting network entities, the method comprising:
connecting a network configuration of network entities vertically across layers and horizontally on the same layer, particular ones on the network entities being software defined SD entities and remaining network entities being non-SD entities and some non-SD entities being connected to at least one of the SD entities;
controlling, via a centralized software-defined controller, network entities, non-SD entities being uncontrollable by the controller, responsive to a demand for a communication path between two entities, the controller informs all involved entities to form the communication path, the controller being only responsible for a notification of the involved entities and the allocation of resources with the entities themselves being responsible for local implementation and configuration;

wherein the centralized controller sends parallel configuration messages using out-of-band connections, such as through the Internet and the TCP protocol, to all involved entities, which can take immediate action such that there is no need for handshaking between peer entities and in turn, all the involved entities merely send an acknowledgment message to the centralized controller, whereby once all entities send such an acknowledgement a communication path is considered to be established.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the controller keeps track of all the SD network entities and can establish communication paths between them as long as they are all connected to each other either vertically or horizontally, the centralized controller establishing communication paths that begin, traverse and end inside a domain of the controller.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 , wherein data flowing inside a controller's domain actually needs to reach an entity outside the domain, and conventional protocols and technologies take over to bring the data to destination, the controller's domain being all vertical and horizontal entities that form a connected graph.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising software-defined SD protocol stacks, the SD protocol stacks including SD network entities located at different layers in a stack, communication path commands being issued by the controller over parallel configuration messages which may be implemented using arbitrary protocols.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising software defined SD protocol stacks receiving parallel configuration messages from the controller, the protocol stacks including a source SD protocol stack wherein commands from the controller enable a vertical bypass hops from a highest layer SD network entity to a lowest layer SD network entity thereby reducing processing delay or latency.

13. The compute

Assignees

• Nec Lab America Inc
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Cvijetic Neda
• Patel Ankitkumar
• Ji Philip Nan
• Wang Ting
• Angelou Maria Ioanna

Classifications

• H04L41/044

  comprising hierarchical management structures · CPC title

• H04L41/022

  Multivendor or multi-standard integration · CPC title

• H04L45/38

  Flow based routing · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04L41/04

  Network management architectures or arrangements · CPC title