System and method for adapting a packet processing pipeline

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-RE49172-E
Application number	US-201715816968-A
Country	US
Kind code	E1
Filing date	Nov 17, 2017
Priority date	Apr 20, 2010
Publication date	Aug 9, 2022
Grant date	Aug 9, 2022

Abstract

An apparatus for forwarding packets includes a packet processing pipeline having a processing unit that processes packets compliant with a recognized communication protocol. A first port coupled to the packet processing pipeline is configured to receive a packet that does not comply with the recognized communication protocol and has a header that conforms to a second communication protocol. A data extraction unit extracts first destination information from the header of the packet and, based on the first destination information, generates second destination information that conforms to the recognized communication protocol. The processing unit determines, based on the second destination information, an egress interface to which the packet is to be forwarded.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for forwarding packets, comprising:
receiving, at a port of coupled to a packet processor, a packet compliant with a first communication protocol;
generating a packet descriptor associated with the packet;
passing the packet descriptor to an adapted processing unit configured to recognize the first communication protocol;
modifying header information in the packet descriptor in the adapted processing unit, to generate a modified packet descriptor corresponding to a second communication protocol;
processing the modified packet descriptor in an unadapted processing unit of the packet processor, the unadapted processing unit of the packet processor configured to process packets compliant with the second communication protocol;
determining, in the unadapted processing unit and according to the modified packet descriptor, an egress interface for the packet; and
forwarding the packet that is compliant with the first communication protocol to the egress interface.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein processing the modified packet descriptor in the unadapted processing unit comprises processing the modified packet descriptor in (i) a TRILL engine configured to process packet descriptors that comply with the Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol according to at least an RBridge nickname, (ii) an Ethernet bridge engine configured to process Ethernet packet descriptors complying with the Ethernet protocol according to at least a destination media access control (MAC) address, or (iii) an Internet Protocol (IP) router engine configured to process packet descriptors complying with the Internet Protocol according to at least a destination IP address.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein receiving the packet comprises receiving a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) packet, the FCoE packet having an associated Fibre Channel header.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein modifying header information in the packet descriptor to produce the modified packet descriptor corresponding to the second communication protocol comprises extracting from the packet descriptor at least a destination ID field of the Fibre Channel header, the destination ID field including a domain ID, a port ID, and an area ID.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein modifying header information in the packet descriptor further comprises:
determining a domain ID associated with the packet processor;
comparing the domain ID associated with the packet processor to the domain ID in the Fibre Channel header;
generating, based on the extracted destination ID field, the modified packet descriptor formatted as a TRILL header, wherein the packet descriptor includes, in place of an RBridge nickname, a value associated with both of the area ID and the port ID of the destination ID field and concatenating the area ID and the port ID, and
wherein processing the modified packet descriptor in the unadapted processing unit includes processing the modified packet descriptor in a TRILL engine.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein modifying header information in the packet descriptor further comprises generating the modified packet descriptor formatted as an Ethernet header, the modified packet descriptor including, in place of a destination media access control (MAC) address, a value associated with the destination ID field,
wherein processing the modified packet descriptor in the unadapted processing unit includes processing the modified packet descriptor in an Ethernet bridge engine.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein including a value associated with the destination ID field comprises concatenating the destination ID field with a user-configurable constant.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein generating the modified packet descriptor formatted as an Ethernet header further comprises including, in place of a second field, a value associated with an extended header of the packet.

9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein modifying header information in the packet descriptor further comprises generating the modified packet descriptor formatted as an IP header that includes, in place of a destination IP address, the destination ID field associated with the Fibre Channel header, and
wherein processing the modified packet descriptor in the unadapted processing unit includes processing the packet descriptor in an IP router engine.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein generating the modified packet descriptor further includes assigning to a virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) ID (VRF-ID) value a value associated with an extended header of the packet.

11. An apparatus for forwarding packets, comprising:
a decoding unit implemented in hardware circuitry, the decoding unit being configured to generate packet descriptors associated with received packets received via one or more ports among a plurality of ports, the packets compliant with first and second communication protocols;
an adapted processing unit implemented in hardware circuitry, the adapted processing unit being configured to receive packet descriptors and to recognize packet descriptors compliant with the first communication protocol, and to modify header information in packet descriptors compliant with the first communication protocol to generate modified packet descriptors corresponding to the second communication protocol; and
an unadapted processing unit in a packet processor, the unadapted processing unit implemented in hardware circuitry and being configured to process packets compliant with the second communication protocol and to determine, for modified packet descriptors corresponding to packets compliant with the first communication protocol and modified by the adapted processing unit to correspond to the second communication protocol, one or more egress interfaces for the corresponding packets compliant with the first communication protocol so that the corresponding packets compliant with the first communication protocol are egressed via the one or more egress interfaces.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the unadapted processing unit is (i) a TRILL engine configured to process packet descriptors that comply with the Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (TRILL) protocol according to at least an RBridge nickname, (ii) an Ethernet bridge engine configured to process Ethernet packet descriptors complying with the Ethernet protocol according to at least a destination media access control (MAC) address, or (iii) an Internet Protocol (IP) router engine configured to process packet descriptors complying with the Internet Protocol according to at least a destination IP address.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the packets compliant with the first communication protocol are packets compliant with the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol and having an associated Fibre Channel header.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the adapted processing unit is configured to extract first destination information from the Fibre Channel header, and
wherein the first destination information includes at least a destination ID field of the Fibre Channel header, the destination ID field including a domain ID, a port ID, and an area ID.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the packet processor has an associated domain ID,
wherein the unadapted processing unit is further configured to compare the domain ID associated with the packet processor to the domain ID in the Fibre Channel header,
wherein the adapted processing unit is configured to generate

Assignees

• Marvell Asia Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Mizrahi Tal
• White Martin
• Melman David

Classifications

• H04L45/00

  Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks (routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00) · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• H04L45/66 Primary

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

• H04L45/74591

  using content-addressable memories [CAM] · CPC title

• H04L45/7457

  Electricity · mapped topic