Relay system and switching device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9973444-B2
Application number	US-201514838527-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2015
Priority date	Oct 31, 2014
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

When relaying a frame received at a MCLAG port to a bridge port, a MCLAG identifier adding unit adds a MCLAG identifier to the frame. When an encapsulated frame to which a MCLAG identifier has been added is received at the bridge port and the encapsulation of the frame, is performed by a peer device, a learning information control unit does not learn an encapsulation address contained in the encapsulated frame. More specifically, the learning information control unit learns a source customer address contained in the frame in association with the MCLAG identifier added to the frame to the address table, but does not learn a source encapsulation address.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A relay system comprising:
a first switching device and a second switching device which are disposed at entrance or exit of a Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) network in which relaying based on a PBB standard is performed, the first and second switching devices converting an unencapsulated frame received from outside of the PBB network into an encapsulated frame and relaying the encapsulated frame to the PBB network, and the first and second switching devices converting the encapsulated frame received from the PBB network into the unencapsulated frame and relaying the unencapsulated frame to the outside of the PBB network,
wherein the unencapsulated frame contains a customer address,
the encapsulated frame has a configuration in which an encapsulation address is added to the unencapsulated frame based on the PBB standard,
each of the first switching device and the second switching device includes:
a lower-link port which transmits or receives the unencapsulated frame;
an upper-link port which transmits or receives the encapsulated frame;
one or a plurality of multi-chassis link aggregation group (MCLAG) ports which include a first MCLAG port serving as the lower-link port and on which an inter-device LAG is set;
a bridge port which serves as the upper-link port and connects one device and a peer device;
an address table which retains the customer address present ahead of the lower-link port in association with a port identifier representing the lower-link port or a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the lower-link port and retains the customer address present ahead of the upper-link port in association with the encapsulation address and a port identifier representing the upper-link port or a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the upper-link port; and
a relay processing unit, comprising a processor, which learns and retrieves the address table, and
the processor is configured to:
when a frame received at the MCLAG port is relayed to the bridge port, add a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the MCLAG port to the frame;
when the encapsulated frame to which the MCLAG identifier has been added is received at the bridge port and encapsulation of the frame is performed by the peer device, learn a source customer address contained in the encapsulated frame in association with the MCLAG identifier added to the encapsulated frame to the address table, and not learn the encapsulation address contained in the encapsulated frame to the address table; and
determine whether a source encapsulation address contained in the encapsulated frame is the encapsulation address of the peer device, thereby determining whether the encapsulation of the frame is performed by the peer device.

2. The relay system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when each of the first switching device and the second switching device relays the unencapsulated frame received at its own first MCLAG port to the upper-link port, each of the first switching device and the second switching device generates the encapsulated frame by using its own encapsulation address.

3. The relay system according to claim 1 ,
wherein one of the first MCLAG ports of the first switching device and the second switching device is set to a transmission permitted state and the other thereof is set to a transmission prohibited state in advance, and
when relaying a frame to the MCLAG port based on a retrieval result of the address table, the processor is configured to relay the frame to the MCLAG port of its own device when the MCLAG port of its own device is in the transmission permitted state, and relay the frame to the bridge port when the MCLAG port of its own device is in the transmission prohibited state.

4. The relay system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the one or plurality of MCLAG ports further include a second MCLAG port serving as the upper-link port.

5. The relay system according to claim 1 ,
wherein, when a destination encapsulation address contained in the received encapsulated frame is the encapsulation address of its own device or the peer device, the processor is configured to retrieve an address table of its own device with using a destination customer address contained in the encapsulated frame as a retrieval key.

6. A switching device which is disposed at entrance or exit of a Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) network in which relaying based on a PBB standard is performed, the switching device converting an unencapsulated frame received from outside of the PBB network into an encapsulated frame and relaying the encapsulated frame to the PBB network, and the switching device converting the encapsulated frame received from the PBB network into the unencapsulated frame and relaying the unencapsulated frame to the outside of the PBB network,
wherein the unencapsulated frame contains a customer address,
the encapsulated frame has a configuration in which an encapsulation address is added to the unencapsulated frame based on the PBB standard,
the switching device further includes:
a lower-link port which transmits or receives the unencapsulated frame;
an upper-link port which transmits or receives the encapsulated frame;
one or a plurality of multi-chassis link aggregation group (MCLAG) ports which include a first MCLAG port serving as the lower-link port and on which an inter-device LAG is set;
a bridge port which serves as the upper-link port and connects one device and a peer device;
an address table which retains the customer address present ahead of the lower-link port in association with a port identifier representing the lower-link port or a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the lower-link port and retains the customer address present ahead of the upper-link port in association with the encapsulation address and a port identifier representing the upper-link port or a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the upper-link port; and
a relay processing unit, comprising a processor, which learns and retrieves the address table, and
the processor is configured to:
when a frame received at the MCLAG port is relayed to the bridge port, add a MCLAG identifier corresponding to the MCLAG port to the frame;
when the encapsulated frame to which the MCLAG identifier has been added is received at the bridge port and encapsulation of the frame is performed by the peer device, learn a source customer address contained in the encapsulated frame in association with the MCLAG identifier added to the encapsulated frame to the address table, and not learn the encapsulation address contained in the encapsulated frame to the address table; and
determine whether a source encapsulation address contained in the encapsulated frame is the encapsulation address of the peer device, thereby determining whether the encapsulation of the frame is performed by the peer device.

7. The switching device according to claim 6 ,
wherein, when the switching device relays the unencapsulated frame received at the first MCLAG port to the upper-link port, the switching device generates the encapsulated frame by using its own encapsulation address.

8. The switching device according to claim 6 ,
wherein one of the first MCLAG ports of the switching device and the peer device is set to a transmission permitted state and the other thereof is set to a transmission prohibited state in advance, and
when relaying a frame to the MCLAG port based on a retrieval result of the address table, the processor is configured to relay the frame to the MCLAG port of its own device when the MCLAG port of its own device is in the transmission permitted state, and relay the frame to the bridge port when the MCLAG port of its own device is in the transmission prohibited state.

9. The switching device according t

Assignees

• Hitachi Metals Ltd

Inventors

• Yasuda Makoto

Classifications

• H04L45/66

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

• H04L49/3009

  Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags · CPC title

• H04L45/245

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title

• H04L49/25 Primary

  Routing or path finding in a switch fabric · CPC title

• H04L45/54

  Organization of routing tables · CPC title