Interconnection of switches based on hierarchical overlay tunneling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9912614-B2
Application number	US-201615005946-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2016
Priority date	Dec 7, 2015
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A novel fabric switch is provided. The switch includes a tunnel management apparatus that maintains a local inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel. The local inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication to a switch in a local fabric switch. The inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a remote fabric switch. The switch further includes a packet header management apparatus that decapsulates a packet received from the local inter-switch tunnel and encapsulates the packet with a new tunnel header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A switch, comprising:
tunnel circuitry configured to maintain a local inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication between the switch and a second switch in a first network of interconnected switches, and wherein the inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a third switch in a second network of interconnected switches; and
header circuitry configured to decapsulate a first encapsulation header of a packet received from the inter-switch tunnel and encapsulate the packet with a second encapsulation header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the first and second encapsulation headers include a first and a second fabric identifiers, which identify the first and second networks of interconnected switches, respectively.

2. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the tunnel circuitry is further configured to manage an edge tunnel, which facilitates communication between the switch and an end host.

3. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the second fabric identifier in the second encapsulation header indicates a destination of the second encapsulation header.

4. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the second encapsulation header includes a network service header.

5. The switch of claim 1 , further comprising a storage device configured to store a data structure, which stores a mapping between a medium access control (MAC) address and a virtual tunnel endpoint.

6. The switch of claim 1 , further comprising a storage device configured to store a data structure, which stores a mapping between a MAC address and the second fabric identifier.

7. The switch of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding circuitry configured to preclude a second packet received from the inter-switch tunnel from being forwarded onto a second inter-switch tunnel between the switch and a fourth switch in the first network of interconnected switches.

8. The switch of claim 1 , further comprising forwarding circuitry configured to load a MAC address in forwarding hardware of the switch in response to identifying the MAC address in a packet.

9. A method, comprising:
maintaining a inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication between a switch and a second switch in a first network of interconnected switches, and wherein the inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a third switch in a second network of interconnected switches;
decapsulating a first encapsulation header of a packet received from the inter-switch tunnel; and
encapsulating the packet with a second encapsulation header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the first and second encapsulation headers include a first and a second fabric identifiers, which identify the first and second networks of interconnected switches, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising managing an edge tunnel, which facilitates communication between the switch and an end host.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second fabric identifier in the second encapsulation header indicates a destination of the second encapsulation header.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second encapsulation header includes a network service header.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising storing, in a storage device of the switch, a mapping between a medium access control (MAC) address and a virtual tunnel endpoint.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising storing a mapping between a MAC address and the second fabric identifier.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising precluding a second packet received from the inter-switch tunnel from being forwarded onto a second inter-switch tunnel between the switch and a fourth switch in the first network of interconnected switches.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising loading a MAC address in forwarding hardware of the switch in response identifying the MAC address in a packet.

17. A computing system, comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
maintaining an inter-switch tunnel and an inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the inter-switch tunnel facilitates communication between the computing system and a second computing system in a first network of interconnected switches, and wherein the inter-fabric tunnel facilitates communication to a third computing system in a second network of interconnected switches;
decapsulating a first encapsulation header of a packet received from the inter-switch tunnel; and
encapsulating the packet with a second encapsulation header for transmission over the inter-fabric tunnel, wherein the first and second encapsulation headers include a first and a second fabric identifiers, which identify the first and second networks of interconnected switches, respectively.

18. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises managing an edge tunnel, which facilitates communication between the computing system and an end host.

19. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the second fabric identifier in the second encapsulation header indicates a destination of the second encapsulation header.

20. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the second encapsulation header includes a network service header.

Assignees

• Brocade Comm Systems Inc
• Brocade Communications Systems LLC

Inventors

• Koganti Phanidhar

Classifications

• H04L45/74

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L45/66

  Layer 2 routing, e.g. in Ethernet based MAN's · CPC title

• H04L45/58

  Association of routers · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L49/25 Primary

  Routing or path finding in a switch fabric · CPC title