Packet tracing in a software-defined networking environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9876704-B2
Application number	US-201615236471-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2016
Priority date	Mar 27, 2014
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

An example method to perform packet tracing in a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environment is provided. The SDN environment comprises an SDN controller device and a plurality of forwarding devices configurable by the SDN controller device. The method may comprise the SDN controller device configuring the plurality of forwarding devices to generate trace information of packets associated with a communication flow in the SDN environment; and receiving trace information of packets associated with the communication flow. Based on the trace information, the SDN controller device may generate aggregated trace information by identifying, from header information and payload information of the packets, particular packets associated with the communication flow that are processed by one of the plurality of forwarding devices, or a particular packet associated with the communication flow that is processed by at least two of the plurality of forwarding devices, or both.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controller device to perform packet tracing in an SDN environment that includes the SDN controller device and a plurality of forwarding devices configurable by the SDN controller device, the method comprising:
configuring the plurality of forwarding devices to generate trace information of packets associated with a communication flow in the SDN environment by updating a flow table of each forwarding device to include:
characteristic information of the communication flow, and
an action for the forwarding device to generate the trace information if header information of a packet matches with the characteristic information;
receiving, from the plurality of forwarding devices, trace information of packets associated with the communication flow, wherein the trace information includes header information and payload information of the packets; and
based on the trace information, generating aggregated trace information by identifying, from the header information and payload information of the packets, particular packets associated with the communication flow that are processed by one of the plurality of forwarding devices, or a particular packet associated with the communication flow that is processed by at least two of the plurality of forwarding devices, or both.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the plurality of forwarding devices further comprises:
setting a trace duration for the forwarding device, during which the trace information is generated by the forwarding device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication flow is from a source device to a destination device in the SDN environment, and the characteristic information is associated with the source device and destination device and comprises at least one of the following:
source and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses; source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses; source and destination port numbers of a transport layer protocol; and IP version.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
the header information of each of the packets matches with the characteristic information and comprises at least one of the following: source and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses; source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses; source and destination port numbers of a transport layer protocol; and IP version; and
the payload information in the trace information comprises a copy of payload information of each of the packets.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trace information received from each forwarding device further comprises at least one of:
an identifier of the communication flow, an identifier of the forwarding device and a forwarding direction of each packet.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of forwarding devices include a first forwarding device and a second forwarding device and generating aggregated trace information further comprises:
comparing first header information and first payload information from the first forwarding device and second header information and second payload information from the second forwarding device to identify the particular packet; and
identifying the first forwarding device and second forwarding device that processed the particular packet based on respective identifiers of the first forwarding device and second forwarding device, and the forwarding direction of the particular packet.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of forwarding devices include a first forwarding device and a second forwarding device and generating aggregated trace information further comprises:
comparing first header information and first payload information from the first forwarding device and second header information and second payload information from the second forwarding device; and
based on the comparison, performing one or more of the following:
identifying first packets associated with the communication flow based on the first header information and first payload information, and the first forwarding device that processed the first packets based on an identifier of the first forwarding device; and
identifying second packets associated with the communication flow based on the second header information and second payload information, and the second forwarding device that processed the packets based on an identifier of the second forwarding device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of forwarding devices are configured using one of the following SDN protocols:
OpenFlow protocol (OFP); CLIs (Command-line Interfaces); NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol); NETCONF (Yang Schema); SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol); XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol); OpenStack; virtualization software APIs (Application Programming Interfaces); OF-Config (OpenFlow Management and Configuration Protocol); and Secure Shell (SSH).

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controller device in an SDN environment, causes the processor to perform packet tracing, comprising:
configuring the plurality of forwarding devices to generate trace information of packets associated with a communication flow in the SDN environment by updating a flow table of each forwarding device to include:
characteristic information of the communication flow, and
an action for the forwarding device to generate the trace information if header information of a packet matches with the characteristic information;
receiving, from the plurality of forwarding devices, trace information of packets associated with the communication flow, wherein the trace information includes header information and payload information of the packets; and
based on the trace information, generating aggregated trace information by identifying, from the header information and payload information of the packets, particular packets associated with the communication flow that are processed by one of the plurality of forwarding devices, or a particular packet associated with the communication flow that is processed by at least two of the plurality of forwarding devices, or both.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein configuring the plurality of forwarding devices further comprises:
setting a trace duration for the forwarding device, during which the trace information is generated by the forwarding device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the communication flow is from a source device to a destination device in the SDN environment, and the characteristic information is associated with the source device and destination device and comprises at least one of the following:
source and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses; source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses; source and destination port numbers of a transport layer protocol; and IP version.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein:
the header information of each of the packets matches with the characteristic information and comprises at least one of the following: source and destination Internet Protocol (IP) addresses; source and destination Media Access Control (MAC) addresses; source and destination port numbers of a transport layer protocol; and IP version; and
the payload information in the trace information comprises a copy of payload information of each of the packets.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9

Assignees

• Nicira Inc

Inventors

• Sun Keyong
• Ren Maosheng
• Wang Yonggang
• Lu Kecheng

Classifications

• H04L45/02 Primary

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L45/123

  Evaluation of link metrics (techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08) · CPC title

• H04L45/64

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L41/14

  Network analysis or design · CPC title

• H04L43/0829

  Packet loss · CPC title