Network congestion notification preservation and modification during transmission of network data between physical network and virtual network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9712451-B2
Application number	US-201514681858-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2015
Priority date	May 31, 2012
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

A virtual network is implemented on a physical network. A virtual network data packet is tunneled through the physical network via encapsulation within a physical network data packet and via transmission of the physical network data packet through the physical network. A network congestion notification capability of the virtual network is preserved and modified during transmission of virtual network data through the physical network and vice-versa. Congestion notification metadata can be copied from a header of a virtual network data packet to a header of a physical network data packet when the virtual network data packet is encapsulated into the physical network data packet. Congestion notification metadata can be copied from a header of a physical network data packet to a header of a virtual network data packet when the virtual network data packet is decapsulated from the physical network data packet.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system comprising:
a software-defined networking (SDN) switching device connected to a data channel of an SDN virtual network implemented on a physical network and not to a control channel of the virtual network to communicate data over the virtual network, the SDN switching device having a mechanism to preserve and modify a network congestion notification capability of the virtual network during transmission of virtual network data through the physical network and vice-versa,
wherein the congestion notification capability of the virtual network relates to network congestion notification metadata that is communicated over the data channel using the SDN switching device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the mechanism maps network congestion notification metadata during translation of data from the virtual network to the physical network and during translation of data from the physical network to the virtual network.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network congestion notification capability is a feedback-based network congestion notification capability in which a target node receiving data from a source node provides feedback to the source node that network congestion has been encountered.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the feedback-based network congestion notification capability is an early congestion notification (ECN) notification capability employing one or more of: random early detection (RED), random early marking (REM), active queue management (AQM), quantized congestion notification (QCN), forward explicit congestion notification (FECN), and backward explicit congestion notification (BECN).

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual network is a lossless network in which lossless delivery of data without packet dropping is guaranteed even when network congestion is encountered.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual network is a software-defined network that is implemented on the physical network using tunneling to encapsulate data of the virtual network through the physical network.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical network is implemented at a networking model layer higher than a network model layer at which the virtual network is implemented.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the physical network is a network model layer level three network, and the virtual network is a network model layer level two network.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the physical network is a transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) network.

10. A switching device for a system including a software-defined networking (SDN) controller device comprising:
software-defined networking (SDN) network connecting hardware to connect the switching device to a physical network on which an SDN virtual network having at least a data channel and a control channel has been implemented, the SDN controller device of the system connected to the control channel and not the data channel to communicate control information over the virtual network, the SDN network connecting hardware connected to the data channel and not to the control channel to communicate data over the virtual network; and
logic to preserve and modify network congestion notification metadata when encapsulating virtual network data packets within physical network data packets and when decapsulating the virtual network data packets from the physical network data packets,
wherein the network congestion notification metadata is communicated over the data channel within the system using the switching device.

11. The switching device of claim 10 , wherein the logic comprises logic to copy the network congestion notification metadata from headers of the virtual network data packets to headers of the physical network data packets upon encapsulating the virtual network data packets into the physical network data packets,
the network congestion notification metadata added by nodes of the virtual network to indicate that the nodes support congestion notification.

12. The switching device of claim 10 , wherein the logic comprises logic to copy the network congestion notification metadata from headers of the physical network data packets to headers of the virtual network data packets when decapsulating the virtual network data packets from the physical network data packets,
the network congestion notification metadata modified during transmission of the tunneling data packets through the physical network to indicate that network congestion was experienced during the transmission.

13. A computer program product comprising:
a storage device storing computer-readable code executable by a software-defined networking (SDN) switching device of a system, the code comprising:
computer-readable code to copy first network congestion notification metadata from a header of a first virtual network data packet to a header of a first physical network data packet upon encapsulation of the first virtual network data packet into the first physical network data packet, prior to transmission of the first physical network data packet through a physical network;
computer-readable code to copy second network congestion notification metadata from a header of a second physical network data packet to a header of a second virtual network data packet upon decapsulation of the second virtual network data packet from the second physical network data packet, subsequent to the transmission of the second physical network data packet through the physical network; and
computer-readable code to cause the first and second network congestion notification metadata to be communicated are over the data channel within the system.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the computer-readable code to copy the first network congestion notification metadata comprises code to copy the first network congestion notification metadata only where the first network congestion notification metadata indicates that a node of a virtual network that sent the first virtual network data packet supports congestion notification, wherein the virtual network is implemented on the physical network.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the computer-readable code to copy the second network congestion notification metadata only where the second network congestion notification metadata indicates that network congestion was experienced during the transmission of the physical network data packet through the physical network.

16. A method comprising:
copying, by a software-defining networking (SDN) switching device of a system, first network congestion notification metadata from a header of a first virtual network data packet to a header of a first physical network data packet upon encapsulation of the first virtual network data packet into the first physical network data packet, prior to transmission of the first physical network data packet through a physical network, the SDN switching device connected to a data channel of a virtual network implemented on the physical network to communicate data over the virtual network and not connected to a control channel of the virtual network;
copying, by the SDN switching device, second network congestion notification metadata from a header of a second physical network data packet to a header of a second virtual network data packet upon decapsulation of the second virtual network data packet from the second physical network data packet, subsequent to transmission of the second physical network data packet through the physical network,
wherein the first and second network congestion metadata are communicat

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Birke Robert
• Crisan Daniel
• Decusatis Casimer M
• Gusat Mircea
• Minkenberg Cyriel J

Classifications

• H04L47/26

  using explicit feedback to the source, e.g. choke packets · CPC title

• H04L41/00

  Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks · CPC title

• H04L47/12

  Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion · CPC title

• H04L43/0876

  Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level · CPC title

• H04L47/115

  using a dedicated packet · CPC title