Indirect Group Table for SDN Route Tree Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
In Software Defined Networks (SDNs), existing solutions like OPENFLOW's group tables are inadequate for global route reconfiguration, leading to excessive latency and processing power limitations during network failures or traffic demand variations, as they primarily focus on local detours rather than utilizing all available paths for efficient routing.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of an indirect group table that associates a first group entry with a route tree, allowing a remote controller to update and switch to a second route tree upon failure detection, ensuring future data transmissions use the unaffected path, thereby providing a layer of abstraction and reducing the need for extensive rule updates across networking devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If OPENFLOW group tables are used for local detours, then local route failures can be handled, but global route reconfiguration is inadequate and latency is excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing system into multiple route trees organized in a hierarchical structure, where each tree represents a distinct routing path. This segmentation allows independent failure isolation and enables the controller to switch between trees without reconfiguring individual flow rules, thereby reducing reconfiguration latency while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-establishes multiple route trees with different topological characteristics before failures occur. When a failure is detected, the controller can immediately switch to a pre-computed alternative route tree without performing real-time path computation, thus performing the routing action in advance to minimize latency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If comprehensive route reconfiguration is performed across all networking devices, then all available paths can be utilized, but processing power requirements and latency increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates route trees that serve multiple functions: they provide primary routing paths, backup paths for failure recovery, and load balancing options. This multi-functionality allows the system to utilize all available paths through a single hierarchical structure rather than requiring separate configuration mechanisms for each function, reducing processing overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The route tree structure acts as an intermediary layer between the controller and individual networking devices. Instead of the controller directly managing flow rules on each device, the route trees provide an abstract representation that simplifies path computation and enables efficient switching between paths without extensive rule updates across all devices.
3Reliability
If multiple route trees with minimal overlap are implemented, then network resilience improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hierarchical dimension to routing by organizing route trees in levels, where higher-level trees provide broader path options and lower-level trees provide more specific paths. This dimensional organization allows the system to achieve high resilience through multiple paths without linearly increasing device complexity, as the hierarchical structure enables efficient path selection and failure isolation.
Data Source
AI summary
Example embodiments relate to providing efficient routing in software defined networks. In example embodiments, an indirect group table includes a first group entry that is associated with a first route tree in a software defined network, wherein the indirect group table affects a plurality of forwarding table entries associated with the first group entry. A failure is detected in the first route tree during a data transmission, and a notification of the failure is sent to a remote controller device, where the remote controller device identifies a second route tree that does not include the failure. After the remote controller device updates the first group entry to be associated with the second route tree, the data transmission is performed using the second route tree.