Method and system for sending flow table in SDN, of controller, and of switch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9998352-B2
Application number	US-201414914070-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Aug 27, 2013
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

A method and system for sending a flow table in a Software Defined Network (SDN) are described in the present disclosure, an OpenFlow (OF) controller, and an OF switch. The method includes that an OF switch receives a flow table entry modification message sent from an OF controller, wherein the message includes a table number, a flow table entry, and a cache label; and the OF switch stores, in a control module of the OF switch, the table number and the flow table entry in the flow table entry modification message according to an indication of the cache label.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for sending a flow table in a Software Defined Network (SDN), comprising:
negotiating, by an OpenFlow (OF) switch, a flow table cache capability with an OF controller, and notifying, by the OF switch, the OF controller of whether the OF switch supports a flow table cache function;
receiving, by the OF switch, a flow table entry modification message sent from the OF controller, wherein the message includes a table number, a flow table entry and a first idleness aging period;
when the OF switch supports the flow table cache function, the message also includes a cache label which is used for instructing to cache the flow table entry in a control processor of the OF switch locally; storing, by the OF switch, the table number and the flow table entry in the flow table entry modification message in the control processor of the OF switch according to an indication of the cache label; and
performing, by the OF switch, idleness aging processing on a corresponding flow table entry cached in the control processor according to the first idleness aging period.

2. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 1 , wherein the step of negotiating, by the OF switch, the flow table cache capability with the OF controller comprises:
receiving, by the OF switch, a multipart table features request message sent from the OF controller, wherein the message includes the table number;
returning, by the OF switch, a multipart table features reply message to the OF controller, wherein a flow table feature capability attribute field of the multipart table features reply message includes a flow table entry cache capability label for indicating whether a flow table entry cache function of a flow table corresponding to the table number is supported.

3. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 2 , wherein the flow table feature capability attribute field further includes a default second idleness aging period of a flow table supporting a cache function.

4. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 3 , further comprising: performing, according to the second idleness aging period, idleness aging on a flow table entry that can be cached according to an indication of a cache label in the forwarding processor of the OF switch,
wherein the duration of the first idleness aging period is longer than that of the second idleness aging period.

5. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 1 , further comprising: when the OF switch does not support the flow table cache function, the message includes no cache label; adding, by the OF switch, the table number and the flow table entry to a forwarding processor of the OF switch.

6. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 1 , further comprising:
querying, by a forwarding processor of the OF switch when receiving a packet, whether a matched flow table entry exists in a flow table of the forwarding processor;
if so, forwarding the packet according to the queried and matched flow table entry;
otherwise, sending, by the forwarding processor, the packet, a table number, and an upward transmission reason to a control processor of the OF switch; querying, according to the received table number and a flow table entry cache label stored by the control processor, a flow table entry cached in a corresponding local flow table; when the corresponding flow table entry is acquired through the query, adding the flow table entry acquired through the query to the corresponding flow table of the forwarding processor, otherwise, filling the packet, the table number and the upward transmission reason received by the control processor in a Packet-in message and sending the same to the OF controller, by the control processor.

7. A method for sending a flow table in a Software Defined Network (SDN), comprising:
negotiating, by an OpenFlow (OF) controller, a flow table cache capability with an OF switch, and acquiring, by the OF controller, whether the OF switch supports a cache function of a flow table;
when the OF switch supports the flow table cache function, setting, by the OF controller, a cache label for a sent flow table entry according to a local strategy, and
sending, by the OF controller, a flow table entry modification message to the OF switch; wherein the message includes a table number, a flow table entry, a first idleness aging period and a cache label;
wherein the cache label is used for instructing to cache the flow table entry in a control processor of the OF switch locally; and the first idleness aging period, which is set by the OF controller for the OF switch, is an aging period of a flow table entry in a control processor.

8. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 7 , wherein the step of negotiating, by the OF switch, the flow table cache capability with the OF switch comprises:
sending, by the OF controller, a multipart table features request message to the OF switch, wherein the message includes the table number;
receiving, by the OF controller, a multipart table features reply message returned by the OF switch; wherein a flow table feature capability attribute field of the multipart table features reply message includes a flow table entry cache capability label for instructing whether a flow table entry cache function of a flow table corresponding to the table number is supported.

9. The method for sending the flow table in the SDN according to claim 8 , wherein the flow table feature capability attribute field further includes a default second idleness aging period of a flow table supporting a cache function.

10. An OpenFlow (OF) switch, comprising a control processor, configured to:
negotiate a flow table cache capability with an OF controller and notify the OF controller of whether the OF switch supports a flow table cache function;
receive a flow table entry modification message sent from the OF controller, wherein the message includes a table number, a flow table entry and a first idleness aging period;
when the OF switch supports the flow table cache function, the message also includes a cache label which is used for instructing to cache the flow table entry in the control processor of the OF switch locally; store the table number and the flow table entry in the flow table entry modification message in the control processor of the OF switch locally according to an indication of the cache label; and
perform idleness aging processing on a corresponding flow table entry cached in the control processor according to the first idleness aging period.

11. The OF switch according to claim 10 , wherein the control processor is configured to receive a multipart table features request message sent from the OF controller, wherein the message includes the table number; and return a multipart table features reply message to the OF controller, wherein a flow table feature capability attribute field of the multipart table features reply message includes a flow table entry cache capability label for indicating whether a flow table entry cache function of a flow table corresponding to the table number is supported.

12. The OF switch according to claim 11 , wherein the flow table feature capability attribute field further includes a default second idleness aging period of a flow table supporting a cache function.

13. The OF switch according to claim 12 , wherein the control processor is configured to perform, according to the second idleness aging period, idleness aging on a flow table entry that can be cached according to an indication of a cache label in the forwarding

Assignees

• Zte Corp

Inventors

• Liang Qiandeng
• You Jianjie
• Wan Wei
• Hu Fangwei

Classifications

• H04L45/021 Primary

  Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers · CPC title

• H04L45/028

  Dynamic adaptation of the update intervals, e.g. event-triggered updates · CPC title

• H04L45/742

  Route cache; Operation thereof · CPC title

• H04L45/64 Primary

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title

• H04L45/38

  Flow based routing · CPC title