Internal packet steering within a wireless access gateway

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9853937-B1
Application number	US-201615339430-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 31, 2016
Priority date	Aug 1, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for steering data traffic for a subscriber session from a network interface of a wireless access gateway to an anchoring one of a plurality of forwarding units of the wireless access gateway using a layer 2 (L2) address of the data traffic. For example, a wireless access gateway for a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network is described as having a decentralized data plane that includes multiple forwarding units for implementing subscriber sessions. Each forwarding unit may present a network interface for sending and receiving network packets and includes packet processing capabilities to enable subscriber data packet processing to perform the functionality of the wireless access gateway. The techniques enable steering data traffic for a given subscriber session to a particular one of the forwarding units of the wireless access gateway using an L2 address of the data traffic.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
selecting, by a wireless access gateway of a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network and for a wireless endpoint device attached to the WLAN access network, an anchor forwarding unit from a plurality of forwarding units to process packets received from the wireless endpoint device, wherein each forwarding unit of the plurality of forwarding units is uniquely associated with a different layer 2 address;
outputting, by the wireless access gateway in response to receiving an address resolution protocol request issued by the wireless endpoint device to resolve a gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway and based on the selecting of the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, an address resolution protocol response that associates the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and the gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway; and
processing, by the anchor forwarding unit using a subscriber session context for the wireless endpoint device, the packets received from the wireless endpoint device to remove layer 2 destination addresses of the packets that are the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and to generate corresponding packets for output via an upstream interface of the wireless access gateway.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units, a packet; and
internally sending, by the ingress forwarding unit in response to determining a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

3. The method of claim 1 ,
storing, by each forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units, a lookup table that uniquely associates each of the plurality of forwarding units with the different layer 2 addresses.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving, by an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units, a packet; and
internally sending, by the ingress forwarding unit based on the lookup table and in response to determining a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, by the wireless access gateway in response to selecting the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, the subscriber session context to the anchor forwarding unit, wherein the subscriber session context includes data usable by the anchor forwarding unit for processing packets associated with the wireless endpoint device for transmission via the upstream interface.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
receiving, by an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units, a packet; and
internally sending, by the ingress forwarding unit based on the lookup table and in response to determining a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the wireless access gateway prior to receiving the address resolution protocol request, a dynamic host configuration protocol request from the wireless endpoint device; and
sending, by the wireless access gateway and in response to the dynamic host configuration protocol request, a dynamic host configuration protocol response that includes a loopback layer 3 address of the wireless access gateway as the gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway.

8. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the upstream interface comprises an upstream interface for a mobility tunneling protocol to a mobile gateway of a mobile service provider network, and
wherein generating the corresponding packets comprises generating corresponding packets each having a mobility tunneling protocol header and for output via the upstream interface.

9. A wireless access gateway for a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network, the wireless access gateway comprising:
a plurality of forwarding units internal to the wireless access gateway;
one or more processors configured to select, for a wireless endpoint device attached to the WLAN access network and by a wireless access gateway of the WLAN access network, an anchor forwarding unit from a plurality of forwarding units to process packets received from the wireless endpoint device, wherein each forwarding unit of the plurality of forwarding units is uniquely associated with a different layer 2 address,
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to output, in response to receipt of an address resolution protocol request issued by the wireless endpoint device to resolve a gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway and based on selection of the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, an address resolution protocol response that associates the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and the gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway,
wherein the anchor forwarding unit is configured to process, using a subscriber session context for the wireless endpoint device, the packets received from the wireless endpoint device to remove layer 2 destination addresses of the packets that are the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and to generate corresponding packets for output via an upstream interface of the wireless access gateway.

10. The wireless access gateway of claim 9 ,
wherein an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units is configured to receive a packet and internally send, in response to determining a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

11. The wireless access gateway of claim 9 ,
wherein each forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units is configured to store a lookup table that uniquely associates each of the plurality of forwarding units with the different layer 2 addresses.

12. The wireless access gateway of claim 11 ,
wherein an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units is configured to receive a packet and internally send, based on the lookup table and in response to a determination a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

13. The wireless access gateway of claim 9 ,
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to store, in response to selection of the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, the subscriber session context to the anchor forwarding unit, wherein the subscriber session context includes data usable by the anchor forwarding unit for processing packets associated with the wireless endpoint device for transmission via the upstream interface.

14. The wireless access gateway of claim 13 ,
wherein an ingress forwarding unit from the plurality of forwarding units is configured to receive a packet and internally send, in response to a determination a destination layer 2 address of the packet is the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit, the packet to the anchor forwarding unit.

15. The wireless access gateway of claim 9 ,
wherein the one or more processors

Assignees

• Juniper Networks Inc

Inventors

• Sankaran Krishna
• Yang Huiyang
• Gupta Santosh
• Chigurupati Prasad
• Hong Bin William

Classifications

• H04W88/16

  Gateway arrangements · CPC title

• H04L61/103 Primary

  across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP] · CPC title

• H04L61/6022

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L2212/00

  Encapsulation of packets · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title